Genome Canada announces GAPP program results as it negotiates for additional rounds

Genome Canada has announced the results of its fifth Genomic Applications Partnership Program competition (GAPP) with five projects receiving $5.3 million with an additional $11.6 million from the private and public sector partners. The results of a sixth GAPP competition are nearly complete and Genome Canada is currently negotiating with Ottawa on funding received in the last Budget to extend the program. A portion of that funding is to be directed towards the translation of genomics into applications (R$, April 4/16).

GAPP was launched in 2013 as part of its strategy of moving into applied research. It was the first Genome Canada program that required a 2:1 leverage of public funds (R$, June 21/13).

"It's going very well and demand is increasing. GAPP lines up nicely with the (forthcoming) Innovation Agenda," says Marc LePage, Genome Canada's president and CEO. "Lots of projects are now done by consortium. We fund group research for a sector and companies take it to the next stage. It's de-risking and for many companies it's usually their first go in the genomics field."

Diverse set of projects

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

• Microbial Genomics for De-risking Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration in Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia Department of Energy) ($4.9 million);

• Second Generation Diagnostics to Improve Patient Selection for Therapeutic Akt Inhibitors in Cancer Treatment (AstraZeneca) ($3.3 million);

• Genetic Toolbox for Tomato Flavour Differentiation ($1.8 million);

• Scale-up of Bioaugmentation Cultures and Development of Delivery Strategies and Monitoring Tools for Bioremediation of contaminated industrial sites ($0.95 million); and,

• Preclinical Development of Drugs for preventing Intracerebral Hemorrhage (Edge Therapeutics Inc) ($5.9 million).

As the GAPP program evolves, more upfront work on applications is being undertaken by the six regional genome centres which are often tightly connected to provincial/regional economic and social priorities.

"The genome centres do a lot more work (on GAPP proposals) than they used to. They develop, promote, fine tune and review applicants. They screen out a lot of proposals that may need more work. Many of the centres have a bigger staff than we do," says LePage. "By the time they come to us, they're well developed. We do the triage."

LePage says it's too early to say how much of Genome Canada's new funding will be devoted to the GAPP program but he acknowledges that the agency "asked for more than previously" and that Genome Canada is part of both the fundamental science review and Innovation Agenda.

"Genome Canada started out as a science research agency but over time the field has matured and Canadian genomic researchers have matured," he says. "Now it's both science and innovation."

GAPP operates on a continuous intake model and accepts applications in all of Genome Canada's major research areas: health, agriculture and natural resources. The oil and gas sector is also becoming increasingly interested in genomics to confront many of the environmental challenges it faces.

"It's an engineering culture so for us it's relatively new but it's a growing piece," says LePage.

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