Below is a list of organizations who have facilitated the development of modules of the Research Training Program and/or sponsored the participation of international visitors through grants/contracts to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario – Centre for Biodiversity Genomics.
The International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) has funded a three-year (2010-2013) capacity building project in seven developing nations, helping them engage in the International Barcode of Life project. The project involved several international workshops and other training sessions that have helped shape the scope of DNA barcoding training modules.
The Conference Board of Canada supported a DNA barcoding capacity building project in Peru in 2013-2015 and in Honduras 2016-2017 under the Canada-Americas Trade-Related Technical Assistance (CATRTA) program, which facilitated the training of six Peruvian and 4 Honduran experts in Canada. As a precursor to these activities, the first formal curriculum for the Research Training Program has been developed.
The Secretariat for the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD) has facilitated the participation of 11 experts from developing countries in the Research Training Program in 2015 and 17 experts in 2016, with funding support provided by the Government of Japan through the Japan Biodiversity Fund (JBF). This continued partnership has been instrumental in fine-tuning the Program to focus on one of the prominent applications of DNA barcoding – detection and monitoring of invasive alien species (IAS).
The Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation has partnered with our Research Training Program to deliver a specialized module on plant biobanking to our CBD-sponsored participants. In light of the invasive alien species focus, it was helpful for our participants to gather information on how to potentially preserve and restore endangered species that may be targets of IAS.
