The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), are pleased to announce a new partnership to develop the solutions required for a sustainable, resilient, and profitable agriculture and agri-food sector in the uncertain climate and net zero economy of the future.

Budget 2022, in support of the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan – Canada’s Next Steps for Clean Air and a Strong Economy, included a commitment to engage farmers in building a clean and prosperous future as part of immediate action towards climate mitigation. The NSERC-SSHRC Sustainable agriculture initiative, in collaboration with AAFC, will help reinforce, coordinate and scale up Canada's domestic agriculture research capabilities through partnerships among universities, colleges and organizations from the private, public or not-for-profit sectors.

This partnership will fund multidisciplinary, collaborative networks of researchers, mobilizing expertise and technologies in the social and natural sciences, engineering and in areas that broaden the traditional network of agriculture research partners. This funding will support both fundamental and applied research to accelerate transformative alternative practices, technologies and their adoptions, as well as to and build reliable and consistent measurement tools and performance metrics.

Budget 2022 provided NSERC and SSHRC with $100 million of funding for sustainable agriculture research. This call is the first initiative with this funding, offering up to $72 million from NSERC and SSHRC. It is open to Canadian university researchers in social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and eligible college faculty may participate as co-applicants.

Grant support from this initiative will range from $500,000 to $2,000,000 per year, for four years. NSERC and SSHRC will provide support for 100% of the eligible costs of research. Although partner organizations do not need to provide cash contributions to participate, they must actively play a role in the research and support it through in-kind contributions.

Preparatory funding requests will be accepted until May 8, 2023, by 8 pm (ET). The deadline for full project applications is November 8, 2023, by 8 pm (ET).

For more information, please read the call for proposals. If you have any questions, contact alliance_agriculture@nserc-crsng.gc.ca.