Call for interest to serve on the Protein Industries Canada Independent Review Committee

As one of Canada’s five superclusters, Protein Industries Canada is an industry-led value chain consortium of small- to large-sized enterprises, academic institutions and research organizations involved in food and food ingredient manufacturing, agriculture and food-related services, research and development, technology, economic development, finance and investment, and education and training.

Our Vision is “to position Canada globally as a leading source of high-quality plant protein and plant-based co-products, developed in a carbon neutral production environment, while substantially contributing to Canada’s economic growth and international trade balance.”

Our mission is “to mobilize Canada’s innovation and commercial cluster to collaborate in support of industry driven market priorities and needs.”

Protein Industries Canada is in the process of identifying members for its Independent Review Committee to help evaluate and select projects under the Innovation Supercluster Initiative funding program. Protein Industries Canada will support research and development across four strategic pillars:

• Create: plant breeding, genomics, and genetic research and application
• Grow: primary agriculture production with emphasis on application of digital technologies (for example, data generation and analysis, IoT or automation) for the improvement of primary production
• Make: value-added crop processing, process engineering, the development of new products and new processing technologies, including the application of digital technologies to support “Smart Processing”
• Sell: market evaluation, development and access, transportation, logistics, traceability systems and brandin

As part of our project evaluation process, we are looking for subject matter experts in each of the four pillars who can help guide Protein Industries Canada investments by:

• Evaluating Expressions of Interest and Full Applications for alignment to Protein Industries Canada goals, technical feasibility and return on investment
• Providing meaningful feedback on Expressions of Interest to strengthen the subsequent Full Applications
• Suggesting additional collaboration partners that could help strengthen proposals
• Evaluating how digital technologies could be employed to enhance proposals
• Recommending projects to receive funding

We expect to evaluate Expressions of Interest and Full Applications four times per year and the number of projects will vary over the life of the program. As a member of the Independent Review Committee you will receive an honorarium for your time. It is anticipated that meetings will be held via conference call.

To serve on the Independent Review Committee, you must meet the following criteria as defined in the Contribution Agreement. “Ultimate Recipients” are defined as companies that will receive funding support from Protein Industries Canada.

“Independent Member” means a member that does not directly benefit from the Recipient’s activities and has no material relationship with Ultimate Recipients that could, either directly or indirectly, in practice or appearance, impair that individual’s ability to act in the Recipient’s best interests. For the purposes of this definition, “material relationship” means any of the following relationships: (a) a director, officer or employee of an organization funded by the Innovation Superclusters Initiative or occupying any such position within the last three years that is receiving, or that has received at any time, payments from the Recipient for services; (b) a director, officer, employee, or partner of an organization doing business with the Recipient; (c) a current or former director, officer, employee, or partner of, or having been a partner, executive, officer or employee of an organization, that has performed audit services for the Recipient within the last three years; or (d) an immediate family member of a person in (a) through (c).

Would you like to help us position Canada as a recognized global leader in plant protein?

If you are interested in serving as a member of Protein Industries Canada’s Independent Review Committee, please send a resume to info@proteinsupercluster.ca ​by Friday, January 18, 2019.

If you have questions regarding the process, time commitment or anything else related to the Independent Review Committee, you can send an email to info@proteinsupercluster.caor call (306) 949-0049.