SFU launches Global Institute for Agritech to lead agricultural technology innovation – SFU News

The new institute was approved by SFU Senate on Oct. 7, 2024. Its membership includes 13 SFU researchers from across seven faculties and advisory council members from Wageningen University and Research (The Netherlands), Technical University München (Germany), with the affiliated members from Kwantlen Polytechnical University and the University of the Fraser Valley. In addition, the GIA will include advisory council members from government, including the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada; industry research and development partners, Catalera BioSolutions and Lucent BioSciences; and a First Nations relations advisor, Agrotek.

 By focusing on partnerships with multi-stakeholders in Canada and global powerhouses, the GIA can enhance SFU’s research capacity while simultaneously supporting local agritech innovators, acting as a vital bridge with the SFU-led B.C. Centre for Agritech Innovation. GIA’s pan-University initiative will manifest through various activities, including the launch of GIA workshops, GIA webinar series, graduate student training programs, and global outreach efforts, all aimed at creating a robust ecosystem that drives agricultural technology advancements and addresses pressing local climate challenges.

“With high land, labour and environmental costs, Canadian agriculture needs to improve yield and quality of crops with less resources to remain competitive and sustainable,” says GIA’s associate director Jim Mattsson, a professor of biological sciences. “GIA provides research and expertise ranging from energy savings to robotics to precision breeding of local crops to address these issues.”  

Currently, the GIA aims to concentrate on three key global areas through its existing SFU partnerships: the Pacific Rim, East Africa (representing Tanzania), and The Netherlands. Additionally, these partnerships will be expanded to include other global regions in the future. 

Specifically, the institute will collaborate with the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), having recently co-hosted an APRU’s food security and agritech hub with the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University. In addition, SFU has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Aga Khan University in Tanzania, an ecologically rich region for agricultural and food security research. And finally, SFU will collaborate with its partners at the Wageningen University & Research (WUR), a leading agritech university in The Netherlands.