The Canadian province of Ontario will invest an extra CAD$100 million ($87.4 million) in the life sciences this year, in a drive to retain scientific talent and advance the region's prosperity. On May 4, John Wilkinson, Minister of Research and Innovation, announced the province's support for “significant collaborative research projects headquartered in Ontario” with a focus on genomics and gene-related research leading to treatments for cancer, diabetes and heart disease, as well as agriculture, environmental protection and clean technologies. Locals fear a hemorrhaging of talent and research across the border, as the US steps up its support for the life sciences, a situation compounded by the Canadian federal government's much-criticized CAD$148 million cut to the research-funding agencies' budget. The new funds, aimed at academics, are clearly not a panacea, but are seen as a lifeline. “It is definitely the type of investment that makes it easy and attractive to recruit talented investigators both Canadian and non-Canadian,” says Benjamin Neel, who in 2007 was recruited from Harvard University Medical School to become director of the Ontario Cancer Institute. “I think I speak for all Ontario scientists when I say we really appreciate and strongly support the provincial government's efforts to promote the knowledge economy, which is the economic future of both the province and the country.” The province will support one-third of a project's costs, with the rest coming from private partners and institutional sources. Ontario has also announced a CAD$3.8 million injection into the International Regulome Consortium, a Canadian-led genomics effort.