Agri-Food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program

Overview of the Agri-Food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program program:

With world’s population projected to approach 10 billion people by 2050, the strain on our limited natural resources intensifies, creating a greater demand for food production. Simultaneously, the agriculture and forestry sectors face vulnerabilities arising from the impacts of climate change, which adversely affect both productivity and sustainability. Alberta has a significant opportunity to address these global challenges by harnessing the power of technology. The provincial landscape is ideal for agri-food production, including the cultivation of grains, oilseeds, and pulses, as well as livestock farming. Further opportunities exist in value-added processing and a thriving technology sector. The province is also home to an abundance of sustainable residual fibers, industrial crops, and underused hardwood resources from the forestry sector and as byproducts of the agri-food industry. The bio-industrial sector thrives at this intersection of agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, and construction by providing new opportunities for adding value to otherwise underutilized biofibres.

Benefits of the Agri-Food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program program:

• Successful applications can receive up to $500,000 in funding per project.

Eligibility criteria of the Agri-Food and Bioindustrial Innovation Program program:

• To qualify for this program, the following criteria must be met:
• The Program is open to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), industry organizations, research and development organizations, post-secondary institutions, and government research laboratories.
• To qualify as an SME, the Applicant must be a company with fewer than 500 full-time employees and less than $50,000,000 annual gross revenue.
• Applicants are not required to be based in Alberta but must demonstrate a clear value proposition for Alberta. Projects that will be researched, piloted, demonstrated and/or implemented in Alberta with long-term Alberta impact will be prioritized.
• All Applicants must also:
• Exist as a corporate person, with up-to-date corporate filings;
• Be authorized to undertake the proposed project and execute a grant with Alberta Innovates on our standard terms; and
• Not otherwise be prohibited from receiving Alberta Innovates funding, for instance due to a past bad debt or otherwise not be in good financial standing with Alberta Innovates or its subsidiaries, InnoTech Alberta and C-FER Technologies.