Alberta Innovates is pleased to be a partner in the Agriculture Funding Consortium, providing funding to seven new projects selected by the consortium with a total project value of approximately $4 million.

The consortium brings together eighteen member organizations to offer a single window of funding for agricultural research in Western Canada. By providing coordinated, collaborative funding, the group advances bold science to support sustainability, diversification, and long-term growth for agriculture.

As innovative technologies change the face of modern farming and food manufacturing around the world, Alberta Innovates' involvement in the consortium aims to accelerate and lead innovation from discovery to use across Alberta. Identified research priorities for the 2022-2023 funding call include cross-platform technologies, remote sensing and digitalization, autonomous systems, and addressing the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

Successful projects address timely questions related to sustainability, centring around securing a dependable food supply, adapting to changing threats to production, and mitigating negative environmental effects. Productivity improvements through gene editing is one shared focus across several projects. Specific topics range from reducing methane emissions from dairy cows and providing insights into pollinator health, to improving the quality of increasingly common plant protein sources.

View the list of projects below.

2022-2023 Agriculture Funding Consortium Funded Projects
Applicant Project Title Total Project Costs Partners Alberta Innovates Funding
Jonathan Challis -Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Harmful algal blooms and associated cyanotoxins in Alberta's irrigation districts: Implications for irrigated crops $976,650 Results Driven Agriculture Research $335,000
Filippo Miglior - Lactanet Canada Application of Methane Sniffer Technology for Dairy Cattle: Enhancing the Sustainability of Alberta's Dairy Industry $892,400 Alberta Milk $195,500
Gail MacInnis - Grande Prairie Regional College Harnessing the power of pollen DNA metabarcoding to enhance pollinator health and honey value in cropping landscapes $230,040 Results Driven Agriculture Research $79,520
Gavin Chen -University of Alberta Elevating canola yield and oil and protein content by altering cellular carbon partitioning $525,775 Results Driven Agriculture Research, Alberta Canola Producers Commission $200,000
Dae-Kyun Ro-University of Calgary Applications of the genome base-editing technology in dry pea to excavate novel agricultural traits $284,000 Results Driven Agriculture Research, Alberta Pulse Growers

 

 

 $100,000
Thomas Turkington - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network: Fostering further network development $279,620 Multiple $27,827
Monireh Faramarzi - University of Alberta Assessing climate-extreme, and water and nutrient-smart farming practices for improved crop and livestock productivity in Alberta $565,000 N/A $310,000
    TOTAL

 

$3,753,485

   TOTAL

 

$1,247,847

 

Learn more about the Agriculture Funding Consortium.

For more information on all recent projects funded by the Agriculture Funding Consortium, see the news release from Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR).