Alberta Bee News
February 2021
Introducing CAAIN, the Canadian Agri-Food Automation and Intelligence Network Eric Morin, Manager, Communications & Marketing, CAAIN A few years ago, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) launched its Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to provide “financial support to projects that will improve Canada's innovation performance while providing economic, innovation and public benefits to Canadians.” SIF is broken down into five streams, each of which is a funding category aligned with national economic priorities. Stream 4 was unveiled in 2018 “to advance industrial research, development and technology demonstration through collaboration between the private sector, researchers and non-profit organisations.” ISED issued two SIF Stream 4 calls for proposals, one focused on health, and a second targeting “automation and digital technologies in Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector.” Seeing this second category as an opportunity to make a real difference in the growing ag-tech world, an eight-member team1 submitted a SIF Stream 4 application in early 2019, proposing the creation of a not-for-profit entity to be called the Canadian AgriFood Automation and Intelligence Network Ltd., or “CAAIN,” as it has come to be called.
To ensure initiatives benefit Canada’s economy, each approved project team must include at least two separate small or medium enterprises (SMEs), which are defined as companies with no more than 499 employees. What’s more, groups that benefit from CAAIN support do not receive grants up front. Instead, they become eligible for reimbursement of a predetermined percentage of project expenses in accordance with an agreement that clearly stipulates what costs are, and are not, deemed eligible. This encourages participants to have some skin in the game, and it spurs commercialisation and broader industry involvement, which in turn leverages the Government of Canada’s investment to create de facto public-private partnerships. The twist is that the privatesector entity retains all the intellectual property and potential profit, thereby providing much needed economic stimulus to the country’s agri-food sector.
The application was approved, and CAAIN was launched formally in July 2020 with a $49.5M ISED award and a mission to support the creation of technological solutions for the most challenging problems facing Canada’s agri-food sector. Also given the green light was a submission from a group called The Canadian Food Innovators Network, or CFIN, whose purpose is “to enable Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing industry to jointly access federal innovation programs.” Between them, CAAIN and CFIN will use their SIF funding to support the entire agri-food value chain. While it exists to fund innovation in the Canadian ag-tech environment, CAAIN is unusual in various important ways. First, it does not respond to unsolicited requests for money. Rather, it issues calls for project proposals, or “competitions” as they are called, opening a window during which it invites groups to apply for support in any of three key research areas, namely automation and robotics, data-driven analytics and decision-making, and smart farms.
In addition to providing a non-traditional research funding model, CAAIN is unusual in another important way. Bee News caught up with Dr. Cornelia Kreplin, CAAIN’s interim CEO, so she could explain this interesting element. “At a certain point, we will have used up the pot of money ISED gave us to fund innovative projects,” she explains. “So, unless CAAIN generates significant revenue, there’s an expiration date on that aspect of our existence. “What does not have to end…check that” She stops abruptly, gathers her thoughts, and continues. “What must not end is the eventual CAAIN network itself. We’re creating an informal database of stakeholders. We’re also hard at work building a new highend website that will include a member portal. When the online presence is complete, we’ll reach out to all our contacts and invite them to join the formal CAAIN network and take advantage of a suite of benefits, not the least of which will be members’ access to one another. This will function like an ag-tech sector dating ap, bridging the divide between professionals and groups focused on agricultural and agri-food pursuits and those with high-tech 10
