Agri-Food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program

With the world’s population projected to approach 10 billion people by 2050, the strain on our limited natural resources intensifies, creating a greater demand for food production. Simultaneously, the agriculture and forestry sectors face vulnerabilities arising from the impacts of climate change, which adversely affect both productivity and sustainability.

Alberta has a significant opportunity to address these global challenges by harnessing the power of technology. The provincial landscape is ideal for agri-food production, including the cultivation of grains, oilseeds, and pulses, as well as livestock farming. Further opportunities exist in value-added processing and a thriving technology sector.

The province is also home to an abundance of sustainable residual fibres, industrial crops, and underused hardwood resources from the forestry sector and as byproducts of the agri-food industry. The bioindustrial sector thrives at this intersection of agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, and construction by providing new opportunities for adding value to otherwise underutilized biofibres.

The Agri-food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program aims to support the development of technologies that provide solutions to the challenges faced by the agri-food and bioindustrial sectors in Alberta.

The objectives of the Agri-Food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program are to:

• Sustain, grow, and optimize productivity, while reducing the cost of production of Alberta’s agri-food and bioindustrial industries.
• Add value to enhanced and new commodities in the agri-food and bioindustrial sectors.
• Increase environmental sustainability and social benefits for Albertans.

The key outcomes (or measurable effects) of the program that will benefit Albertans are:

• The development and advancement of innovations that will lead to strong agri-food and bioindustrial sectors and a value-added resource industry in Alberta, helping our province become a global leader in environmental, social, and governance performance.
• Improved economic prosperity and social well-being in Alberta.
• Mitigation of negative environmental impacts.

Successful applications can receive up to $500,000 in funding per project. We will only cover up to 75 per cent of total project costs. The rest (cash or in-kind) must come from the applicant, project partners or other funding agencies. We encourage co-funding with other agencies, with no limits on stacking contributions from other sources.