Team:Calgary/News/Alberta Events

As members of the University of Calgary iGEM team and citizens of the province of Alberta, we are incredibly fortunate because of the backing of the Alberta Ingenuity Fund. The Alberta Ingenuity Fund (AIF) supports premier opportunities in the fields of Science and Engineering through financial support from the Government of Alberta. The goal of the organization is to build the capacity for innovation within Alberta to the end of creating lasting social and economic impacts. AIF recognizes that the iGEM program is one such premier opportunity and has supported all Alberta-based iGEM teams stemming from the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Lethbridge since 2006.

Not only does AIF provide financial support for the Alberta-based teams, they also provide several opportunities to foster camaraderie (and healthy competition) amongst the three Alberta teams. These events began with the Alberta Genetically Engineered Machines (AGEM) competition in September of 2008, an event to emulate the iGEM competition at MIT. Because of the enormous success of the event, AIF put forth a calendar of several events for the 2009 iGEM season. This began with the Dragon’s Den in Edmonton, followed by an Ethics Workshop in Calgary and the Presentation/Marketing/Wiki Workshop in Lethbridge. The AIF-organized Alberta events will culminate with the 2009 AGEM competition in the beautiful city of Banff this September. Please see below for more information on these events!

We are incredibly grateful for the support of AIF, especially the hard work done on the part of Jennifer Hill, Laura Gadowsky and Chris Dambrowitz in fostering our teams both financially and through the organization of Alberta-wide iGEM events.