SynBio Canada: Turning Structure into Action
2025 Year in Review
At our 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM), directors and executives had a chance to summarize all of our accomplishments over the past year, which are outlined here.
This past year marked a pivotal step in SynBio Canada’s maturation, building on its incorporation as a national non-profit. Focused primarily on operationalizing, SynBio Canada moved from a largely informal network to a more structured national organization, with active governance, formal financial systems, rebuilt leadership capacity, and the launch of funded programs. This shift positioned the organization to move toward sustained growth, delivery, and national impact. SynBio Canada is turning structure into action.
“It has been a great adventure working with this community so far and I’m excited to continue this into the new year!”
“I am honored to work with a dedicated board and committed to advancing our initiatives. We will continue to focus on strategic projects to enhance SynBio Canada’s impact on innovation and community building throughout Canada.”
Key Outcomes
Organizational Capacity: Rebuilt and expanded the executive team, elected a board of directors, and established core operational infrastructure to support growth.
Financial Foundation: Secured initial sponsorship funding from Flow Genomics and delivered the organization’s first funded programs.
Membership Growth: Total membership increased, with Canadian membership rising substantially and now representing over 80 percent of members nationwide.
Programs and Impact: Launched the Summer of SynBio Poster Competition, sponsored by Flow Genomics, providing direct financial and in-kind support to trainees and highlighting emerging Canadian research. See the winners from June, July, and August.
National Leadership: Initiated the “Made in Canada” discussion series, convened national discussions, and advanced policy-relevant publications to strengthen Canada’s synthetic biology and bioindustrial ecosystem.
Professional Development: Continued delivering high-value training through a workshop at SynBio 7.0 in Toronto, equipping trainees and professionals with transferable leadership and project-management skills.
“This year was a very exciting year for SynBio Canada, I am particularly proud of our collaboration with Flow Genomics and how we were able to directly support trainees in the community with the Summer of SynBio poster competition. Seeing the community involvement grow in just over a year has been really special, I look forward to building out more ways to directly engage with and celebrate our community over the next year. ”
“I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past year. There is so much enthusiasm for how synthetic biology can make a positive impact in Canada. This year in particular has helped focus this enthusiasm at a national scale.”
Board of Directors Re-Elected
SynBio Canada members re-elected the full slate of existing directors, reaffirming confidence in the strategic direction established in 2024. The renewed mandate provides continuity in leadership and enables the board to move from foundational work toward scaling programs, strengthening advocacy, and delivering greater value to members in the year ahead.
Looking Ahead
With core systems in place, SynBio Canada is positioned to expand funding, broaden programming, deepen regional engagement, and play a more influential role in shaping the future of synthetic biology and the bioeconomy in Canada.
“The inaugural year of the expanded SynBio Canada Board has been highly rewarding. I love where we landed on mission-vision; it’s grounded and compelling. I attended the second Internet World conference, back when Yahoo won new company of the year. This feels exactly the same. The most exciting outcome was the quality of the applicants to the Summer of Synbio contest; there is no greater evidence that Canada can lead the world with revolutionary ideas and products. ”