Ontario Research Fund - Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

Content provided by Ontario Ministry of Economic Development

Program Responsibility:
Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

Program Description:
The Ontario Research Fund (ORF) is designed to provide Ontario's research community with one window for research funding. Through a commitment of $730 million over four years, Ontario is providing talented researchers with the support they need to undertake cutting-edge research. ORF aims to keep Ontario's researchers at the leading-edge in priority economic sectors by supporting:

• the operational costs (direct and indirect) of genomics and gene-related research through its Ontario Research Fund - Global Leadership Round in Genomics & Life Sciences (GL2) Competition
• the operational costs (direct and indirect) of research through its Research Excellence program
• the capital costs of research through its Research Infrastructure program

Funding is open, on a competitive basis to Ontario's universities, colleges, hospitals, not-for-profit research institutes, and other organizations.

The Ontario Research Fund - Global Leadership Round in Genomics & Life Sciences (GL2) promotes research excellence in Ontario by encouraging collaborative, transformational projects across institutions from the following areas:

• Genomics and Genomics-related research (human health, plants and animals)
• Stem cell research
• Proteomics research

The minimum support provided by the GL 2 to a project is $3.5 million.

The Ontario Research Fund's Research Excellence program (ORF-RE) focuses on scientific excellence and strong commercialization and targets new, leading-edge research initiatives.

While research proposals in all disciplines are eligible for ORF-RE Round 5, the Ministry particularly encourages collaborative projects across institutions and disciplines from the following focus areas:

• Bio-economy and clean technologies;
• Advanced health technologies; and
• Digital media and information & communications technologies.

As a general rule, the minimum support provided by the ORF-RE to a project is $1 million and the maximum support provided is $8 million.

The Ontario Research Fund's Research Infrastructure program supports the modernization, development and/or acquisition of new research infrastructure at Ontario's universities, colleges and hospitals. The program ensures that Ontario's publicly funded research institutions and their researchers continue to have competitive state-of-the-art infrastructure to engage in world-leading research and technology development, and are able to leverage awards from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

Eligibility Criteria:
Information about eligibility, application instructions and forms are available on the Ontario Research Fund website at http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/programs/ResearchFund.asp

Program Category:
Research and Development, Commercialization, Infrastructure Development

Contact Information:

For Global Leadership Round in Genomics & Life Sciences (GL2):
Stephane Baffier, 416-325-4883
Miranda Hotrum, 416-212-7060, miranda.hotrum@ontario.ca

For Research Excellence program:
Stephane Baffier, 416-325-4883, stephane.baffier@ontario.ca
Mima Vulovic, 416-212-7060, mima.vulovic@ontario.ca

For Research Infrastructure program:
Yassar Muttaqi, 416-314-0633, yassar.muttaqi@ontario.ca

Last Reviewed:
June 2010/AW