Overview
Advancing agriculture innovation is critical for competitiveness, productivity, climate resilience and food security in the face of global pressures. Genome Alberta, with support from the Government of Alberta, is investing in research collaborations to unlock value from public agricultural datasets.
Alberta’s agricultural sectors, spanning livestock, crops and soils, generate massive volumes of data that remain underused, fragmented, or isolated. Advances in one subsector often hold value for others. Linking existing data across sectors and applying big data analytics, AI, and ML will allow Alberta to better leverage existing agricultural and omics datasets, generating new insight and value without the need for additional data collection.
Improving access to high-value, integrated genomics datasets will enable tools to better forecast risk, manage disease, optimize breeding, improve crop and livestock performance, among many other potential outcomes.
The Genomics Data Connect: Accelerating Agriculture Innovation initiative is accepting omics-based, interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects that will, but are not limited to:
- Advance disease-resilient crop varieties to field validation using identified genomic biomarkers for breeding programs.
- Generate a systems biology understanding of beef cattle performance (like the dairy sector) from ‘omics, nutrition, and environmental datasets.
- Advance genomics-informed bee research to improve sustainability of honeybees.
- Identify root traits for drought tolerance and nutrient uptake functions from analysis of soil microbiome profiles and crop genomics.
Information Session
Funding Highlights
Total Funding Available: $1,250,000
Maximum Genome Alberta Contribution per project: $250,000
Minimum Co-Funding Ratio: 1:1 (Genome Alberta: all co-funding sources)
Project Term: Maximum of 2 years
Target Timelines
Expression of Interest Due: February 10, 2026
Full Proposals Due: March 30, 2026
Notice of Awards: April 20, 2026
Project Start Date: July 1, 2026
Objectives
This initiative aims to:
- Expand opportunities to apply big data analytics, AI, and machine learning to agriculture genomics data sets to develop practical solutions for producers.
- Scale impact from data generated through previously funded research projects.
- Promote a collaborative approach for improved data accessibility and problem solving to stimulate the transfer of innovative solutions across sub-sectors (e.g. dairy to beef, crop to feed systems).
- Deliver measurable benefits such as earlier disease detection, reduced input costs, or optimized performance traits.
Project Eligibility
To be eligible for funding, the following criteria must be met:
- The project must be led by an Alberta-based researcher.
- Competitive projects demonstrate engagement with an agriculture (private or public) sector stakeholder by their willingness to provide funding support (cash or in-kind; see Appendix 1 in the Funding Guidelines). Minimally, a desire/commitment by sector stakeholder(s) to implement the anticipated deliverables to drive impact for the sector must be demonstrated.
- An end-user is defined as an organization that intends to implement the project deliverables, either in operations, by commercialization, or by any practice that makes the innovation available to the end-users.
- For this competition, end-users typically are or represent industry stakeholders, companies, industry consortia, government departments (federal, provincial, municipal), and not-for-profit organizations.
- Research activities can be conducted in Alberta or other provinces. However, Genome Alberta funds must be spent in Alberta (unless used for services from others, with strong justification as to why an out-of-jurisdiction service provider will be used). If research is conducted outside Alberta, the benefits gained by Alberta must be equivalent to those which would accrue had the research been conducted within them.
- Funding will be available to researchers holding a permanent position at eligible organizations, including but not limited to:
- Academic institutions, including universities, colleges, and technical institutions.
- Provincial/federal government organizations and laboratories with an explicit research mandate.
- Incorporated not-for-profit organizations with an explicit research mandate.
For full information, please refer to the Funding Guidelines in the Documents and Resources section below.
Application Process
There is a two-stage application process. Applicants are required to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for review. Selected projects from the EOI stage will be invited to submit a Full Proposal.
In the Expression of Interest (EOI) form, applicants will be required to briefly describe:
- The current limitation(s) that exist in Alberta/Canada’s agriculture systems that the project aims to solve;
- A description of the project including a summary of activities;
- The anticipated deliverables and benefits to Alberta;
- A description of the team’s experience, expertise and connections to Alberta’s agriculture sector and;
- Co-funding plan.
Documents & Resources
- See Initiative Overview
- See Expression of Interest Form
- See Funding Guidelines
- See Information Session FAQ
- See Previously Funded Projects
Funding Contact
Tom Finn, Sector Innovation Manager – Agriculture
tfinn@genomealberta.ca