A hefty funding boost has been given to the University of Guelph's Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (CBG).
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is providing the university with nearly $9 million to support the centre's day-to-day operations, including equipment costs and maintenance work.
“The work we do continues because of generous programs like CFI MSI,” Paul Hebert, CBG director and founder, said in a news release.
“Together, we’re able to give curious people, from schoolchildren to scientists, the opportunity to know what species live around them and to understand the impact human activities have on those lives.”
The $8.9 million in funding is part of a larger investment announced by the federal government Friday.
Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said the over $628 million will fund 19 projects across the country, at several universities and other institutions.
In the news release, Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield said the university is "playing a key role in monitoring biodiversity around the planet, so we can better understand the impacts humans are having on other species."
The CBG does much of their work around DNA barcodes, using parts of a genome to identify species quickly, accurately and at a lower cost.
