The agri-food sector is a vital piece of the Ontario economy and historically an important part of the University of Guelph’s mandate. I’ve written previously here about the UofG’s concentration of expertise when to comes to food – from farm to plate – and food security, and how these critical problems of local and global food security are clear priorities for the federal government.
UofG researchers are looking at opportunities to tackle these issues at the next level.
The University of Guelph was recently competitively selected as one of 30 post-secondary institutions across the country to submit a full proposal to the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), the top-echelon federal research award aimed at accelerating high-performing research groups and programs at Canadian colleges and universities. CFREF grants are awarded on the basis of scientific merit and strategic relevance to Canada; this process is so competitive, to be selected to submit a full proposal is an achievement in itself.
UofG researchers have collectively created an exciting vision bringing together key elements of the university’s research strengths into their proposal, Food from Thought: Agricultural Systems for a HealthyPlanet. The Food from Thought submission was led by Professor Evan Fraser, from the College of Social & Applied Human Sciences, underscoring the highly interdisciplinary, and integrative nature of this initiative.
It is a transformative plan to create the tools needed to produce enough food for our planet while sustaining our critical ecosystems.
A very large and diverse team of UG researchers contributed a great deal of thought and time to this proposal, and I want to take this opportunity to thank them and Vice President Malcolm Campbell for this tremendous effort. Particular thanks to these OVC scientists – Drs. Cate Dewey, Population Medicine, Bonnie Mallard, Pathobiology, Jan Sargeant, Population Medicine and director of Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, Shayan Sharif, Pathobiology, along with Tina Widowski, director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare – for their contributions to this exciting proposal.
At the heart of Food from Thought is the desire to bring about an explosion of innovation that ensures UG, and Canada, remain at the forefront of the upcoming digital agricultural revolution. We will probably hear if our proposal is successful sometime this summer.
The proposed Food from Thought approach will integrate Guelph existing strengths – world-leading biodiversity research with unprecedented capacity to conduct agri-food systems research in a unified vision to increase the safety, sustainability, resilience, and efficiency of agricultural and food systems at home and globally. In doing so, Food from Thought will enhance Canada’s economic, environmental, and social well-being, as well as the competitiveness of our agri-food sector.