About the Canadian Bioinformatics Hub
Canada’s training and community platform
Scaling up Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Data Science capacity across Canada
What is the CBH?
The Canadian Bioinformatics Hub is Canada’s platform for Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Data Science skills and community development. The platform is built on the two foundational pillars of Training and Community, both governed by an overarching Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Framework. Training and community resources are regionally distributed by six centers across the country, supporting capacity growth in talent according to local needs. Together, we are accelerating the growth of a vibrant health and life sciences sector in Canada by scaling up Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Data Science capacity.
Expansion of bioinformatics.ca into the Canadian Bioinformatics Hub is supported by a 2024 Health Research Training Platform (HRTP) Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Genome Canada.
Our Vision at CBH
The vision at the Canadian Bioinformatics Hub is to accelerate the growth of a dynamic health and life sciences sector in Canada by building Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Data Science capacity.
Our Mission at CBH
CBH’s mission is to be a global leader in bioinformatics skill development ecosystems, championing inclusive training, nurturing supportive professional networks, and advocating for essential resources to uplift life and health science research communities across Canada.
The History of CBH at Bioinformatics.ca
Bioinformatics.ca and the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops (CBW) were established in 1999 by Francis Ouellette, Christopher Hogue, François Major, Christoph Sensen and David Wishart to address the need for a skilled computational science workforce in Canada. Since then, Bioinformatics.ca has become an integral component of the national bioinformatics and computational biology community, with CBW being recognized as an international leader in bioinformatics skills dissemination. Under a mission to accelerate the use of bioinformatics as a tool in health and life sciences through education, networking and outreach, CBW has trained 5500+ scientists (1999-2023) in basic and advanced bioinformatic topics over 200+ workshops.
In 2024, we were awarded a Health Research Training Platform (HRTP) Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Genome Canada to scale our operations across the country. Thanks to this award we have expanded into the Canadian Bioinformatics Hub – Canada’s platform for Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Data Science training and community activities.
CBH Funders
The Canadian Bioinformatics Hub (CBH) is grateful to its many supporters.
The CBH is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). This work was funded by the Government of Canada through Genome Canada and Ontario Genomics (OGI-244). We are also supported by in-kind sponsorship from our host institution, the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research, whose funding is provided by the Government of Ontario. In addition, we receive matching funds and in-kind support from: Simon Fraser University, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, University Health Network, Dalhousie University, Université de Montréal and Genome Québec; as well as BioNet Alberta, eCampus Ontario, Calcul Québec, Université de Laval, University of Ottawa, Consortium Sante Numerique, Université de Sherbrooke, University of Guelph, Université de Québec à Montréal, IVADO and IDEA-STEM.
CBH Collaborators
The Canadian Bioinformatics Hub is additionally grateful to the in-kind sponsorship received from contributing institutions that facilitate the logistics and operation of our training and community events.
Affiliations
CBH is proud to be a member of GOBLET: the Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education & Training and an ISCB Affiliate Group.