Genome Canada Grant
===================
*September 13, 2016*

The Government of Canada via Genome Canada `announces a grant for
Dockstore <https://genomecanada.ca/government-canada-invests-new-genomics-big-data-research-projects-aimed-real-world-challenges/>`__!

    Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International
    Development, Karina Gould, on behalf of the Minister of Science,
    Kirsty Duncan, today announced an investment of $4 million in 16 new
    bioinformatics and computational (B/CB) biology research projects to
    be conducted at academic institutions across Canada. These projects
    will strengthen the development of new tools to help provide maximum
    value from research investments in genomics and related fields –
    areas that produce a massive and ongoing influx of data.

Also see OICR's focused `news
release <https://news.oicr.on.ca/2016/09/canadian-government-makes-big-investment-in-big-data-research/>`__

    An unintended consequence of the development of genomics has been
    the proliferation of massive datasets, making analysis increasingly
    difficult. A further problem is the lack of standardization in how
    analysis tools are packaged, described and executed across computer
    environments. Drs. Vincent Ferretti and Lincoln Stein of the Ontario
    Institute for Cancer Research, in collaboration with Dr. Brian
    O’Connor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, have developed
    a web application called the Dockstore, which addresses the
    challenge of encapsulating and sharing bioinformatics tools so that
    they can be moved from environment to environment.

    Now the researchers are adding key features to the Dockstore to
    continue to enhance and evolve the platform. They will also
    integrate bioinformatics tools and workflows from the Global
    Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) for redistribution to the
    larger research community and will work with collaborators to
    facilitate the registration of their high-quality tools into the
    Dockstore. Finally, the researchers will work with other projects to
    enable sharing of tools across genomic repositories. These
    activities will drive increased usage of the Dockstore, thereby
    increasing tool sharing among scientists in fields as diverse as
    agriculture, energy and human health.

.. discourse::
    :topic_identifier: 2016