Research Programs

Research Priorities

Alberta Canola funds research according to
the following research priorities:

1. Find the best way to grow canola

  • Improve canola nutrient use efficiency
    • 4R nutrient management projects
  • Environmental sustainability
    • Enhance canola yield potential and stability under Alberta climatic conditions with genetic and agronomic solutions
    • Improve canola production intensity to reduce emissions
  • Ensure supply of high-quality canola and meet current and future end-use demands
  • Integrated cropping systems, including intercropping

2. Find solutions to pest management

  • Research pest biology & control methods
    • Insect pest control
    • Resistant weed management
    • Disease control and management
    • Pest monitoring and future forecasting
  • Germplasm development for canola varieties with pest resistance

3. Increase the demand for canola

  • Prioritizing projects for canola market development
  • Human health & nutrition
    • Canola meal for human consumption and fractionization
  • Animal health & nutrition
    • Canola meal end-use
  • Bio-industrial uses
    • Biofuel development/use
    • Increasing oil content in canola seed

2024-2025 Research Funding Targets:

Alberta Canola will be prioritizing funding research in the 2024-2025 funding year that fit within our funding targets. We aim to fund a variety of short-term, medium-term, and long-term research projects, focusing in the following areas ranked in order of importance (1 = most important):

1. Improve yield stability under environmental extremes (e.g. drought & heat tolerance)

2. Disease management and disease interactions (in order of importance, 1 = most important)

  • Clubroot
  • Blackleg
  • Sclerotinia
  • Root rot
  • Verticillium stripe

3. Resistant weed management

4. Flea beetle management

5. Optimize nutrient uptake efficiency

  • Nitrogen

6. Increasing canola oil content for value added processing

  • Biofuel feedstock

7. Canola meal utilization: animal feed or human consumption

8. Water management

  • Irrigation

Funding Programs

We fund canola research through multiple different funding streams.

Canola Agronomic Research Program (CARP)
Alberta Canola is one of three provincial canola grower organizations that fund this program administers by the Canola Council of Canada.
For more information, see the Canola Council of Canada Website.

Agricultural Funding Consortium (AFC)
Alberta Canola funds research alongside several other organizations through AFC, which prioritizes targeting food, agriculture, and agri-food research gaps to support growers in Western Canada. For more information, see the AFC Website.

On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF)
OFCAF is run by RDAR (Results Driven Agricultural Research). See OFCAF webpage here.

Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP)
This is a 5-year federal program, currently running from April 2023-March 2028. See the SCAP webpage here.

Canola 4R Advantage Program (C4RA)
This program is run by the Canola Council of Canada. Visit the Canola 4R program website for more information.

Mentorship Programs (unavailable for 2024/25)

Our Researcher Mentorship Program connects researchers with crop farmers, to provide researchers with an opportunity to develop their understanding of commercial barely, canola, pulse, and wheat production systems. This heightens the relevance of grower-funded research projects for on-farm adoption.

The Researcher Mentorship Program has included events in the past such as a Reverse Agronomy Update, in which researchers can attend to learn from a panel of farmer, One-on-One in which researchers are matched with a farmer in their area for hands-on learning, and field tours.