I would like to express my appreciation for the work of this committee. I concur with Ms. Trauttmansdorff that the colleges and institutes in Canada play a key role in support of applied research and innovation, and concurrently in the development and enhancement of the talent needed for our agriculture industry to compete globally.
Olds College has a 104-year-long history of delivering education and training in agriculture. We began as a learning institution and demonstration farm where technology and production practices were tried and exhibited for an industry that needed to become more efficient and productive. Today, a lot has changed, but the need for learning and applied research environments remains key to the success and competitiveness of our industry. Olds College continues to use its 2,000-acre campus and field-to-fork enterprise to support hands-on learning and applied research.
Through the proliferation of technology and big data, and the application of tools such as digital sensors, controls, artificial intelligence and machine learning in the agricultural sector, we believe that our post-secondary environment can be an aggregator of companies, research organizations and other post-secondary institutions for the development, application, integration and demonstration of these technologies. The effects of this collaborative approach will be seen through faster and more effective adoption by our industry and the development of world-class learning environments that deliver the talent needed to ensure our sector's global competitiveness.
A good example of this is found in the work of our Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production, which is focused on meeting the needs of the Canadian livestock industry by providing access to new technologies for increasing production efficiencies, industry sustainability and producer viability.
Funded through NSERC's college and community innovation program, Olds College has been able to work with other key organizations, such as the University of Alberta, where we recently completed a three-year project for improving feed efficiency in purebred Hereford cattle using genomic tools. This project also involved the Canadian Hereford Association, Livestock Gentec, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Cattleland Feedyards, and other industry partners. Nearly 1,200 Hereford bulls were phenotypically and genomically tested for feed efficiency in this project, a major undertaking that has built a unique capacity that will allow for the selection of feed-efficient cattle and world-class genetics that are marketable around the globe.
Olds College and our counterparts across the country are building innovation ecosystems that will advance industries and produce world-class talent. This is exemplified in another important initiative that was recently launched at our institution called the Olds College smart farm. In its first iteration of around 100 acres, we collaborated with 15 organizations from the agriculture and technology sector to install monitoring equipment, sensors, weather stations, Wi-Fi connectivity, data visualization and management capabilities. Our smart farm provides a venue where companies, entrepreneurs and producers can develop, demonstrate and integrate technology and practices.
The Olds College smart farm is already attracting a community of global partners and investors for this development, because we are also focusing on system-level issues. It will eventually expand to encompass the whole of the Olds College farm and will provide a unique, cutting-edge learning environment in Canada for post-secondary students and learners around the world to come to.
At Olds College, we know that our impact is greater when we work with others, and we are prepared to lead in aggregating communities around system-level issues and opportunities to enhance and scale our effects.
An example of this is demonstrated in how Olds College led an effort that brought together more than 100 organizations, including 17 post-secondary institutions from across Canada, and $80 million in committed industry investment in support of an agriculture supercluster focused on enhancing economically and environmentally sustainable agriculture and food production through the application and optimization of smart ag tools, technology and science.
While our supercluster bid was not successful, it was shortlisted to the final round, and our collective efforts have spawned other initiatives across the country, such as the recent launch of the Calgary-Olds smart agri-food corridor and the pan-prairie academic working group in collaboration with Protein Industries Canada and the Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative in Manitoba.
Mr. Chair, I believe that Olds College is an example of how colleges and institutes across Canada are developing and leading to support industry and grow talent for enhancing global competitiveness. The challenge that colleges and institutes have is not around demand and performance. Our own applied research activity is expected to double in the next seven years.
What we need—and this is our recommendation to this committee—is a reasonable level of stable funding for the development of our research environments, our engagement with partners and our administrative capacity. The demand is great. However, our capacity is stretched, and we can scale to meet our potential and bring these communities together only if we have what is required in our physical environments and our administration. This is a key need for the colleges and institutes in this country.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, in closing I want to convey our strong commitment to the work of this committee, the government, our industry, community, and post-secondary partners to leverage the full potential of our institutions to enhance the development and adoption of technology and science for the global competitiveness of Canada's agriculture sector.
I look forward to our discussion. We would be pleased to take your questions.
Thank you.