About

A key player in building Canadian capacity to deal with future pandemics

Integrated Canada Biomedical Research Fund and Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund Competition

Canada's Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy - an investment of over $2.2 billion over seven years to:

• Support the growth of a strong, competitive biomanufacturing and life sciences sector; and
• Ensure Canada's preparedness for future pandemics by building national capacity through investments and partnerships to produce life-saving vaccines and therapeutics.

The Strategy includes significant investments in the Canada Biomedical Research Fund (CBRF) and the Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund (BRIF).

The Eastern Canada Pandemic Preparedness Hub (ECaPPH)

Put forward by Université Laval, McGill University and Université de Montréal with Université de Sherbrooke, Polytechnique Montréal and Dalhousie University as major partners

The ECaPPH is a unique bio-innovation and biomanufacturing ecosystem co-presented by three Quebec-based universities (UofM-McGill-Laval). With other major partners, universities, private, public, and non-for-profit organizations, the resulting environment builds on a long-standing tradition of engaging in collaborative, complementary and synergistic relationships to offer Canada a resilient, agile response to future pandemic and health threats.

The strengths and uniqueness of the ECaPPH program rest on three major themes:

1. Genomics-based diagnosis and RNA-based therapies for emerging infections;
2. Small molecules, immunomodulators and cell therapies; and
3. Vaccine development, production and evaluation.

The ECaPPH will also benefit from existing cross-cutting infrastructure and expertise:

• Biomanufacturing, scaled processes and production;
• Cutting-edge technology platforms linked directly to pandemic and other preparedness for health threats;
• Fully integrated pipeline for drug discovery and development including preclinical and clinical testing;
• World leadership in artificial intelligence-accelerated R&D and manufacturing;
• Strong presence of the National Research Council Canada in biomanufacturing; Public Health Agency of Canada and laboratories in zoonotic health threats;
• Unique commercialization units with track records of significant venture capital, public investments, start-up funding;
• Internationally-recognized public health and social science expertise ensuring robust scientific evaluation of the impact of innovations to support policy makers’ decision process, and inform the public;
• A dedicated network of college centres for technology transfer.

The ECaPPH encompasses industry-readiness training at multiple levels including requalification of professionals and dedicated programs that provide students with experience in all aspects of pandemic preparedness and biomanufacturing. The result will be highly-tailored training spanning the entire innovation continuum from R&D to manufacturing.

The ECaPPH’s governance and mission will ensure a collaborative, resilient, and inclusive (EDI-proactive) hub. Scientific, infrastructure, training, surveillance and translation committees comprised of multidisciplinary and diverse representatives will mobilize the broader ecosystem, consolidate and align investments, accelerate the transfer of knowledge into concrete applications, and train a robust, skilled workforce.

 

 

 

 

 

This content has been updated on 2 May 2023 at 15 h 24 min.