Did you know Canada imports about 80 per cent of its fresh fruit and vegetables?
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada imported about $6.5 billion of fruit alone in 2020.
To help spark creative solutions and encourage new ideas, the Weston Family Foundation invests $33 million into the Homegrown Innovation Challenge, aiming to increase the sustainable supply of produce in Canada.
The $33 million Homegrown Innovation Challenge, delivered over six years, will identify teams and support the development of tools and technologies that enable Canadian farmers and producers to sustainably and competitively grow berries out of season.
The Homegrown Innovation Challenge initially launched in February 2022.
Since then, the Weston Family Foundation is pleased to announce that in August 2022, 15 teams have received Spark Awards.
Teams were each granted up to $50,000 of seed funding to support the development of their concept, build their team, and finesse their application for the next phase – the Shepherd Phase.
10 teams will each receive up to $1 million to develop proof-of-concept for their ideas in the Shepherd phase.
Applications for the Shepherd phase of the Challenge are being accepted from October 1 to December 20, 2022.
From there, four teams will be selected for the Scaling Phase, which these teams will each receive up to $5 million to build and demonstrate their systems on a farm-scale in Canada and provide a judging panel with evidence of its success.
Of the four final teams, one or two will be selected as the ultimate winner(s).
The final winner(s) will be announced in spring of 2028.