Located at the University of Alberta’s Agri-Food Discovery Place, the partnership will develop new companies focused on cellular agriculture research and innovation, and provide work-integrated learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students who will support this emerging industry, the university said in a news release.
With research at the University of Alberta and across the collaboration network, this centre of excellence national network will inform growing policy and regulations in the food regulatory arena and provide skilled personnel to fill emerging labour needs in the sector.
“This partnership with New Harvest Canada and its innovation partners will be pivotal in how our research and teaching addresses climate change, industry sustainability and food security issues,” said Heather Bruce, chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta.
“New Harvest Canada and CULT Food Science will join a nexus of startup companies at the U of A’s Agri-Food Discovery Place that is launching agriculture and food production into the 21st century.”
Isha Datar, executive director of New Harvest, said “cellular agriculture is at a pivotal stage and needs the proper infrastructure to allow co-creation of innovation to deliver on its promises.
“Canada, and Edmonton, Alberta, in particular, can provide the optimal environment to allow cross-disciplinary collaborations where cell ag can benefit from traditional agri-food disciplines and vice versa.
“This new partnership will leverage the University of Alberta’s legacy in bioprocess engineering to bring novel technologies and innovations to the Canadian agri-food sector,” she said.
Lejjy Gafour, chief executive officer for Cult Food Science, said “we are at the horizon of an explosion of new ideas and ventures that will accelerate the global cellular agriculture industry.
“We are excited to be able to accelerate the launch and development of new ventures and ideas from individual founders, to supporting classic enterprises who want to adopt cellular agriculture as part of their strategy with our support.”
