Grant: Canada First Research Excellence Fund

Food from Thought will combine Guelph's world-leading biodiversity research with its unprecedented capacity to conduct agri-food systems research, and deliver breakthroughs that will 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. Our institutional strategy is to support Food from Thought's scientific plan with two new institutional structures: (1) The Agri-Food & Biodiversity Centre for Complex Computing that will integrate on-campus computational nodes of expertise together with partnerships involving IBM and the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform and five new faculty positions in fields related to food and biodiversity analytics; and (2) The Agri-Food and Biodiversity Centre for Innovation and Incubation that will work with the J.W. McConnell foundation, Maple Leaf Foods and Loblaw to create innovation and training platforms to ensure meaningful and lasting social and economic benefits. We will also invest the financial resources to carry Food from Thought beyond the next seven years and this proposal brings commitments of $40M in new money. In addition, the senior executive is part of the leadership team and will ensure this project links to university priorities and adheres to sound reporting practices. Measuring outcomes and communicating results are vital and will be based on academic and impact-oriented indicators to be determined with a broad range of stakeholders.