Sponsor
Canadian Horticulture Council (CHC)
Program
Canadian Agri-Science Cluster for Horticulture (2023-2028) National Research & Innovation Priorities for:
- Greenhouse Vegetables
- Field Vegetables
- Berries
- Apples
- Potatoes (coming January 2022)
Description
The Canadian Horticultural Council (CHC) is an Ottawa-based voluntary, not-for-profit, national association that represents fruit and vegetable growers across Canada involved in the production of over 120 different types of crops on over 14,237 farms, with farm cash receipts of $5.4 billion in 2019. Since 1922, CHC has advocated on important issues that impact Canada’s horticultural sector, promoting healthy, safe and sustainable food, and ensuring the continued success and growth of our industry.
CHC is actively preparing for the opportunity to establish a fourth Canadian AgriScience Cluster for Horticulture under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) next agricultural policy framework for 2023-2028. AgriScience Clusters are intended to mobilize industry, government and academia through partnerships, and address priority themes and horizontal issues that are national in scope.
In recent months, CHC has consulted with industry members through our commodity Working Groups to update National Research and Innovation Priorities.
At this time, CHC is seeking Expressions of Interest from Canadian researchers who would like the opportunity to participate in the Canadian AgriScience Cluster for Horticulture 4 in the Research and Innovation priority areas (including but not limited to) outlined in the Attachments section below for each: berries, apples, field vegetables and greenhouse vegetables.
Special Notes
Please note that research activities carried out in the context of COVID-19 need to adhere to the University of Guelph COVID-19 research principles, policies, guidelines and processes as they may be updated from time to time and communicated on the Office of Research web-page.
Deadlines
If College-level review is required, your College will communicate its earlier internal deadlines.
| Type | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
External Deadline | Expressions of interest must be completed using the form under Attachments section and must be emailed directly to the sponsor using the format outlined in How to Apply. |
How to Apply
Please complete the attached Expressions of Interest Form under the Attachments section and return it to CHC by end of business January 30, 2022, via email to cluster4prep@hortcouncil.ca with the subject line corresponding to the sector:
- FIELD VEG – EOI – YOUR NAME.
- BERRY – EOI – YOUR NAME.
- APPLE – EOI – YOUR NAME.
- GH VEG – EOI – YOUR NAME.
Additional call for Expressions of Interest will sent out for Potato in January 2022.
All Expressions of Interest will be reviewed by the CHC’s Working Group in early February 2022. Activities selected to move forward to the Request for Proposal stage will be contacted in late February-early March. It is important to note that funding will be pending AAFC’s announcement of the next AgriScience Cluster program, expected in late 2022. There is no guarantee of funding at this point.
In the interests of improved coordination, collaboration and funding efficiency, CHC reserves the right to share LOIs with other research funders and/or Clusters.
Researchers are not required to submit their EOI to the Office of Research for approval before submission to the sponsor. Researchers are asked to send a copy of their EOI to the Office of Research for information purposes only. An OR-5 is not required at the EOI stage. Researchers will be notified by the sponsor if they have been invited to submit a full proposal. Those invited to full proposal must submit their proposal to the Office of Research along with a signed OR-5 two (2) weeks in advance of the sponsor's deadline.
Attachment(s)
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Research and Innovation priority areas for CHC sectors.pdf | 249.1 KB |
 CHC Agri-Science Cluster for Horticulture - EOI Form.docx | 71.34 KB |