EDMONTON – Alberta Agriculture has mapped out its research future and it points to big projects that have a clear economic value for agriculture and the province, says the minister.
The research and innovation strategic framework details the research goals the agriculture industry will pursue, said Shirley McClellan while standing in front of framed samples of grain at the pedigreed seed display at the Farm and Ranch Show in Edmonton.
“This research strategy takes the province out 15 years in agriculture research,” she said.
The five-year strategy singles out major opportunities for research in value-added bioproducts, food products, health products and farm industries. The combination of federal, provincial and industry money focused in the same direction will help Alberta lead the way in value-added production, she said.
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“There’s a huge growth in packaged food,” said McClellan, who added that in the Edmonton region alone, 100 companies export value-added food products to more than 100 countries.
Instead of funding many agricultural research projects, the money will be directed into a few projects with a priority for economic growth, said Neil Oberg, co-chair of Alberta Agriculture Research Institute, which will facilitate the research projects and distribute the funds.
“When we look at a project, not only do we see if it is good science, we also have to look at it as how do we develop this project if something comes out of it? How do we commercialize the product, how do we carry it through to a real value-added opportunity for the province?” said Oberg.
Two years ago there were about 400 applications for funding, with about 77 selected. This year about 85 projects were selected.
Oberg said he could foresee funding only about 10 major projects that have a better chance of commercialization.
“As we change, we think the projects will get larger instead of smaller,” said Oberg. He used the example of targeting the fight against E. coli bacteria or the development of food products that can fight cancer.
“We want to look not just at one single project but coming at it from various angles.”
