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At the Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), ambition meets action.

Across our diverse operations, our team has developed unique capabilities to support impactful research and development.

From genomics to biomanufacturing to data analytics and more, our strengths place us among a select group of global institutions equipped to drive innovation at scale.

Today, we are the only organization in Canada with the expertise, capabilities, and unique model to enable partnerships with both public- and private-sector organizations from discovery through to delivery, accelerating innovation at every stage.

Based in Saskatchewan — the heart of Western Canada and the largest producer of field crops in Canada — we’re strategically positioned to collaborate with global partners and deliver scalable, impactful solutions.

“Our ambition is to be the preferred partner for ag and food innovation — not just here, but globally — and we are global. We’re bringing an exciting complement of expertise and leading-edge technologies to really operate at scale,” said GIFS CEO Dr. Steven Webb.

“We’ve created an organization that is complementary and not competitive. We’ve created an organization that operates at scale. We think in and operate at levels of 100, 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 samples at a time, optimizing resources, automation, processes, and technologies to deliver results effectively and efficiently.”

Solutions that Meet the Moment

GIFS has established infrastructure to address structural gaps in the innovation ecosystem, answer the scale-up challenge in ag tech, and complement the capabilities of other public- and private-sector organizations.

This focus is intentional, representing a strategic effort responding to urgent challenges and opportunities within the global agriculture and food sector.

In recent years, successive reports have described the global need for solutions that enhance productivity, resiliency, and sustainability — and Canada is no exception.

In 2023, Farm Credit Canada projected a $30 billion opportunity, over 10 years, to enhance lagging Canadian agricultural productivity. In 2024, RBC analyzed Canada’s falling place amongst global commodity exporters. Formerly the fifth largest trader, Canada now ranks seventh. Regaining that position could unlock a $44 billion opportunity for Canada.

Meanwhile, the Global Innovation Index 2024 provides a measurement for Canadian innovation. While Canada ranks in the Top 10 for innovation inputs — such as funding and investments in infrastructure — it placed 20th for outputs.

Closing these gaps provides a significant opportunity to advance discovery, promote economic growth, and enhance global food security.

“In Canada, our universities are outstanding. We have great inventive capability and capacity. As a country, however, we do not excel at innovation. Innovation happens when it’s market impacting,” said Webb.

“The combination of The FCC Breeding Acceleration Program, our Biomanufacturing capabilities, and Technical Services allow us to deliver market-impacting innovation for both our province’s and country’s growth plans — increasing value at the farmgate, enhancing value-added processing, and more.”

Innovation and Impact

At GIFS, we don’t just talk about innovation. We deliver it.

Take our Omics and Precision Analytics Laboratory (OPAL). Home to a complete suite of short- and long-read sequencing technologies, OPAL is one of many successful outcomes of the Plant Phenotyping and Imaging Research Centre (P2IRC) at the University of Saskatchewan.

The P2IRC program, which was managed by GIFS, was launched in 2015 with the support of a $37.2 million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund. The initiative, now complete, had goals to advance interdisciplinary research and training in phenomics, genomics, imaging, and data analysis while also developing revenue-generating commercial outputs.

Through P2IRC’s activities, GIFS established expertise and technologies to support a wide range of genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics activities — capacity that is now benefitting stakeholders through GIFS’ Technical Services.

Under GIFS’  leadership, these services have generated more than $4 million in commercial revenue since 2021— a growing tally that exceeds the initial goals of the P2IRC program.

GIFS’ Technical Services are also enhancing data security for Canada’s research and development community. With the significant capacity established across GIFS’ operations, fewer Canadian researchers and organizations have to send samples and data to vendors outside the country.

“At GIFS, our goal is to complement what we have, not only here in Saskatchewan but across Canada, and we see so much opportunity,” said Webb.

“When you visit our facility, you’ll see a comprehensive suite of cutting-edge technology platforms — each individually competitive with the best in the world. What makes us unique in Canada is that we’re the only institute to house all of them under one roof. It’s the combination of these platforms, our programs, and our unique model that enables us to deliver innovation that makes a real market impact.

This article originally appeared in GIFS’ 2024-25 Annual Report.