Genome Canada scores big again with $140 million in year-end funding

Number of approved projects could double

Rapid developments in the field of genomics and its related activities - combined with a flood of high-quality project proposals - have prompted the federal government to provide Genome Canada (GC) with an additional $140 million in funding, more than one year earlier than originally expected. The one-time grant of year-end money is also a strong indication that the Liberal administration is prepared to make major funding decisions outside of the normal Budget process, which has been thrown off schedule due to last year's federal election.

When added to the original $160 million lump-sum grant announced in the February 2000 Budget, the latest funding brings GC's federal financing to $300 million, with more anticipated as the organization and sector mature. It also comes a scant few weeks before decisions on the selection of the regional genome centres and the first slate of major projects are announced on March 30. The new money will allow for a far greater number of proposals to be funded.

"We now expect to approve about 25 projects, up from the 12 to 15 before we received the new $140 million," says Dr Martin Godbout, GC's president and CEO. "Now we will work on our mandate to produce a document by the end of September reflecting a strategy of genomics and proteomics. That will be a first in Canada. We have to ensure sustainability."

As a board member of each of the proposed regional centres, Godbout says the decision to push ahead GC's request for additional funding was made once he realized the volume and quality of the projects being pitched totalled $600 million, far in excess of the money available to finance them. He reported back to the GC board last November and began high-level discussions with officials from Industry Canada, Finance Canada and Treasury Board. Favourable mention in the Prime Minister's response to the Speech From the Throne provided the first tangible indication that the arm's length agency's request was being taken seriously, but it wasn't until last week that GC's board was informed of the final decision to award it nearly all it was seeking.

"With the original $160 million we demonstrated we had $240 million coming from the provinces. That made $400 million so we were short $200 million," says Godbout. "With the new money I can go to the provinces and see if they will provide the ex-tra funds required for the regional centres."

The GC board will decide by the end of the month whether the complete $600 million will be committed. Godbout says once that becomes clear and the regional centres and their projects are up and running, industry will be approached for financial support.

The new funding will also permit GC and the regional centres to engage in large international consortia now being assembled. Canada is in a position to actually initiate and take the lead in international projects, which could help to move the nation into the number three spot for genomics research behind the US and UK.

"Internationally, there's been an acceleration of the discovery process and that's allowed us to jump in much more aggressively. Speeds wins and this field is developing very fast, certainly much faster than any of us foresaw two years ago," says Marc Lepage, GC's executive VP corporate development. "With the new funding and the indication of support from the private sector and the provinces, there's the potential to lead internationally in several areas."

To prepare its pitch for the federal government, GC commissioned several reports to quantify both the level of activity in Canada and the need for additional funding. Recently completed is a directory of Canadian genomics companies, which paints a healthy picture of the corporate and venture capital environment.

Also finished is a bibliometric study of the scientific literature on genomics research, produced by Montreal's Observatory of Science and Technology. In terms of the numbers of papers per one million inhabitants, Canada ranks sixth globally behind the US, Switzerland, UK, Netherlands and France. With the new funding, Lepage says that ranking should improve dramatically as the number of published papers increases.

With front-end federal and provincial funding, GC is expected to attract increasing industry support as the projects get underway and begin to produce intellectual property (IP).

"Industry support has two elements - support for projects in which they are part-icipating and venture capital and company interest in the longer term," says Lepage. "That will kick in once IP is developed one or two years out, but we need to roll out the projects before they can express interest. Industry support in the end will be five or 10 times bigger than what's on the table now."

GC-funded projects will vary from centre to centre, but funding must be provided for structural genomics activities in the areas of health, agriculture, environment, forestry and fisheries. Each centre must also conduct research into the ethical, legal and social aspects of the research they undertake.

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(Previous articles on Genome Canada appeared in issues dated December 20/00 October 2/00 and March 17/00).