Genome Canada considers awarding grants directly to companies

Genome Canada may expand its successful Genomic Applications Partnership Program (GAPP) and award funds directly to companies with the in-house capacity to develop potentially disruptive technologies. The current GAPP program — which announced the results of its latest competition May 26 — only funds university researchers with industry partners, usually small firms that lack the in-house expertise to undertake research projects.

“GAPP 2 would fund the company directly. Genome Canada did this in the early years and it fits nicely with the Innovation Agenda to help companies do more R&D … It’s a smaller target group but the one most likely to be pushing the boundaries of disruptive technology,” says Marc LePage, Genome Canada’s president and CEO. “We’re getting good uptake and we’ve developed a good pipeline with the GAPP program but we should be doing it at a larger scale. We have the right formula but I’d like to do 10-12 rounds in the future instead of five or six.”

There could be another key change in the offing. The GAPP program currently provides one third of a project’s funding, achieving a 2:1 leverage of public funding. LePage says Genome Canada is seriously considering a 1:1 leverage which would reduce the onus on companies to finance high-risk R&D activity.

“A 2:1 leverage is pretty aggressive. I’d like to go back to 1:1 co-funding like the new Superclusters program,” he says. “With a 2:1 ratio, the program is squeezing out some companies that don’t want to take on that level of risk. Scaling is a fundamental issue, especially in priority areas like clean tech and agriculture.”

With the release of major reports on innovation, fundamental science and economic growth, many research organizations — Genome Canada and the regional centres included — are seeking to determine how best to contribute to the objectives that the reports and the government are proposing to boost competitiveness, productivity and global reach. The Advisory Council on Economic Growth, chaired by Dominic Barton, global managing director at McKinsey & Co, recommends that Canada focus on 6-8 sectors that possess a strong endowment, untapped potential, and significant global growth prospects.

LePage says it’s no accident that the council singled out the agriculture and agri-food sectors as particularly promising. Agri-food employs more than two million people directly or indirectly and contributes 6.7% of Canadian GDP, with US$26 billion in exports and a 2.7% compounded annual growth rate.

“Genome Canada fits really well. It funds disruptive technologies and precision agriculture and genomics have a huge impact on productivity,” he says. “The potential yield for each genomic agriculture project is 50-100% which is even larger than what Barton estimates.”

Genomics can be particularly effective in assisting the agri-food sector in adapting to climate change, “re-tooling” plants and animals for drought-resistant capability as well as resisting more and new diseases and invasive species.

“The next stage is to scale it for the size of the agriculture sector … The sector’s rate of technology adoption is better than many other sectors,” says LePage.

The majority of awards in the latest GAPP competition are focused on niche aspects within the agri-food sector. Of the five awards, four are agriculture related and three are led by the Univ of Guelph and funded through Ontario Genomics.  The round received $6 million in Genome Canada funding and $11 million from co-funding partners, including the private sector, provincial governments and not-for-profit organizations.

“The University of Guelph winning three of the five awards is a bit unusual but the university is one of four or five agriculture genomic powerhouses in the country,” says LePage.

The seventh-round funded projects, user partners and total project values are:

• Application of genomic selection in turkeys for health, welfare, efficiency and production traits (Hybrid Turkeys, a Hendrix Genetics Company) ($6 million);
• Translating OMICS for competitive dairy products (Balderson/Parmalat Canada) ($1.3 million);
• Increasing yield in canola Using Genomic Solutions (Benson Hill) ($3.4 million);
• Development of genomic crossbred estimate breeding values to maximize profitability for Canadian pork producers (Genesus Inc) ($3.4 million);
• Integrating pediatric pharmacogenomic testing into the Canadian system (Dynacare ) ($2.96 million)

The latest Budget provided considerable funding for the clean tech sector which has annual revenues of $17-18 billion and is mostly domestic. While LePage is pleased that clean tech is being well supported, he notes that the agri-food sector is even larger with many crops that do a multi-billion business and sell internationally.

“Canola is just one agricultural product and it’s $25 billion and mostly for export. The canola project at the University of Guelph is designed to increase yields which could add $3-4 billion more a year.”

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