Welcome to YODL! In addition to daily original content, YODL helps CFIN Members find new partners, resources, and funding opportunities to grow their food business. Learn more about this growing community and become a CFIN Member (for free!) today.
Canada has an extensive range of research centres, food incubators, accelerators and labs supporting food and beverage innovation through the research they do and/or the services they offer. Each week throughout 2023, we’ll be highlighting an organization that’s supporting food innovation in Canada.
Mission: Advancing technology and developing skills to accelerate the growth of digital agriculture in the Prairies and across Canada.
Focus: EMILI works with industry organizations and academic institutions from across the technology sector to increase integration of intelligent technologies, empower people with digital skills, support scale-ups to grow in the Prairies, and accelerate Canada’s growth as a leader in digital agriculture.
Services: EMILI leads a variety of projects in partnership with industry and academics to provide the digital ag ecosystem with more skills, training and resources.
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Innovation Farms Powered by AgExpert provides innovators across industry and academia access to leading-edge equipment, technology, and production practices in order to develop viable solutions to the diverse agronomic and technological constraints and opportunities farmers face. EMILI does this by demonstrating the productivity and sustainability of commercialized technologies; testing and validating new technologies to bring them from pre-commercial to market; and sharing findings to increase understanding of and access to digital agriculture tools.
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The EMILI Data Initiative focuses on building capacity in Canada’s agrifood value chain through the use of intelligent technologies like AI and machine learning, providing an opportunity for optimization and greater productivity in industries across the ecosystem. Work is ongoing as far as meeting the growing need for enhanced technological skills in agriculture and recognizing that Canada must continue skill building from the ground up, and work to attract top talent globally.
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The Explore Project delivers programming to youth from Kindergarten through Grade 12, with a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Since the launch of the Explore Project, youth engagement has reached 58,000 students, including more than 11,000 Indigenous youth.
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EMILI established the Emergence Initiative in 2021 to help bridge the gap start-ups and emerging tech organizations experience when developing new digital agriculture technologies. This initiative provides vital support to increase the scale of ag-tech innovation in Manitoba and across the Prairies. Over the past two years, this initiative has funded more than $150,000 toward emerging technologies by Prairie innovators.
What you need to know: EMILI’s next Agriculture Enlightened Conference will take place on October 26, 2023. This annual conference fosters connection between academia and industry to further advance the agri-food industry in the Canadian Prairie provinces. Subscribe to EMILI’s quarterly newsletter to learn about ongoing projects and partnership opportunities.
Notable news: Digital agriculture is making strides, bringing innovative technology and data to farmers to make their operations run more efficiently. Hear what EMILI managing director Jacqueline Keena has to say about this and how Innovation Farms Powered by AgExpert is creating space for the integration and adoption of new technologies in Digital Farming: The future is now.
CFIN Members get exclusive access to funding opportunities, five Regional Innovation Directors, and YODL. Learn more about what it’s like to be a CFIN Member and how you can join our growing community of food professionals.
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#Prairies
#networking
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#innovation
#FoodInnovation
#technology
#farming