CS-DCC
Climate-Smart Data Collaboration Centre
About Us
We enhance the accessibility and interoperability of data generated by researchers across the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Food Systems (CSAFS) portfolio.
The Climate-Smart Data Collaboration Centre (CS-DCC) collaborates with the nine Interdisciplinary Challenge Teams (ICTs) of the research portfolio, acting as a bridge between projects.
We focus on (meta)data governance and harmonization, as well as research data management, data analytics, and data sharing policy. The CS-DCC aims to enhance omics innovations in climate-smart agriculture and food-systems research.
Our Vision
Enhance climate resilience and support Canadian agri-food genomic research by establishing a data ecosystem for the exchange of research data and knowledge.
Our Mission
Develop and offer infrastructure, tools, training, and forums for agri-food data researchers, including an interoperable and distributed data ecosystem, empowering them to enhance their data assets and amplify their research impact.
Our Core Principles
Fragmented research efforts often lead to redundancy, slower uptake, and slower knowledge transfer. These Core Principles guide our work to address those challenges and build a coordinated, future‑ready data ecosystem.
Data Ownership & Sovereignty
Researchers and communities control their data. We respect governance, privacy, and community principles like OCAP and inclusivity for Indigenous communities.
FAIR & Responsible Openness
We prioritize FAIR principles and encourage openness through graduated and equitable sharing where appropriate—always balancing trust, ethics, and security.
Capacity Building Across the Data Lifecycle
From active, working datasets to published archives, we provide tools, catalogs, and workflows to make collaboration easier.
Automation & Interoperability
We enable machine-readable formats, standardized schemas, and vocabularies for seamless integration and reuse.
Our Services and Activities
Data catalogue
We will be selecting and recommending data catalogues where ICTs can deposit and share their data and metadata, as well as identifying publicly sharable genomic datasets and metadata. We are working on active data cataloguing, helping ICT investigators with their archival data deposition and catalogues. You can find more information, as well as descriptions of the different datasets that are being collected by our ICT researchers, on our GitHub.
Research data management
We are developing an open and inclusive research data management (RDM) ecosystem that encourages partnerships from diverse domains and sectors. Research data management refers to how the lifecycle of data is managed, from its collection, documentation, and analysis to its sharing, storage, and preservation even after the original project is complete.
Data processing and analytics
We are developing and curating tools to help you organize your data and metadata, and toolkits/workflows to help you analyze and visualize your data.
Data governance
We help researchers ensure their data are stored securely, ‘findable’, and ‘accessible’. Data governance also involves identifying the owners of the data and establishing who can access and use the data. We put an emphasis on equitable data sharing for collective community benefit.
Data harmonization
We help researchers share and develop their data documentation, as well as unify their data types, so that their data are in formats that are compatible and comparable (‘interoperable’) across multiple platforms and research fields. The goal of data harmonization is to use a standard way of describing data, and be able to combine data from different research projects to enable higher-level analysis and provide new insights (‘reusable’).
Community capacity building
We are establishing a community discussion forum on Discourse, so you can post your data-related questions, get help from your peers, and keep up-to-date with tools, workflows, and continuing education opportunities for researchers in Canada.
We also have multiple training and learning opportunities, from recorded webinars to a self-paced training certificate program to scholarships.
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Meet our Team
Principal Investigators
A. Michelle Edwards, PhD, MLIS
Director, Agri-food Data Strategy
Principal Investigator, CS-DCC
University of Guelph
William Hsiao, PhD
Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Science
Principal Investigator, CS-DCC
Simon Fraser University
Claude Robert, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
Principal Investigator, CS-DCC
Université Laval
A. Michelle Edwards, PhD, MLIS
Director, Agri-food Data Strategy Principal Investigator, CS-DCC University of Guelph
A. Michelle Edwards, PhD, MLIS
Director, Agri-food Data Strategy Principal Investigator, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Dr. Michelle Edwards is the Director of Agri-food Data Strategy at the University of Guelph (U of G), and a Principal Investigator for CS-DCC. Prior to her current role, she has served as the Statistical Consultant and Advisor for the Ontario Agricultural College, and as the Academic Director of the Branch Research Data Centre, both at U of G. Before returning to U of G, she was Director of Data Services at the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research at Cornell University.
Dr. Edwards brings over 20 years of experience and leadership in data management and strategy to the CS-DCC. She holds a PhD in Animal Biosciences from U of G and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Western Ontario. She has been instrumental in providing data management and research expertise to U of G’s Ontario Agricultural College by supporting experimental design, statistical analysis, and production of journal article reviews. As the lead of Agri-food Data Canada, she and her team offer data management support to researchers, with the goal of helping researchers share and reuse research data.
William Hsiao, PhD
Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Science Principal Investigator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
William Hsiao, PhD
Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Science Principal Investigator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Dr. William Hsiao is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at Simon Fraser University, the Principal Investigator of the Center for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health, and a Principal Investigator for CS-DCC. Prior to joining FHS in 2020, he was the chief bioinformatician and a senior scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control Public Health Laboratory (BCCDC PHL) and a clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. He was awarded the Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar Award in 2019. Dr. Hsiao's research incorporates data science and knowledge engineering to support data sharing, integration, and harmonization through a One Health lens. His team has developed several notable ontologies (GenEpiO.org and FoodOn.org) and ontology-driven tools to improve the extraction and re-use of biological data following FAIR principles. With experience conducting genomics and data science research both in academia and in government laboratories (public health and animal health), Dr. Hsiao is dedicated to training the next generation of bioinformaticians in public health and infectious disease research.
Claude Robert, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Principal Investigator, CS-DCC Université Laval
Claude Robert, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Principal Investigator, CS-DCC Université Laval
Dr. Claude Robert is a Professor in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at Université Laval, and a Principal Investigator for CS-DCC. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Université de Sherbrooke, and Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Animal Sciences from Université Laval. He also completed a post-doctoral internship at the University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. Allan King.
Dr. Robert has long been interested in how assisted reproduction technologies can affect early embryonic development. Currently, his research projects include studying ovarian physiology – namely, the intercellular connectivity between cumulus cells and the oocyte – using bovine and mouse models. He also leads and collaborates on projects in genetics and genomics in animal models such as cattle, pigs, caribou/reindeer, and honeybees.
Dr. Robert is the Director of Genovalia, a newly established data hub for non-human genomics at Université Laval. He is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Reproduction, Development and Intergenerational Health, a research centre focused on reproductive biology as well as the responsible and ethical use of reproductive technologies. He is the former Director of the Réseau Québécois en Reproduction, a network composed over 100 research teams invested in research on the topic of reproductive biology.
Team Members
Damion Dooley
Ontology Development Lead, CIDGOH Co-Investigator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Damion Dooley
Ontology Development Lead, CIDGOH Co-Investigator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Damion Dooley is an Ontology Development Lead at the Centre for Infectious Disease and One Health (CIDGOH), a 20+ member group of bioinformatics and ontology researchers at Simon Fraser University. His ontology work began in 2013 at the BC Centre for Disease Control to support rapid enteric pathogen whole genome sequencing and analysis. Damion led the creation of the FoodOn food ontology and the Joint Food Ontology Workgroup to facilitate foodborne disease, agriculture, nutrition and food science data sharing. FoodOn is now being used and supported by a wide variety of research and inter-agency data sharing projects. Damion also led the development of the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network's DataHarmonizer tool that facilitated the standardization and submission of Canadian COVID-19 biosample data to national and international repositories. He also participates in The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies Foundry operations committee, and in curation of the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI). He looks forward to a future of FAIR, harmonized data that reduces barriers to discovery and insight in a rapidly changing world. Damion’s role with CS-DCC includes supporting data harmonization efforts, with a focus on establishing links to existing and emerging data standards in soil microbiome metadata, and in climate change and sustainability metrics.
Jun Duan, PhD
Cloud Computing Lead, CIDGOH Data Management Developer, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Jun Duan, PhD
Cloud Computing Lead, CIDGOH Data Management Developer, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Dr. Jun Duan is the Cloud Computing Lead at the Centre for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health (CIDGOH), where he contributes to high-performance computing infrastructure and the development of bioinformatics pipelines. He is based at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
Dr. Duan completed his PhD at Southwest University in China, where he contributed to the silkworm genome project, focusing on genome data analysis and functional genomics. He continued his research in genomics and bioinformatics at Chongqing University. After that, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Guelph, where he worked on forest pest genomics and identified pest-control target genes using RNAi-based approaches. He subsequently worked as a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia and the BC Centre for Disease Control, contributing to avian influenza research. Dr. Duan has extensive expertise in cloud computing, genomics, and bioinformatics. His role with CS-DCC focuses on building interoperable, secure, and scalable data management infrastructure to support collaborative research and data sharing across Canada’s distributed research network.
Ivan Gill, MSc
Software Developer, CIDGOH Software Developer, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Ivan Gill, MSc
Software Developer, CIDGOH Software Developer, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Ivan develops software applications for processing public health data, including the data visualization tool VIRUS-MVP, and the aptly named data harmonization app DataHarmonizer. He holds an MSc in Bioinformatics from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and BSc degrees in Computer Science and Biology.
Emma Griffiths, PhD
Data Harmonization Lead, CIDGOH Co-Investigator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Emma Griffiths, PhD
Data Harmonization Lead, CIDGOH Co-Investigator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Dr. Emma Griffiths completed her PhD in Biochemistry at McMaster University (Ontario) studying bacterial phylogeny and evolutionary molecular markers. She also has postdoctoral experience in fungal and chemical genetics, as well as developing ontologies for infectious disease outbreak investigation and surveillance. Her current research focuses on applying ontology-based applications and One Health approaches to improving WGS contextual data sharing for combating antimicrobial resistance.
Carly Huitema, PhD
Manager, Agri-food Data Strategy Co-Investigator, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Carly Huitema, PhD
Manager, Agri-food Data Strategy Co-Investigator, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Dr. Carly Huitema is the Manager of Agri-food Data Strategy at the University of Guelph (U of G). She is part of the team leading the strategic design, development, and management of Agri-food Data Canada (ADC), U of G’s vision for a cross-sectoral online platform for research data analytics. She is also a Steering Committee co-chair and Ecosystem and Governance Working Group co-chair at the Trust over IP organization in the Linux Foundation Digital Trust, working to improve digital trust on the internet. She holds a PhD in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia, and spent six years in Switzerland working with a medical diagnostic start-up.
Dr. Huitema’s research interests include working with agri-food researchers and stakeholders within government and industry to increase accessibility and usability of research data. She applies her experience with data science, regulatory frameworks, project management, ecosystems, and governance to make research data more FAIR. Her work with CS-DCC will oversee the new development and continued improvements of tools to help researchers generate machine-readable context for their data.
Jérôme Laroche, PhD
Coordinator, Genovalia Site Project Manager, CS-DCC Université Laval
Jérôme Laroche, PhD
Coordinator, Genovalia Site Project Manager, CS-DCC Université Laval
Dr. Jérôme Laroche is a Coordinator for Genovalia, a platform focused on cataloguing and analyzing non-human genomic data, and Site Project Manager for CS-DCC. He is based at Université Laval. His MSc thesis focused on the population genetics of Rhizoctonia solani, and in his PhD he studied the molecular evolution of plant mitochondrial genes. He received his graduate degrees from Université Laval.
Dr. Laroche previously supervised the activities of the bioinformatics program of the Institute of Integrative and Systems Biology at Université Laval for 12 years. His current work with Genovalia includes structuring non-human genomic data and integrating genomic data into AI models. He also studies the genetics of human diseases such as breast cancer and osteoporosis. He brings to the CS-DCC a strong background in data analytics – including bioinformatics, statistics, and programming – as well as data structure/organization.
Ada Lu, MI
RDM Catalogue and Metadata Lead, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Ada Lu, MI
RDM Catalogue and Metadata Lead, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Ada Lu is the RDM Catalogue and Metadata Lead for the CS-DCC. She is based at the University of Guelph. She completed her Master of Information at the University of Toronto with a specialization in Library and Information Science. Ada focuses her work in research data management; she has worked at Scholars Portal as a digital preservation intern for Borealis, the Canadian Dataverse Repository, where she conducted analyses of file formats within the repository to make recommendations for active, long-term preservation.
At the CS-DCC, Ada’s work focuses on investigating as well as bridging the research aims and data management processes and needs of the ICTs. She is excited to work with this team to improve tools and workflows that will help researchers across Canada describe, catalogue, and share information during active collection stages.
Sydney Morgan, PhD
Community Manager, CBH Communication Coordinator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Sydney Morgan, PhD
Community Manager, CBH Communication Coordinator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Dr. Sydney Morgan is the Communication Coordinator for CS-DCC and the Community Manager for the Canadian Bioinformatics Hub (CBH). She is based at Simon Fraser University (SFU). She holds a PhD in Biology from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, where she studied the microbiology and biochemistry of low-intervention winemaking. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of California San Diego, where her focus was split between clinical and epidemiological COVID-19 research and the maternal microbiome. She was also the Coordinator for IMPACTT, a CIHR-funded microbiome research core based at the University of Calgary, for more than four years.
During her PhD, Sydney worked as a lecturer at Okanagan College, where she designed and taught a course for a brand-new program. She has also given multiple guest lectures, public interviews, and invited industry talks, and has won numerous speaking awards. She has experience organizing workshops and national conferences, and facilitating a successful mentorship program. Her role with CS-DCC focuses on the data hub’s communication strategies, both internally and with the research data community at large.
Setayesh Sanavi, MEng
Full-Stack Developer, Agri-food Data Canada Data Governance Coordinator, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Setayesh Sanavi, MEng
Full-Stack Developer, Agri-food Data Canada Data Governance Coordinator, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Setayesh Sanavi is a Full-Stack Developer with Agri-food Data Canada, and the Data Governance Coordinator for CS-DCC. She is based at the University of Guelph. She brings with her a strong technical background in software development and data management. She has experience as both a Teaching Assistant and a Java Backend Developer. Setayesh completed her Master's in Computer Engineering at the University of Guelph and holds a Bachelor’s degree from Amirkabir University of Technology. Her notable achievements include developing mobile banking applications, teaching Java to students, and collaborating with Agile teams across diverse sectors.
With expertise spanning full-stack development, from mobile applications to large-scale data systems using the MERN stack, SQL, MongoDB, Docker, and Kubernetes, Setayesh is excited to contribute to the success of the CS-DCC projects.
Anoosha Sehar, MSc
Ontology Developer/Data Curator, CIDGOH Ontology Curation Coordinator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Anoosha Sehar, MSc
Ontology Developer/Data Curator, CIDGOH Ontology Curation Coordinator, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Anoosha Sehar is an ontology developer and data curator with over five years of experience in ontology-driven curation and data standards work in One Health contexts. She co-manages the FoodOn food ontology and contributes to GenEpiO and other ontology-based curation efforts at the Centre for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health (CIDGOH). She has a background in bioinformatics and specializes in harmonizing contextual metadata, developing data specifications, and applying ontology-based approaches to support interoperable One Health datasets across complex, multi-source systems. Her work includes contributions to large-scale genomic surveillance and data harmonization initiatives, such as GRDI One Health AMR, FDA’s GenomeTrakr, and the Canadian COVID-19 Genomics Network (CanCOGeN). As Ontology Curation Coordinator within CS-DCC, Anoosha supports soil microbiome metadata specification development and collaborates with the data harmonization task force and ICTs to align data schemas across the centre’s portfolio.
Pratima Shrivastava, PhD, PMP
Project Manager, CIDGOH Site Project Manager, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Pratima Shrivastava, PhD, PMP
Project Manager, CIDGOH Site Project Manager, CS-DCC Simon Fraser University
Dr. Pratima Shrivastava is the Project Manager for the Centre for Infectious Disease Genomics and One Health (CIDGOH), and a Site Project Manager for CS-DCC. She is based at Simon Fraser University (SFU). She completed her PhD in Immunology at the Banaras Hindu University in India before working as a post-doctoral researcher at the National University of Singapore and Singapore Immunology Network. Dr. Shrivastava has extensive experience in immunology and clinical research, and close to eight years of experience in project management in academic and hospital settings. She brings to the CS-DCC a proven track record of successfully managing complex projects, ensuring timely and effective outcomes.
Luba Vasiluk, PhD
Portfolio Manager & Site Project Manager, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Luba Vasiluk, PhD
Portfolio Manager & Site Project Manager, CS-DCC University of Guelph
Dr. Luba Vasiluk is the Portfolio Manager and Site Project Manager for the CS-DCC. She is based at the University of Guelph. Her current role involves liaising between all of the groups and stakeholders involved in Genome Canada’s Climate-Smart Agriculture and Agri-Food Systems Initiative, including: CS-DCC, the initiative’s data hub, the Agricultural Genomics Action Centre (AG-ACt), the initiative’s knowledge mobilization hub; and nine Interdisciplinary Challenge Teams (ICTs), research teams across Canada who are finding solutions to minimize the effect of agriculture on the climate.
Dr. Vasiluk brings more than 20 years of research experience and 15 years of project management expertise to the CS-DCC team. She holds a PhD in Environmental Toxicology from Simon Fraser University, and completed her postdoctoral studies at the University of Guelph. Her specialty lies in environmental sciences, particularly in the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of trace elements in the soil-plant-human interface. She manages the University of Guelph component of the CS-DCC, overseeing budget administration, meeting coordination, and communications for the CS-DCC.
Alumni
Jaber Husiny, MSc
Data Curator and Training Coordinator, CS-DCC
University of Guelph
Adam Sadowski, MMath
Software Developer, CS-DCC
University of Guelph
Erin Moorhead, BCom (Hons)
Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) Student
University of Guelph
Name
Title
Institution
Kenneth Bruskiewicz
Co-Investigator, CS-DCC
Simon Fraser University
Name
Title
Institution
Our Partners
Co-Investigators
Guillaume Bourque, PhD
Professor, Department of Human Genetics
McGill University
Philippe Després, PhD
Professor, Department of Physics, Physical Engineering and Optics
Université Laval
Laurette Dubé, PhD
Professor Emerita
McGill University
Lewis Lukens, PhD
Professor, Department of Plant Agriculture
University of Guelph
Ghader Manafiazar, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Animal Science and Aquaculture
Dalhousie University
Athanasios Zovoilis, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics
University of Manitoba
Collaborators
Michelle Brazas, PhD
Director, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
Scientific Director, Bioinformatics.ca
Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops
Melanie Courtot, PhD
Assistant Professor, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
University of Toronto
Pablo Valdes Donoso, DVM, PhD
Assistant Professor
Université de Montréal
Graham King, PhD
Director
DivSeek International Network
Seok-Bum Ko, PhD, PEng
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
University of Saskatchewan
Matthew Links, PhD
Assistant Professor, College of Agriculture and Bioresources
University of Saskatchewan
James Macklin, PhD
Research Scientist, Botany and Biodiversity Informatics
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada | GRDI | GenARCC
Rodrigo Ortega Polo, PhD
Biology Study Leader – Bioinformatics
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ian Stavness, PhD
Professor, Department of Computer Science
University of Saskatchewan
Training, Resources & Opportunities
Check out our Training & Resources page, where we’ve curated training opportunities, learning materials, and other resources created by CS-DCC, AG-ACt, and other groups. We also support trainees in the Canadian agri-food data science field with scholarships and collaboration opportunities.
News & Events
Check out our News & Events page to find updates on the latest in agricultural genomics research, conferences, workshops, webinars, and more. While you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and browse through our newsletter archive!
Institutional Partners
Contact Us
CS-DCC is uniting researchers, students, industry partners, policymakers, and community organizations to shape the future of sustainable, climate-smart agriculture and food systems across Canada. We invite you to collaborate, contribute, or learn more about how we’re driving this meaningful change.
Contact us today! Fill out the form or email us at cs.dcc@climatesmartagrifood.ca
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