Public funding for genomics: where does Canada stand?

Public funding for genomics: where does Canada stand?

After more than six years of funding exclusive projects in forestry and agriculture, Genome Canada has now announced a $67.5 million funding competition for large-scale genomics projects in human health, with focus on personalised medicine.ⁱ The human genomics community of this country understandably rejoiced at this long overdue announcement that gives them, for the first time in years, the means to compete internationally (http://www.genomecanada.ca/en/portfolio/research/2012-competition.aspx). Canada has been fairly generous in funding human-health related research but mostly through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) or the Canada Foundation for Innovation, neither of which has within its mandate to fund the type of specific multimillion-dollar project that is usually thought of as genomics. The typical CIHR grant, for example, rarely exceeds $1 million (200 000 over 5 years) in direct costs.

The elation over the announcement of this funding opportunity in late 2011 soon gave way to sober...