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 accepted omics-based, interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects that:
- Advanced disease-resilient crop varieties to field validation using identified genomic biomarkers for breeding programs.
- Generated a systems biology understanding of beef cattle performance (like the dairy sector) from ‘omics, nutrition, and environmental datasets.
- Advanced genomics-informed bee research to improve sustainability of honeybees.
- Identified root traits for drought tolerance and nutrient uptake functions from analysis of soil microbiome profiles and crop genomics.
Funding Highlights
Full Application Deadline: CLOSED
Project Envelope Range: $200,000+
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.
Application Process
Applications are now closed.
Documents & Resources
Funding Contact
Genome Alberta
info@genomealberta.ca