Recommendations

A determined and significant commitment to Systems Biology is required for Canada to maintain and improve its competitiveness in science and technology innovation and to build capacity that can attract industrial investments. For this purpose, it is recommended that the Canadian funding agencies and the Government of Canada in collaboration with scientists should develop a new mechanism and funding envelope for Systems Biology. This funding envelope is needed to support a broad range of interdisciplinary research topics and for new educational initiatives to train the next generation of academic, medical and industry researchers.

The establishment of a comprehensive and world-leading Systems Biology research environment in Canada will require an estimated $100 million in new annual operating funding with $20 million being awarded annually (Table 1). This funding should fuel the capacity generated by past investments, and ensure the sustainability of a core constituency of scientists. The estimated envelope is quite substantial; we note that this funding must not detract from increased and sustained funding for the Federal Granting Councils (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC), since these agencies provide the essential foundation for all strategic research initiatives in Canada. The size of the program reflects the need for large-scale systematic experimentation (see below), which requires larger than normal operational funding. The benefit is that such data, when made publicly available, provides an invaluable and lasting research tool for the scientific community and an ongoing source of intellectual property and knowledge generation.

The proposed envelope should award funding on a peer-reviewed competitive basis in four categories:

• Team grants in the range of $2-10 million annually to support clearly integrated groups conducting collaborative systems-level and integrative research on a biological problem of particular importance to the economy or health. The research supported in this category would involve systematic high-throughput experimentation across multiple levels, the integration and analysis of the generated data as well as mathematical, statistical and computational modelling. The generated data should be accessible to the general scientific community.
• Operating grants up to $2 million annually to support research by individual and smaller groups of investigators. A portion of the research supported in this category would be similar to that supported in the Team grant category but at a smaller scale. Additionally, the Operating grant category would support interdisciplinary Systems Biology research by smaller interdisciplinary groups and individuals .
• Training grants to support graduate and post-graduate education and programs. To encourage collaboration between industry and academia, this category could also include funding for industry internships, temporary positions for industry-based researchers, as well as commercialization and technology transfer workshops.
• Short-term high-risk grants for new technology development or the launch new initiatives with the potential of being funded in the Team or the Operating grant category within two to three years.

The new operational resources are envisioned to fund innovative research groups and projects that will promote and foster Canadian Systems Biology in areas that have the greatest potential (see Appendix III). Again, it must be emphasized that this funding is not at the exclusion of normal increases to existing funding programs. A strong base in the traditional disciplines is crucial for the sustainability of Systems Biology. However, the program should support both basic and applied research. While the promise of Systems Biology will be realized short-term by applying existing technology platforms, further developments in basic research and instrumentation is needed to foster scientific advancements with long-term impact.

Initiatives supported by the proposed program should be awarded solely on scientific merit. Requiring fund matching or industrial co-sponsorship would negatively impact the international competitiveness of Canadian Systems Biology as funding mechanisms have been implemented abroad without such restrictions. Moreover, future commercial innovation and success in the biotechnology and health sectors will require the development of a strong academic basis in Systems Biology. Investing in Systems Biology in an academic context will provide Canada with the know-how and intellectual property that will facilitate the emergence of new companies, as well foster regional clusters of expertise that can attract industrial investments. Industrial partnerships and the potential for commercialization should be considered when a scientific review panel evaluates the societal impact of a proposed project.

To foster a true integration of the physical and applied sciences with life and medical sciences, it is recommended that the new funding envelope be administered through collaboration between CIHR and NSERC. Dual-agency involvement is needed because the funding administration and the peer-review panels for Systems Biology should reflect and be able to evaluate the highly interdisciplinary research envisioned to be funded. Systems Biology is also a logical research area for future investment by Genome Canada, since initiatives are likely to evolve from capacities put in place by this agency.