See this page online at: http://www.biotechfocus.com/MRIMinisterJohnWilkinsonOnTheNew100MillionForTheOntarioResearchFund
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Five to choose from.
Compiled By Shawn Lawrence
Q: What are the driving principles behind this new $100 million life science fund?
Minister John Wilkinson:
The $100 million is to be used towards research excellence, meaning it will be going to human capital. The use of the funding may include funding for research chairs or for research teams in the area of genomics. The guiding principles of the new fund can be summed up in eight words.
Remember that the chemicals that make up DNA are known by their alphabetic short form as being G, C, T and A. To help put together a gene you need a pair of those.
So when it comes to G, we say that we are looking to focus the funding around genomics and what we’re looking for is projects that are truly globally significant. When it comes to T, we will be looking for projects that will lead to translational benefits, an area which Ontario is known around the world for.
Further we’re looking for projects that are truly transformative. We know that the best research is spurred on by having international consortia which are based on collaboration. And of course Ontario is well known as a great place for collaborative consortia. Finally, the projects that will be considered will have to be aspirational and must accelerate the generation of new knowledge.
Q: What is the involvement of the scientific community in making this money have an impact?
Minister John Wilkinson:
To get feedback as to what is the best method we could use to allocate the $100 million, we reached out to some of the top researchers in Ontario. We asked what should the guiding principles of the fund be, and how do we allow for flexibility? This feedback indicated that we should be looking for collaborations that can be multi-institutional and even multi-jurisdictional. In terms of who decides who gets what money, this money will be administered by the Ontario Research Fund, which has competitive rounds where decisions are made through a rigorous peer review process. So, we are looking for the very best research as determined by peers, not only peers here in Ontario but peers that are brought in from around the world to do those reviews.
