SIP Identifies Emerging Research Priorities

Sustainability issues like the environment and climate change and animal care are expected to be among the emerging research priorities during the next five-year federal provincial industry research partnership.

With swine cluster-3 nearing the conclusion of its five-year mandate, Swine Innovation Porc has been preparing for swine cluster-4 which will run for the next five years from 2023 to 2028.

Swine Innovation Porc General Manager Daniel Ramage notes, to help prepare for the upcoming cluster competition, a consultation was held across the pork sector last year to review and update research priorities to get ready for the next five-year framework.

Clip-Daniel Ramage-Swine Innovation Porc:

Swine Innovation Porc is actively working with stakeholders across Canada's research community to develop targeted new projects. The priorities for cluster-4 reflect the continuous evolution of our industry.Things like nutrition and animal health, those continue to be very important and key priorities along with things like buildings and equipment, management, pork quality and food safety. 

But we're also seeing the need to respond to growing and emerging priorities around things like animal care and sustainability issues like the environment and climate change. That's because there's this growing consumer and regulatory pressure in those areas so it really is becoming a focal point for research priorities. Looking head, building out some of the baseline metrics, for example, on things that can help support Canada's sustainability story, those are things that are going to be really important to help set our industry up for continued success.

Ramage notes the federal government will be funding projects targeting things like climate and the environment at a higher funding ratio so there is a strong incentive for additional research in this area.