2024–2025 Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario annual report

About Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario

Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario (ARIO) is classified under the Agencies and Appointments Directive (AAD) as a Board Governed Operational Service Agency reporting to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness. ARIO was created in 1962 by the Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario Act (ARIO Act). To deliver on ARIO’s commitments, duties, responsibilities and direction the agency will concentrate its efforts in these 5 ways:

• Provide strategic advice to the minister on agri-food research and innovation.
• Implement the ARIO strategic plan 2023–2032 with the vision of enabling high impact and transformational research for Ontario’s agri-food sector, which includes the ARIO’s infrastructure strategy to modernize the province’s agri-food research and innovation infrastructure.
• Promote the Ontario agri-food research and innovation system.
• Provide oversight of open research programs and the 14 ARIO-owned research properties.
• Modernize the ARIO's governance, procedures and processes to strengthen the foundation of the ARIO as a modern, effective agency focused on research and innovation.

Vision

ARIO’s vision is to enable high impact and transformational research for Ontario’s agri-food sector.

Mission

ARIO is a trusted, authoritative, credible organization reporting to the minister on:

• research and infrastructure priorities, strategic relationships and programs
• optimizing and leveraging the research infrastructure owned by ARIO
• driving research into action, evaluating and communicating the value of research
• fostering a prosperous, sustainable and resilient agri-food sector

Strategic pillars

• Infrastructure: Ontario’s research and innovation infrastructure and assets are leveraged to maximize benefits for the agri-food sector.
• Advice: Provide bold, informed strategic advice to the minister on transformative, high-impact agri-food research and innovation.
• Strategic relationships: Establish strategic relationships that enhance the research ecosystem and align with the priorities and objectives of the ministry, the agency and sector.
• Communications: Communicate the value of Ontario’s agri-food research, including opportunities and success in research and innovation.

2024–2025: A year in review

A message from the chair, Nevin McDougall

I am pleased to share the agency’s 61^st annual report in a year that saw ARIO achieve key milestones in its transition to a new era of agri-food research and innovation.

This past year, ARIO made further progress on the agency’s strategic plan amidst rising global challenges facing our agri-food sector, and the country. Despite these pressures, ARIO made legislative history by seeing the proclamation of a modernized ARIO Act, one that has expanded its mandate and profile. In raising that profile, the agency underwent a name change, becoming Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario. Most important though, the new act will emphasize the importance of research and innovation to the future success of the agri-food value chain.

Looking ahead to the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the agency will focus on key priorities that support the 10-year strategic plan. The agency’s top priority entering 2025-2026 is ensuring ARIO secures sustainable investment for new research facilities, maintenance of existing infrastructure, equipment and technology upgrades, and for increasing funding for the research that takes place at the agency’s portfolio of research centres.

During this year’s meetings, ARIO’s board of directors provided leadership and strategic advice on policy, research priorities and projects which make up ARIO’s ambitious 10-year strategic plan. These included the evolution of ARIO’s asset management plan, the innovative breeding research program, and communications and branding strategy. The agency also continued its commitment to build, and strengthen Indigenization, equity, diversity and inclusion (IEDI) values, priorities, and learning. This past year, ARIO deepened our understanding of Indigenous-led research in the agri-food sector in Ontario.

On a personal note, and on behalf of the entire ARIO board, I want to express appreciation and thanks to Dr. Lorne Hepworth and Dr. Gord Surgeoner, incredible advocates and contributors to ARIO and the entire agri-food sector. For 2 terms, Lorne championed the agency and helped lead incredible accomplishments under his direction. I’m grateful to Lorne for his support and confidence as I’ve transitioned into the chair position at ARIO. Similarly, Gord Surgeoner’s retirement will be felt by the agency and the agri-food sector. Gord has been an advocate for research and innovation and for the ARIO agency for decades and we cannot thank him enough for these contributions.

I also want to extend my thanks to the entire board of directors who bring their incredible passion and extraordinary commitment to the agri-food sector through the work they do. They have been instrumental in supporting my transition from member to chair, and I know that agri-food is well served by these individuals who offer their time, efforts and expertise in the name of research and innovation.

I want to thank the minister, ministry and staff that have put their trust in me to lead ARIO as chair over the next 3 years. This is a pivotal time for the agency. We can be proud of what has been accomplished this past year and confident the agency is well positioned to support the Grow Ontario strategy and keep the agri-food sector innovative, competitive, and sustainable.

Sincerely,

Nevin McDougall

Chair, Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario

ARIO governance 2024–2025

Managing director, Gregory Wootton

The managing director is appointed by the Public Service Commission and has responsibilities related to the administration of ARIO’s business and affairs. The managing director is the assistant deputy minister of the Research and Corporate Services Division in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA).

Chair, Nevin McDougall

The chair, acting on behalf of ARIO’s board of directors, is accountable to the minister for the agency's performance in fulfilling its mandate, and for carrying out the roles and responsibilities assigned to the board of directors and chair by the ARIO Act, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) and applicable Treasury Board/Management Board of Cabinet government directives.

ARIO secretariat

ARIO’s secretariat is accountable to the managing director for fulfilling the operational and administrative requirements of the agency, and to the corporate compliance officer in supporting the ministry’s corporate reporting requirements of the agency. ARIO’s secretariat is comprised of OMAFA employees within the Research and Innovation Branch (RIB).

Comptroller, Sue Mihelchic

The comptroller is responsible to ARIO’s managing director. The comptroller is appointed by the Public Service Commission and is responsible for oversight of the financial affairs of the agency.

ARIO board of directors

ARIO’s board of directors can be comprised of up to 15 members and are appointed by the minister. The chair recommends candidates for appointment to ARIO to ensure a strong mix of skills, experience and perspectives. Members of the board are appointed for 3-year terms and may be reappointed.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) federal representation

Sérgio Paulo, director of research, development and technology at AAFC, serves to contribute a federal perspective on research activities across Canada at ARIO’s board meetings.

ARIO membership 2024–2025

There are currently 10 ARIO members that comprise the board of directors, including 1 chair and 1 vice-chair. ARIO’s board shall be composed of no less than 7 but no more than 15 members, serving in 3-year terms. Numerous members were reappointed for new terms beginning in 2024–2025. Other membership notes from 2024–2025 included:

• The appointment of new chair, Nevin McDougall, in January 2025, from a previous part-time board member role.
• The appointment of previous chair, Dr. Lorne Hepworth, to a 1-year term as a part-time board member.
• The retirement of part-time member, Dr. Gord Surgeoner, from the board when his term expired in March 2025.
• The new appointment of RJ Taylor to a 3-year term as a part-time board member in January 2025.

Annual letter of direction

In the fall of 2023, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the Honorable Lisa M. Thompson, issued the annual letter of direction to ARIO’s chair, outlining the government’s 2024–2025 priorities and expectations for all agencies including priorities specific to ARIO. The work completed by ARIO’s board to establish the goals, objectives and strategic direction ensured that ARIO continued to support research and innovation in the agri-food sector and drive economic growth, jobs and sustainability in Ontario.

As part of the Government of Ontario, agencies are expected to act in the best interests of Ontarians by being efficient, effective and providing value for money to taxpayers. Agencies are also required to adhere to government policies and directives. Per the requirements of the AAD, the letter sets out the expectations for ARIO for 2024–2025 as noted below. This included:

Competitiveness, sustainability and expenditure management

• Operating within the agency’s financial allocations.
• Identifying and pursuing opportunities for revenue generation, efficiencies and savings through innovative practices, and/or improved program sustainability.
• Complying with applicable direction related to accounting practices and supply chain centralization, including leveraging Supply Ontario’s bulk purchasing arrangement and working with Supply Ontario on strategic procurement initiatives.
• Complying with realty interim measures for agency office space.
• Leverage and meet benchmarked outcomes for compensation strategies and directives.

Transparency and accountability

• Abiding by applicable government directives and policies and ensuring transparency and accountability in reporting.
• Adhering to accounting standards and practices, and responding to audit findings, where applicable.
• Identifying appropriate skills, knowledge and experience needed to effectively support the board’s role in agency governance and accountability, and providing the minister with annual skills matrices to ensure boards have qualified appointees.
• Reviewing and updating agency KPIs annually to ensure efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

Risk management

• Developing and implementing an effective process for the identification, assessment and mitigation of agency risks, including cyber security, and any future emergency risks.

Diversity and inclusion

• Developing and encouraging diversity and inclusion initiatives by promoting an equitable, inclusive, accessible, anti-racist and diverse workplace.
• Adopting an inclusive engagement process to ensure all voices are heard to inform policies and decision-making.

Data collection, sharing and use

• Improving how the agency uses data in decision-making, information sharing and reporting, to inform outcome-based reporting and improve service delivery.
• Increasing data sharing with Supply Ontario when applicable regarding procurement spending and planning, contract arrangements and vendor relations to support data-driven decision-making.

Digital delivery and customer service

• Exploring and implementing digitization for online service delivery to ensure customer service standards are met.
• Using a variety of approaches or tools to ensure service delivery in all situations.

Priorities specific to ARIO

Property ownership and management

• Continue to provide value for money in efficiently owning and managing the Province of Ontario's agri-food research facilities and infrastructure.
• Continue to provide effective long-term oversight and management of ARIO’s physical assets through ARIO’s asset management policy and advancing the development of a comprehensive strategic asset management plan (SAMP) that will help to inform asset management plans for each property.
• Continue to provide advice on the long-term strategic plan and recommendations for the province’s agri-food research infrastructure and strategies to continue investments in research infrastructure within the current fiscal limitations.
• Engage with the agriculture and food industry, academia and innovation experts to evaluate future research infrastructure needs.
• Continue to pursue the revitalization of the province’s agri-food research infrastructure necessary to support innovative research and the long-term sustainability and growth of the agri-food sector by developing state of the art, integrated research infrastructure capacity supported by shared funding models and partnerships between industry and government.
• Increase the pursuit of strategic relationships in support of industry-government research and innovation priorities and modernizing research infrastructure.
• Continue to engage with the poultry industry boards and the University of Guelph to enable the planning, design, and construction of new poultry research facilities at Elora.

Strategic planning and advice

• Continue to provide strategic advice to the minister and the ministry on current research priorities and programs that contribute to prosperous, competitive and sustainable agricultural and food sectors and rural communities in Ontario.
• Continue to develop and implement ARIO’s vision and strategic plan to enable high impact transformational research and innovation.
• Continue to evaluate opportunities for research and innovation in agriculture and food, including but not limited to Northern agriculture, genomics, robotics and automation, technology development, and food processing.
• Continue to enable adoption of innovation by supporting the objectives of the Grow Ontario Strategy.
• Implement strategies that will improve the strategic management of ARIO's interests in intellectual property (IP) and commercialization, including the expansion of programming that supports plant and animal breeding research in Ontario.
• To continue to work in close coordination with OMAFA, industry and academia, to proactively identify and prepare for future trends that may impact the Ontario agri-food and agriproducts sectors and position ARIO facilities to meet the needs of emerging research priorities and deliver “Ontario made” solutions, technology and best practices to the sector.

ARIO Act modernization

• If passed, work on the implementation of the new legislative changes to the ARIO Act.
• Continue to evaluate non-legislative options to modernize the agency.

Enhance collaborations, global expertise and partnerships

• Increase collaboration with universities/colleges/research institutions, industry organizations including Indigenous peoples, communities and organizations to enhance strategic relationships and to leverage ARIO’s assets and expertise for the benefit of the province and agri-food sector.
• Directly engage with the sector for the purpose of expanding innovation demonstrations and technology deployment through strategic relationships at the ARIO research stations.
• Seek opportunities to leverage expertise and knowledge to address emerging issues and enable the sector to compete in the global market.

Communications

• Continue to develop and initiate a process to implement an optimized communications plan for the agency with a key goal to increase awareness both internally in OMAFA and externally.
• Actively promote the research activities and network of research stations within the agri-food sector.
• Work with the University of Guelph, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre and other partners to ensure that research is communicated to farmers in a format that is useable and accessible.
• Explore options to brand ARIO to increase the prominence and awareness of the agency within the agri-food sector.

Chair and managing director’s report

We are pleased to provide an update and highlights on the agency’s key pieces of work from the 2024–2025 fiscal year. ARIO’s objectives and strategic direction continue to fulfill the expectations as set out in the annual letter of direction and align with the government of Ontario’s priorities to enable agri-food research and innovation in Ontario.

Competitiveness, sustainability and expenditure management

Financial allocation

In 2024–2025, ARIO operated within the agency’s financial allocation with reasonable variance and utilized the following resources to meet the objectives, mandate and strategic direction:

• Ministry staff provided secretariat support to ARIO to effectively operate the agency. ARIO’s secretariat is comprised of OMAFA employees within OMAFA’s RIB.
• ARIO received annual transfer payment funding from OMAFA for the minor capital program ($4.5 million) and payment in lieu (PILs) of taxes ($1.0 million).
• ARIO received nominal revenue from leasing land and buildings within its infrastructure portfolio. This revenue was and is used to offset and cover the full cost of the rising cost of PILs.
• ARIO received IP revenues realized over time from research projects funded under the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance Agreement (the Alliance Agreement).
• ARIO also leveraged the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP) wherever possible to support infrastructure projects across the agency’s research portfolio.
• ARIO’s major capital funding concluded on March 31, 2023, and the agency continued to highlight the need for stable sources of funding to support the continued implementation of the infrastructure strategy. Without some form of continued major capital funding, core infrastructure projects planned within the strategy will be deferred indefinitely pending the provision of available funding, and end of life assets will be wound down.
• ARIO’s minor capital program (MCP) has not received a budget increase since its inception in 2008, and external factors such as increased inflation, construction and labour costs have reduced the buying power of that program’s budget.
• Despite the financial constraints pressuring the agency, numerous measures were taken to improve operational efficiencies and optimize existing research assets. This included measures such as working towards disposition of assets past their life cycle and use of the MCP for implementation of cost-recovery and green technologies such as solar to reduce operational costs.

ARIO’s financial outlook and plan

In 2024, ARIO began the development of ARIO’s funding strategy, captured under ARIO’s strategic plan 2023-2032 as a key activity, in response to challenges regarding limited funds to achieve the agency’s expanded mandate and direction. In recent years, the agency has faced ongoing internal funding and external fiscal challenges. The challenges pertain to provincial budget constraints including the ending of the major capital funding, freezing of the MCP funding, and ARIO being directed in recent years to return disposition revenues to the province that otherwise would have supported operations and compliance needs. These challenges served as the impetus for ARIO to initiate the development of a comprehensive funding strategy; a roadmap to financial sustainability and an opportunity to effectively deliver on ARIO’s expanding mandate.

In 2024–2025, this funding strategy evolved into a financial outlook and plan targeted to achieve the outcomes of the agency’s expanded mandate and strategic plan. The agency’s financial plan required increased and continued stable provincial funding and industry funding to achieve ARIO’s operational needs, strategic initiatives and capital commitments in support of ARIO’s recently expanded mandate.

ARIO’s financial plan has been and will continue to be updated to reflect changes to the agency’s financial outlook. Any changes to ARIO’s financial plan reflect ARIO’s strategic plan to help ensure alignment between ARIO’s operational/capital deliverables and the agency’s available funds.

First consideration of the framework for the agency’s financial outlook and plan was presented to ARIO’s board at the June 2024 member meeting. A unanimous endorsement was passed to brief the minister on the outlook and plan which took place in September 2024 and for ARIO to continue iterations of the plan and outlook as one of the agency’s highest priorities continuing over 2024–2025 and entering the next year, 2025–2026.

Transparency and accountability

Agencies and appointments directive (AAD) – existing and new requirements

In alignment with commitments outlined in the 2024 Budget, Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) completed and released a comprehensive review to strengthen oversight and governance of provincial agencies. As a result, key changes to the AAD took effect October 1, 2024, for all agencies including ARIO.

The revised AAD has helped to support ARIO in becoming more efficient, sustainable and accountable through:

• clarified roles to reflect fiduciary and strategic responsibilities
• strengthened alignment with government priorities
• streamlined and strengthened reporting processes including human resources and communications

Work started on implementing reporting and frameworks for the new AAD requirements, many of which were already being used or developed by the agency prior to October 2024, and further roll-out and refinement of processes will continue into 2025–2026.

Audited financial statements

Read ARIO’s audited financial statements for 2024–2025.

• ARIO’s audited financial statements are prepared in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles.
• ARIO’s managing director is responsible for the accuracy, integrity and objectivity of the information contained in the financial statements.
• ARIO’s financial statements have been prepared within reasonable limits of materiality with information available up to and including information provided by year end (annually).
• In discharging its responsibility for the integrity of the financial statements, management maintains financial and management control systems and practices designed to provide reasonable assurance that transactions are authorized, assets are safeguarded and proper records are maintained.
• ARIO’s financial statements are annually examined by an independent external auditor appointed by OMAFA, on behalf of ARIO. The external auditors' responsibility is to express an opinion on whether the financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The auditors' report outlines the scope of their examination and opinion.

Risk management

Quarterly risk reporting

In combination with standard requirements of the AAD, ARIO continued to comply with the rules and accountability framework set out by the AAD that sought to identify, assess and mitigate the agency’s risks, most notably through the completion of ARIO’s quarterly provincial agency risk reports. Some of the high-level risks to the agency were directly tied to the financial outlook and plan, and included:

• While funding for research programming and infrastructure are distinct, ARIO’s ability to implement its infrastructure strategy—critical for renewing core research platforms that support Ontario’s agri-food sector—is at high risk due to significant budget constraints, including a $20 million capital reduction over 5 years starting in 2019–2020, which has severely limited progress on approved infrastructure commitments.
• ARIO experiences the erosion of buying power related to capital build projects through rising inflation for materials and labour costs. This inflationary pressure continues to erode capital budgets as the economy fluctuates, and higher material costs are expected to continue as the construction sector begins to ramp up in the province.
• The ability to maintain financial commitments for the multi-year nature of capital infrastructure construction projects being greatly impacted by changes in government priorities and changes in government funding, neither of which could be predicted with complete confidence.
• Without restored levels of investment in the coming years, Ontario’s agri-food research system risks falling into obsolescence, which may lead to the possible loss of research capacity in specific agri-food sub-sectors from Ontario. This would likely impact the province’s ability to attract leading researchers to conduct their work, develop or advance research, technologies and other forms of IP for the sector.

ARIO continued to execute on key strategies throughout 2024–2025 to effectively attempt to mitigate as many priority risks as possible, most notably, utilizing the recent development of ARIO’s financial outlook and plan to begin prescribing solutions for long term viability for the agency to meet its mandate.

ARIO’s cybersecurity continuing education

With the increasing threat presented to the sector, ARIO continued to gain insights and education into mitigation efforts designed to thwart cyber-attacks aimed directly at agricultural operations. ARIO had representation and participated at an event held partly at ARIO’s Ontario Dairy Research Centre in Elora. The University of Guelph, through its Research Innovation Office, hosted a networking and information event titled "The Future of Cybersecurity in Agriculture".

The event aimed to connect thought leaders and innovators to discuss cybersecurity challenges and opportunities within the agricultural sector. Keynote speaker, Dr. Ali Dehghantanha from the University of Guelph’s School of Computer Science, addressed these issues. Additionally, a panel discussion featuring experts from various organizations, including OMAFA, focused on cybersecurity capacity in Canadian agriculture. The Ontario Dairy Research Centre was a critical piece to the event along with the work being done by Dr. Dehghantanha and his team.

ARIO’s secretariat attended a follow-up cybersecurity event later in 2024–2025, which held equal relevance for the agency. The event was an in-person session held at the Ontario Dairy Research Centre where Dr. Dehghantanha and his team presented their findings from their year-long Alliance Agreement-funded project that focused on enhancing cybersecurity at Ontario's Agri-Food Research Centres. The event was designed to share project outcomes, update on the Research Centre Business Continuity Plan, and pilot a tabletop exercise that was aimed to be rolled out to the broader agri-food community in October 2025.

Diversity and inclusion

ARIO’s commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and Indigenous reconciliation

ARIO remained committed to continuous improvement on strengthening IEDI within ARIO by improving access to programs and developing supports that enable research and infrastructure within the agri-food sector. ARIO continued to engage with Indigenous Peoples, Communities and Organizations to strengthen meaningful relationships. In 2024–2025, ARIO worked to build, strengthen and advance IEDI values and priorities within the agency.

ARIO continued its support of the implementation of the Alliance Agreement’s IEDI action plans. The action plans cover the breadth of the Alliance Agreement’s programming, including the incorporation of IEDI values in the management and operations of ARIO’s research infrastructure network. Implementation of IEDI action plans is on-going. Each program in the Alliance Agreement had developed an IEDI action plan to support the further strengthening of IEDI principles and considerations in the agreement.

Implementation of the various IEDI activities have been occurring over the term of the Alliance Agreement. Program-level highlights of IEDI work to date and/or planned for continuation into 2025–2026, include:

Program for research and innovation

• Assessing the IEDI training provided to committee members on research panels and refining the training, as needed, to support their evaluation of IEDI considerations in research proposals.
• Completing the review of the graduate student stipends and their consideration of IEDI principles (such as barrier-free access to programs and services, align with “living wage” concept/principles).
• Conducting an audit of the program for research and innovation to identify challenges and opportunities to strengthen and reinforce inclusive behaviors and accessible processes/materials.

Property management program (PMP)

• Carrying out IEDI training for staff.
• Implementing land acknowledgements for each of the ARIO properties (for example at meetings and gatherings, signage at facility entrances).

Indigenous engaged research and ARIO

ARIO continued the commitment made to advance the agency’s knowledge and capacity on government-Indigenous relations and IEDI values through learning and discussion sessions at ARIO member meetings. These learning sessions (such as presentations, external speaker invitations and resource sharing) were conducted at all ARIO member meetings in 2024–2025.

This included a focused and expanded presentation at the final meeting of 2024–2025 illustrating the Indigenous led research that is occurring in Ontario, and how ARIO is and could continue to support this work. Further ongoing support for this awareness and ongoing commitment will continue at future meetings and be incorporated into regular standard updates to the board.

Data collection, sharing and use

ARIO’s strategic measures and KPIs

The establishment of key performance indicators (KPIs) for ARIO’s strategic plan were created in previous years and further examined in 2024–2025. The KPIs have evolved based on resource allocations, resource requirements (staffing or fiscal), and/or emerging direction and initiatives and have and will continue to be instituted in a phased approach.

The KPIs consider external and internal environmental factors in helping to keep the agency agile to respond to new, evolving factors. ARIO’s KPIs have and will continue to enable the agency to assess the state of ongoing initiatives such as:

• ARIO’s financial outlook and plan
• the further development of the SAMP
• the continued work on ARIO’s infrastructure upgrades and improvements
• the continued work on ARIO’s major capital builds (Ontario Poultry Research and Innovation Centre, Ontario Feed Innovation Centre)
• strengthening collaborations and increasing strategic relationships

Alliance agreement PMP and KPIs

ARIO’s properties are used as a platform for conducting research programming to address the ministry’s mandate. The University of Guelph continues to help ARIO fully realize the potential of most properties owned by the agency with the University of Guelph’s unique expertise to manage and maintain the properties and research facilities and promote research and innovation. To ensure the ongoing effectiveness and efficiency of the property management program, the Alliance Agreement captures ARIO property use and capacity by an annual utilization rate for 13 out of the 14 ARIO properties.

The utilization rate is calculated by adding research utilization to the research preparation requirements and dividing the total by the capacity of the research centre. The research preparation requirement accounts for the need for crop rotation, replacement animals or cycle time in space-based animal facilities. The University of Guelph continued to work with ARIO, researchers and other stakeholders to find opportunities to increase utilization, where capacity exists.

Digital delivery and customer service

Cloud-based accounting and payment platforms

ARIO’s previous migration to an online cloud-based accounting software continued to realize a great number of efficiencies, continued to mitigate risk and provided a further heightened level of financial oversight to the agency’s affairs. Online banking and financial cloud-based accounting platforms have also allowed the yearly financial auditing and reporting to become more efficient each year by coordinating with the external auditor and collaborating through these online digital platforms.

As in recent years, in 2024–2025, ARIO continued to rely more heavily on the Transfer Payment Ontario (TPON) system for managing payees, payments and reporting. TPON also allowed for continued synchronization with the research management system (RMS) and allowed for efficiencies through the sourcing of required information from ongoing research programs being funded which allowed for timely transfer payments to be administered.

ARIO’s SharePoint site – secure and consistent digital delivery

Further to the digital delivery of ARIO’s meetings, a move towards restructuring the digital communication between ARIO and their secretariat began in 2024–2025 and will be expanded in functionality as it is continually rolled out. An online members’ SharePoint-based portal was developed and deployed in 2024–2025 which is maintained and updated by the secretariat. This is where key materials were uploaded and housed digitally and securely. All members can access the portal at their convenience to retrieve materials, reference historical materials easily and communicate with secretariat.

Centralized agency e-mail address

Along with the other digital delivery, service and communications activities, the agency created a dedicated e-mail address specifically for the agency (ARIO@ontario.ca), which will assist the board in promoting communication for the agency while conducting business on behalf of the agency. Monitoring of the shared inbox will be tasked to several members of ARIO’s secretariat to allow for timely responses to any communications set to a service standard, which is currently in development and will be rolled out in early 2025–2026.

Property ownership and management

ARIO property management and infrastructure - overview

ARIO continued to own and provide managerial oversight of 14 agri-food research properties, comprised of over 200 buildings and approximately 5,600 acres, helping to ensure effective and efficient management of the research infrastructure portfolio. ARIO’s agri-food research infrastructure is vital to enabling the adoption of new technologies and processes that strengthen the sector and enhance competitiveness and sustainability.

Modernized infrastructure enables scientific excellence, knowledge dissemination and industry adoption, all of which have been necessary to the economic growth of the agri-food and agri-products sector for the province.

Stable funding for research infrastructure is essential to enabling research and innovation. The University of Guelph and the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (VRIC), in addition to having provided program delivery, maintain and operate ARIO-owned research centres, provide property management services and help modernize infrastructure at ARIO’s research centres to address research needs under agreements with OMAFA and ARIO. Additionally, University of Guelph and VRIC continued to provide oversight and lead implementation of the MCP projects across all ARIO’s properties.

Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (VRIC)

ARIO-owned Vineland Research Station continues to be managed by VRIC, an independent, not-for-profit, horticultural research and innovation organization established in 2007. As of April 1, 2023, VRIC has direct agreements between OMAFA and ARIO for research programming, and the management and modernization of infrastructure and assets.

VRIC continues to be led by an independent board comprised of leading industry representatives. VRIC’s vision is to “be recognized as Canada’s leader in horticulture research and innovation.” Their resulting value proposition to Canada and the horticultural sector continued to strengthen Canadian companies by making them globally competitive through the application of Vineland supported innovation.

ARIO asset management

With an approved asset management policy in place ARIO has shifted focus to developing a SAMP. The SAMP will help provide the framework for developing individual asset management plans for each property. Asset management is an efficient process to guide the planning, acquisition, operations and maintenance, renewal, and disposition of assets. ARIO has a large, complex and diverse range of infrastructure assets on which is relied upon to deliver essential research for the agriculture, food and agribusiness sectors.

The application of asset management principles and practices is intended to ensure a coordinated, consistent, effective and sustainable asset management approach across this diverse set of assets. Effective asset management requires an overarching framework to establish and guide this practice so that it becomes central to strategic, financial and operational decision-making at all levels. This SAMP framework along with ARIO’s asset management policy will provide the basis for individual asset management plans for each research centre to provide a systematic, repeatable process that will feed into the future infrastructure strategy needs. This approach aligns with broader government policy for managing provincial assets.

This approach will help enable informed decisions on the maintenance, retrofitting and replacement of core research assets now and in the future.

Major capital – Ontario Feed Innovation Centre, Elora

Discussions and planning for a proposed new micro-scale research feed mill to replace the current aging facility at Arkell which is well past its planned lifecycle and prohibitive to retrofit, continued into 2024–2025 from the previous year. A new research feed mill will support advanced nutritional research trials for both the swine research herd and poultry research flock with applications extending to other species and aquaculture as needed.

In November 2024, the project was approved for $15.5 million for the design and construction of a new micro-scale research feed mill at the Elora Research Station. Advanced planning to design the new research mill commenced in February 2025. The target completion date of the new micro-scale research feed mill is December 2027.

Major capital – Ontario Poultry Research and Innovation Centre, Elora

Since 2021, ARIO has worked towards the realization of a new poultry research centre in Elora. An MOU between the poultry industry boards and the University of Guelph was officially signed in April 2023 and announced by the province on April 24, 2023, enabling the planning, design, and construction of new poultry research facilities at Elora.

A request for proposal for design services was issued and closed in late 2023–2024. The design firm of Baird Sampson Neuert (BSN) Architects was selected as the winning firm in early 2024–2025. BSN had a proven track record of successfully undertaking a design phase from planning through to project blueprints required to inform the construction tender process. BSN has previously carried out successful designs for other ARIO research facilities such as the Ontario Swine Research Centre and the Ontario Dairy Research Centre.

The project entered the advanced design phase in June 2024. The design team, which is led by the University of Guelph, undertook scoping exercises with the four feather boards, University of Guelph’s research community, OMAFA specialists and ARIO to understand the research platform needs to support the sector.

The first phase of design for the design sub-committee to tackle was facility programming (what research platforms would be required to support research programming). Intensive meetings with the 4 feather boards and University of Guelph poultry researchers occurred, leading to a foundational document for research platform and programming needs. This functional document was used to inform the early design schematics that BSN prepared for the facilities.

ARIO continues to work on determining a path forward with the poultry industry and University of Guelph with consideration of the financing and scoping for the project.

MCP highlights

ARIO’s MCP is an ongoing, multi-year funding program that allocates funds across the entire ARIO property portfolio to support significant investments in addressing maintenance, upgrades, program related systems, equipment and building/site infrastructure. The MCP is in line with ARIO’s broader infrastructure strategy to continue the development and renewal of ARIO’s core research infrastructure, and to support the move away from aging infrastructure. The MCP funding continues to support both new and existing infrastructure assets across all ARIO owned properties.

Criteria for determining MCP projects on an annual basis is guided by priority areas such as human health and safety, animal health and welfare, code compliance, building integrity, life cycle replacement, efficiency and conservation and program capacity (maintain or improve) that affect building and program operations across the network of ARIO properties.

Annually, minor capital plans are submitted to ARIO by the University of Guelph and VRIC at the beginning of each fiscal year, outlining the list of priority projects for each property. These projects can be completed throughout the fiscal year or can cover multiple fiscal years depending on the size and scope of the project. The program is funded through an annual TPA between OMAFA and ARIO.

ARIO continued work with both University of Guelph and VRIC on approximately 90 minor capital projects over the fiscal year. The 2025–2026 ARIO MCP submission package was drafted for review and approval. The ongoing and/or existing project highlights from 2024–2025’s MCP include:

General Animal Facility redevelopment: Ponsonby

This multi-year project, which began in January 2023, will address end of life cycle building systems and structures. Upgrades will include expansion of alternative and flexible housing space and construction of environmental monitoring chambers for livestock to accommodate a wider range of projects in the building. Dairy-beef calf research area renovation phase of the redevelopment was effectively completed early spring 2025. The design process for the new environmental chambers is ongoing. These upgrades will improve energy efficiency and support innovative research. Total project cost will be approximately $4 million over 6 years.

Solar energy at the Elora Research Centres

A more cost effective, sustainable and renewable utility supply is required to manage the increasing station operating costs and to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the station. Roofs of new facilities are built to ensure they are structurally ready to receive solar generation.

Design and installation of solar arrays at the Ontario Swine and Dairy Research Centres in Elora are underway to include 170,000 square feet of solar array. Phase 2 will encompass the Ontario Beef Research Centre and Feed Innovation Centre also at Elora.

The contractor for the design-build of the solar array installation was procured in early 2024, and designs approved by Hydro One in early 2025. Anticipated completion date for phase 1 is fall 2025. Total project cost over the 2 phases will be approximately $2 million over 5 years.

Vineland building condition analysis

VRIC's 2024–2025 minor capital plan included the continuation of building condition reports and analyses. These will help inform planning, funding and decision making for ARIO-owned assets at the Vineland Research Station. This report will help inform the development of an asset management plan for this property. This project continued to support the agency’s SAMP.

The building condition report was shared with ARIO’s secretariat in March 2024. Total project cost was approximately $125,000 in the 2024–2025 fiscal year.

Vineland freshwater irrigation improvements

Pumphouse water is drawn from Lake Ontario to support farm and grounds irrigation. The equipment that accomplishes this is well beyond its expected lifecycle. The goal of the project is to improve the function of the pumphouse and reduce the reliance on municipal water, which is costly.

Phase 1 of the project, which included mapping and inspection of the whole system to determine replacements and repairs, was completed by ASI Marine in September 2024. Line markers in the lake have been added and pumphouse improvements are ongoing.

Phase 2 of the project, which will focus on filtration systems for lake water and irrigation improvements, will begin in 2025–2026. The total cost of the project was approximately $50,000 in 2024–2025, and a total of approximately $200,000 over 4 years.

Priority research projects being delivered at ARIO centres in 2024–2025

Tier 1 research priorities are aligned with OMAFA’s objectives, the University of Guelph’s research strategy, and the Alliance Agreement as a whole. Projects of this sort occurred across ARIO’s infrastructure portfolio in 2024–2025 and were aligned with 3 main tenets:

• protection and risk resilience
• environmental stewardship
• productivity and growth

Key examples of this innovative work included research projects focused on:

• protection, soil health, and environmental protection improvements through projects such as pasture management to increase soil carbon storage, exploration of new technologies to optimize fertilizer practices for vegetables production and investigating management practices for emerging pests and their impact on hops crop yield and quality
• animal health, welfare and outcome improvements through projects such as investigating the biology and immunity of sheep to gastrointestinal nematodes, or examination of dietary supplementation of prebiotics and organics among rainbow trout subject to different temperatures to look to improve growth performance, gut health, immunity and genetics
• resilience, risk mitigation, and sustainable practice improvements through projects such as micronutrient tissue testing in Ontario soybeans, the creation of a legacy database nutrient research in corn and soybeans, abiotic stress mitigation in horticultural crops, and looking to expand winter canola acreage the province using plant growth regulators
• competitive production systems, innovative product development improvements through projects such as dietary supplementation to improve performance, carcass yield and meat quality of beef, and working to develop commercial scale agronomic practices and adding to the value chain for sesame seeds

Strategic planning and advice

ARIO’s strategic plan 2023–2032: overview

Through 2024–2025, ARIO focused on the continued implementation of activities under the strategic plan 2023-2032. ARIO’s strategic plan aligns with the Alliance Agreement and Grow Ontario’s innovation and technology goals for a secure, safe and resilient supply chain, and maintaining Ontario’s competitive advantage in today’s modern agri-food innovation and research environment, with the recent through the ongoing work being done to modernize the ARIO Act.

ARIO’s strategic plan aligns with the agreement and Grow Ontario’s innovation and technology goals for a secure, safe and resilient supply chain, and maintaining Ontario’s competitive advantage in today’s modern agri-food innovation and research environment through the ongoing work being done to modernize the ARIO Act.

ARIO’s strategic plan long-term objectives remain focused on the main pillars of:

• infrastructure
• advice
• strategic relationships
• communications

Advice to the minister

ARIO remained committed to providing the best strategic advice to the minister and the ministry on agricultural research directions that are in line with government priorities and contribute to the prosperous, competitive, sustainable and resilient agri-food sectors in Ontario.

In 2024–2025, the agency continued making significant progress in advancing its work on developing programs, priorities, plans and legislative changes to enable the agency to continue to provide bold and informed strategic advice to the minister. Of significant focus and priority in 2024–2025 was ARIO’s advice to the minister regarding funding needs of the agency to be able to achieve its expanded mandate and maintain its infrastructure for the competitiveness and sustainability of Ontario’s agri-food sector.

Research priority setting

ARIO provides advice to the minister on strategic direction for research priority setting purposes, including emerging research issues and opportunities to drive the development of Ontario as a globally competitive agri-food sector. OMAFA’s research agenda informs a range of ministry programming that spans across the research and innovation continuum. This is a long-term strategy that fosters and creates space for innovation and research to occur. Research priority areas and the number of proposals awarded breaks down as follows for 2024–2025:

ARIO innovative breeding research program (IBRP)

The Alliance Agreement and ARIO have a long history of supporting breeding research to advance the agri-food sectors. ARIO’s IBRP, first launched in January 2024, aims to strengthen Ontario’s agri-food sector and agri-food research capacity by creating new tailored plant varieties and livestock, apiculture or aquaculture breeds for Ontario’s domestic food supply and export markets. The program also seeks to support economic development through potential new IP.

ARIO receives a proportionate share (one third) of IP revenues arising from research investments through the Alliance Agreement, with the remaining funds retained by the University of Guelph. The program is funded using ARIO’s share of revenues from licensed IP enabled through the Alliance Agreement. The inaugural intake committed to fund $1.28 million towards 7 projects led by University of Guelph researchers.

The second intake of the IBRP was opened to the University of Guelph in December 2024 and closed in February 2025. A total of 5 proposals were received for funding consideration which then entered the evaluation process on what projects the agency would look to fund. These decisions were anticipated in early fiscal 2025–2026.

Work continued on the development of a standardized revenue sharing policy. This would apply to all program recipients as ARIO prepares to open the program beyond the University of Guelph. Development of the new program template within the RMS also continued to support the IBRP.

ARIO Act modernization

Proclamation of new ARIO Act – July 1, 2024

As a key commitment in the province’s Grow Ontario Strategy, ARIO modernized the legislation in 2024 that gives the agency its rights, powers and responsibilities. ARIO’s legislation – the Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario Act – was modernized by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Amendment Act, 2024, which passed unanimously through the legislature and was proclaimed on July 1, 2024.

Overall, the new Act allows ARIO to:

• benefit from updated language to reflect the current research environment of Ontario’s agri-food sector
• better align with ministry and government initiatives related to innovation such as OMAFA’s Grow Ontario strategy
• play a key role in enabling the Ontario government to achieve the objectives set out in this strategy

With the modernization of the name and mandate of ARIO, work is now underway to strengthen awareness of ARIO within Ontario’s agri-food sector.

Updates to the memorandum of understanding between OMAFA and ARIO

The MOU is an administrative agreement between a chair of an agency and the minister accountable for that agency. MOUs include the accountability framework and roles and responsibilities of key parties. Since the proclamation of the new Act in July 2024, OMAFA and ARIO began to amend the previous MOU to draft a new one to align with the new legislation and to reflect the agency’s enhanced operational structure. In late 2024–2025, the agency’s draft MOU was approved on June 24, 2025.

ARIO bylaw development – finance and governance

The modernized ARIO Act included specific details to a governance bylaw and a financial bylaw for the agency. These changes to aspects of the governance structure of the agency allow for effective corporate oversight and effective decision-making. These changes pair well with the added reporting requirements from the recently updated AAD, as well as being timely in coinciding with a timed mandate review.

Specifically, the details of the agency’s bylaws which began development in 2024–2025, include:

• the requirement to adopt a financial bylaw: as noted in the new ARIO Act, there is now an agency requirement to have a financial bylaw with respect to borrowing, temporary investing or managing financial risks
• the best practice to develop and adopt a governance bylaw: the allowance for the board of directors to make additional bylaws governing the management of the agency’s affairs, as they see fit, and with the minister’s review and approval

In 2024–2025, both governance and financial bylaw drafts were being finalized and brought forth for approval and anticipated adoption in the upcoming 2025–2026 year.

Enhance collaborations, global expertise and partnerships

2023-2028 Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance Agreement

The Alliance Agreement is a tripartite agreement between OMAFA, ARIO and the University of Guelph to advance research and innovation that contributes to the success of the province’s agri-food sector and promotes rural economic development. ARIO's network of agri-food research and innovation platforms across the province plays a key role to enable delivery on the Alliance Agreement’s objectives and outcomes. Under the Alliance Agreement, ARIO-owned research centres are managed and operated by the University of Guelph to bring farm-tested innovations for a secure, sustainable and resilient agri-food sector for the province of Ontario.

In 2022–2023, the OMAFA and the University of Guelph successfully negotiated a new 5-year Alliance Agreement that builds on the success of the previous Alliance Agreements and continues to strengthen the long-standing and unique relationship that has supported the agri-food sector for over 25 years. The 2023–2028 Alliance Agreement is a $343 million dollar investment over 5 years to support agri-food research and innovation, veterinary education, laboratory services, ARIO research station management and support the development of a highly skilled workforce that will lead to more economic growth opportunities for our sector. Next year, 2025–2026, this Alliance Agreement enters its third year.

2023-2028 Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (VRIC) Sustainable CAP delivery agreement

As of April 1, 2023, ARIO’s Vineland Research Station has been removed from the Alliance Agreement and managed directly through an agreement between ARIO and VRIC and making the Vineland Research Station the only property in ARIO’s portfolio managed outside of the Alliance Agreement.

ARIO secured $12 million in funding over 5 years through Sustainable CAP to support research infrastructure activities at Vineland Research Station. ARIO provides this funding to VRIC to undertake capital improvement planning activities, asset management and property management of the site on behalf of ARIO. Fiscal year 2024–2025 was year 2 of the 5-year agreement between ARIO and VRIC with both parties continuing to collaborate on implementing the agreement through the new structure of Sustainable CAP as Vineland Research Station has been transitioned outside the Alliance Agreement.

2023–2028 5-year transfer payment agreement (TPA) with Lakehead University

In April 2023, ARIO entered into a 5-year TPA with Lakehead University. The $1.65 million investment over 5 years from the province and ARIO, is funded through Sustainable CAP. The funding is for research programming, knowledge transfer and promotion, and research operations management to support science research and innovation activities at Lakehead University Agricultural Research Station (LUARS).

The research at LUARS is to focus on areas such as best management practices for Northern Ontario agriculture, soil health, northern environmental sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and the circular economy, and research and knowledge co-developed with Indigenous researchers and communities. Some of the 2024–2025 highlights included:

Agricultural research capacity development program

4 research projects were initiated in 2024–2025 to support research projects ranging from 1–3 years in priority areas including greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, farm viability, soil health and agri-business.

These projects included work on:

• transitioning towards sustainable crop production using robotics that use remote sensors to deliver reliable, real-time digital information (Dr. Muditha Heenkenda’s project titled “digital agriculture: non-destructive phenotyping and disease symptom monitoring using remote sensing”)
• focusing on developing technology to optimize the use of fertilizers by monitoring, detecting, and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture fields in real-time (Dr. Gautum Das’ project titled “photonic device for the detection and quantification of greenhouse gases and ammonia emitted from fertilized agriculture fields and combating climate change”)
• breeding landraces at LUARS, on regional farms and in communities across northwestern Ontario, with several partners, including First Nations Communities, with the goal to increase the availability and building the capacity of regionally adapted landrace seeds in northwestern Ontario (Dr. Charles Levkoe’s project titled “breeding diversity, community, and health: mobilizing landrace seeding breeding in northwestern Ontario”)
• exploring the effects of land conversion on soil health, soil organic carbon stores and the introduction of clubroot with the goal converting land to agricultural use and thus contributing to Northern Ontario economic growth by increasing the amount of land farmer in the region (Dr. Amanda Diochon’s project titled, “growing pains: the effect of land conversion on soil health, soil organic carbon stores, and clubroot spread in Northern Ontario”)

Research, extension and outreach activities for the agri-food sector in Northern Ontario

LUARS has made a significant impact for the betterment of the agricultural industry through crop diversification and adoption of beneficial nutrient management practices. Through research and knowledge extension activities, area farmers continue to diversify their cropping systems, adding new crops and varieties. Performance measures to date (highlights):

• 258 participants have attended LUARS’ educational/and or training workshops, showcasing research results to farmers at local events.
• 67 tours, farm consultations, meetings, events, education and training workshops were held.
• 23 BMPs, varieties or other research outputs have been adopted by farmers/agricultural operations in the north.

Strategic relationships: framework

In line with the Grow Ontario strategy and the annual letter of direction, ARIO seeks new strategic collaborations with sector organizations, research institutions and industry organizations. Currently, ARIO’s secretariat is in a passive phase in terms of securing new relationships and reviewing unsolicited proposals. Shifting to a more active state will be possible once appropriate resources, funding and governance are established to do so.

The initial ARIO strategic relationships evaluation framework (SREF) was developed and implemented to evaluate the feasibility and risk of unsolicited proposals with a current focus of enhancements to research infrastructure. In 2024–2025, ARIO’s secretariat continued to advance the analysis and work on this framework. ARIO’s secretariat identified the likely conditions to be met for the agency to be more proactive in pursuing new strategic relationships. These conditions could potentially include policies, governance structures, processes, financial and human resource requirements, operations, strategic considerations and any other elements that may constitute the structure that allows new collaborations to be fulfilled.

As part of ARIO’s strategic plan 2023–2032, leading up to 2024–2025, ARIO’s board had endorsed KPIs that would enable assessment of such strategic relationships:

• enhancing research infrastructure and platforms
• working with universities, colleges and research institutions
• expanding innovation demonstration and technology deployment
• working with Indigenous-led organizations with a focus on supporting Indigenous knowledge and research

In 2024–2025, the SREF continued to be refined and matured as more proposals were evaluated. ARIO’s secretariat continued using the SREF and the established process of bringing potentially viable proposals to ARIO’s board as they emerged.

Communications

Overview

Due to the expanded mandate in the modernized ARIO Act and due to the minister’s letter of direction, in 2024–2025, ARIO continued to advance ARIO’s communication and branding strategy and worked to increase the prominence of the agency and promote the agency’s efforts to enable modern, relevant agri-food research and innovation for the agri-food value chain.

Refreshed and permanent centre signage

Building on the project started in previous years, in 2024–2025 ARIO worked with the University of Guelph and VRIC to complete the manufacturing and installation of new permanent signage at each of the 13 properties (Ridgetown property was excluded at this time).

This supported raising the profile of the agency and championed ARIO’s infrastructure investments in research and innovation across the province. This communications initiative spotlighted the province’s ongoing investment in Ontario’s agriculture, food and agribusiness sectors and brought recognition to the agency through a consistent and clear design to each of ARIO’s research centres.

ARIO communications and branding strategy

Beginning at a June 2023 meeting, ARIO’s board agreed to pursue an outreach and brand strategy for ARIO. The objective of the first phase of engagement with key groups was the identification of key factors that would inform the development of a brand and strategic communications strategy for ARIO. The findings of these sessions culminated in a final report summarizing the content, themes and details of those conversations, and from that, the recommendations on a path forward for the development of a fulsome communications and branding strategy for ARIO. This report was submitted and presented to ARIO for consideration and feedback at a focused meeting in April 2024.

The second phase of the development of ARIO’s communications and branding strategy was proposed for 2024–2025. An external consultant was procured to develop this communications and branding strategy. The strategy and branding will be launched in the 2025–2026 fiscal year.

Knowledge translation and transfer (KTT)

ARIO’s network of research centres enables research, discovery, innovation and knowledge mobilization among researchers, veterinarians, students and industry. This allows ARIO to play an important role in getting research into use faster, transferring knowledge and research to Ontario’s agri-food sector through the research centres, KTT programs, innovation showcasing and knowledge mobilization. All these efforts result in tangible impacts that help inform and improve business decisions.

The University of Guelph continually helped to organize several KTT events and activities to showcase the research happening at ARIO’s research centres and to enhance collaboration and application of knowledge from Alliance Agreement-funded research. According to the University of Guelph, the following occurred in 2024–2025:

The welcoming of over 1,500 people (including the public, researchers, students, industry and government, who toured ARIO’s Elora-based research centres, including:

• 55 tours of the Ontario Dairy Research Centre
• 30 tours of the Ontario Beef Research Centre – Elora
• 11 tours of the Ontario Swine Research Centre
• 5 tours of the Precision Feed Facility

Specifically at the Elora research station, the hosting of information exchange event, “2024 Canada Beef and Taste Canada Event”. The goal of the event was in promoting KTT methods, increasing awareness of ongoing projects, and enhancing existing collaborations between the Alliance Agreement partners. It occurred in October 2024, in collaboration with Canada Beef and Taste Canada, when a group of culinary students, their instructor, online food influencers and beef industry representatives gathered at ARIO’s Ontario Beef Research Centre in Elora. The event was part education, part tour and part discussion forum, where students, who were likely to enter the food service industry, were informed about beef production, toured the research centre, and engaged in discussions about beef production and research.

KTT highlights

OMAFA and ARIO continued to deliver knowledge dissemination services through virtual, in-person and hybrid events. Such flexibility has improved the reach and number of these activities to broader audiences, reaching those we might have otherwise not been able to participate.

KTT efforts had a strong focus on ensuring research knowledge is mobilized to serve end users (such as agribusiness, processors, farmers, rural communities, industry, other researchers) and equip ministry staff with knowledge, tools and resources to inform their own work and engage clients. Specifically for 2024–2025, this included:

• a research-in-action webinar series to share key research updates in a timely, accessible, virtual approach: a total of 29 since beginning in 2020, averaging about 100 participants per session (OMAFA staff, other OPS staff, and some external stakeholders)
• coordinating and implementing the third annual OMAFA Innovations Pavilion at the 2024 Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show. This participation continued to highlight new innovations and technology driven solutions to Canada’s agricultural and food producers created a platform to showcase several Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative (OAFRI) funding recipients and other Ontario led innovations. The event also featured the Innovations in Agriculture Opening reception where program winners were announced, and the AgTech Breakfast, kicked off by opening remarks from ARIO, which saw record-breaking registrations and allowed start-ups to pitch their ideas. A new addition, the Career Crawl lunch, drew 300 students interested in agri-food careers.
• supporting the showcasing of innovation with an OMAFA presence at conferences and tradeshows such as the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Conference (with a moderated session titled “Grower Experiences with Robotics and Technology”), and the Ottawa Valley Farm Show featuring an Innovation Alley of 3 start-ups and 3 innovation partners including ARIO-owned Ontario Crops Research Centre at Winchester. These events contributed to increased engagement for greater opportunities for linkages and innovations with collaborators.
• In addition to profiling innovation at sector events, 3 videos were produced to profile the work at the VRIC.

Awareness of funded research was also enhanced through promotion of the Ontario Agri-Food Research and Innovation Portal (OAFRIP), which provides a database for the public to search for details about projects receiving support through the ministry’s research and innovation funding programs.

2024 KTT Symposium: building skills for the future of KTT in agri-food

The hybrid event was held on April 30, 2024, where 214 participants attended to increase their capacity and future-ready skills in KTT for the agri-food sector.

The 2024 Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show

This event saw OMAFA display a third Innovations Program and Innovations Pavilion coordinated by the RIB staff. New innovations and technology solutions for agri-food producers were highlighted and several OAFRI-funded recipients were showcased along with other Ontario based innovations. RIB showcased Ontario-led innovation at several other sector events. This included promoting OMAFA-funded research, the new OAFRIP, as well as research and innovation programs. Events attended included the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Conference and Ottawa Valley Farm Show.

Conclusion

This past fiscal year, ARIO successfully addressed the long-term objectives of ARIO’s strategic plan:

Infrastructure

• Major capital builds (progress on the Ontario Poultry Research and Innovation Centre design/build phase, approval for the Ontario Feed Innovation Centre)
• Minor capital improvements
• Asset management planning progress (development of a SAMP)
• Progress on ARIO’s use and access policy
• Evolution of ARIO’s financial outlook and plan

Advice

• Realization of the modernization of the ARIO Act
• Drafting of new agency MOU and bylaws
• Continued and improved board governance
• Consistent advice provided to the minister resulting from ARIO board meetings
• Progress made on executing the IBRP
• Continued expansion on agency’s IEDI commitment
• Continued research programming and priority setting

Strategic relationships

• Continued fostering of relationships with University of Guelph and management of agreements with VRIC and LUARS
• Continued advancement on the development of the strategic relationship framework

Communications

• Completion of ARIO’s refreshed station signage installation
• Continued advancement of ARIO’s communications and branding strategy
• Continued KTT

As a result of the agency’s Act modernization, ARIO’s finds itself with an expanded and updated agency mandate. The objects of this new mandate, along with ARIO’s forward looking 10-year strategic plan which encompasses the Grow Ontario strategy, will be integral to advancing Ontario’s competitive advantage through state-of-the art provincial agri-food research platforms and enabling high-impact and transformation research and innovation for today and into the future.

We would like to acknowledge and thank all those who support agri-food research and innovation across the province – industry, academia and the various levels of government.