Fostering Innovation Through Research
Food from Thought contributes to the development of new initiatives and enhancements to programs at the University of Guelph that provide first-rate research training and development to faculty, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students.
Food from Thought Innovation Grants
Food from Thought grants will enable researchers who are working on projects that align with this goal by providing funding and learning experiences to propel their discoveries forward. These grants will also benefit the entire agri-food industry by supporting the development of open, shared platforms and tools.
Learn more about Food from Though Innovation Grants
Skills for Research Impact Workshops
This workshop series is a collaboration between the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute (CESI) and the Research Innovation Office at the University of Guelph. Monthly workshops are offered to faculty, research staff, and graduate students interested in enhancing their research impact. Through nine hands-on sessions facilitated by impact experts, participants learn how to successfully plan, execute, and evaluate knowledge mobilization (or knowledge translation and transfer) activities. This series aims to improve research communications and engagement with non-academic audiences, including policy, industry, and community stakeholders. In all, 113 participants attended eight workshops offered in 2019-20 on topics including Planning for Research Impact, Stakeholder Engagement, Clear Language Writing, Design Principles, Website Design and Accessibility, Social Media, Event Planning, and Evaluation KTT.
Learn more about the Skills for Research Impact Workshops
Innovation Immersion Placements (2019 Pilot Program)
This program enables faculty, post-doctoral researchers, or graduate students to spend one to three months working with an innovative agri-food company in their area of interest. Participants acquire practical business and entrepreneurial skills/strategies that support applied research and commercially focused problem solving during the placement.
UNIV*6050 HQP Course Redevelopment
Food from Thought has created a new graduate-level training course offered to all students receiving funding through Food from Thought, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs HQP scholarship, or scholarship holders through the Arrell Food Institute. This eight-month course aims to expose students to a wide range of agri-food related challenges and mentor students in the “foundational skills” of project management, teamwork, plain language communication, and conflict resolution.
Each year students are placed into multidisciplinary teams and are assigned a project defined by a non-academic partner. Each group is given a small budget and tasked with developing a work plan and final deliverables. Students are assessed and graded on their project pitch, the best uses of social media, and media training. We are proud to offer this highly interdisciplinary course in partnership with colleagues from the Government of Ontario, the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, and the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph.