The Agriculture Genomics Action Centre (AGAC) project will act as a knowledge hub for genomics research, gathering outputs from nine significant agricultural genomics projects which began in 2023. The new initiative is made possible through Genome Canada in partnership with Genome Prairie, Genome British Columbia and Ontario Genomics.
The information gathered by the AGAC will be made available to academic institutions, government bodies, non-profit organizations and industry stakeholders who are contributing to the growth of Canada's agricultural sector.
On Tuesday, approximately $4.7 million in funding was announced for the AGAC project: $2.3 million in federal support from the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development via Genome Canada and $2.4 million from provincial government and industry partners.
The AGAC project will be co-led by Dr. Nancy Tout (PhD), the Chief Scientific Officer of GIFS at USask. Other co-leads include Dr. Lupin Battersby (PhD) at Simon Fraser University and Elizabeth Shantz at the University of Guelph.
"The Global institute for Food Security's mission underlines collaboration with partners to accelerate research and deliver meaningful innovation for the market. Working together through this Centre, we will help make knowledge relevant and usable so it can inform policy creation and support the commercialization of climate-smart solutions with economic, environmental and social benefits for Canada's agri-food sector," Tout said in a statement for Genome Prairie.
The goal for the AGAC project is that the knowledge hub will provide key information to continue research that will lead to a more sustainable agricultural future. The Centre is set to be fully operational in 2027 and is part of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Food Systems initiative investing in new agricultural genomics research.
Two USask-led genomics projects – one exploring genetic diversity in Canada's grasslands and the other investigating reducing synthetic fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions through crop breeding strategies – are among the nine which received support through the initiative.
Source: usask.ca