Agriculture
The GRDI supports agriculture through the following priorities:
- develop value-added traits such as seed quality and disease resistance
- reduce losses from drought, heat, cold and diseases
- improve nutrient use efficiency
- detect pests and pathogens early to protect animal health, plant health, and food safety
See our agriculture success stories describing out how research leads to more productive crop varieties, reduces losses due to diseases, and protects Canada's agricultural exports.
Environment
The GRDI supports the environment through the following priorities:
- Establish the toxicity of microorganisms, chemicals of concern, and emerging stressors
- Predict the mode of action of chemicals of concern and their effects on organisms
- Understand how genes interact in Canada's flora and fauna in response to environmental conditions
- Track disease in wildlife and the source of pathogens
- Develop indicators of ecosystem health in priority ecosystems
- Analyze flora and fauna to identify species, determine parentage, and confirm geographic origin
This work enables the delivery of Canada's obligations under the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and programs including the Chemicals Management Plan.
See our environment success stories about how research transforms the way municipalities in Canada and around the world manage water safety, and evaluates the impact of diseases on Canada's amphibian populations.
Fisheries and oceans
The GRDI supports Canada's fisheries and oceans through the following priorities:
- Accurately identify species, populations and stocks to enable sustainable harvesting that conserves vulnerable stocks, species at risk and aquatic biodiversity
- Detect, monitor and minimize the impact of pathogens (e.g. Infectious Salmon Anemia virus) to safeguard the health of Canada's aquatic resources and Canada's export markets for fish and seafood products
- Monitor, mitigate and restore aquatic ecosystems
See our fisheries and oceans success stories that show how research has enabled fish stock identification leading to enhanced management of fisheries.
Forestry
The GRDI supports Canada's forests through the following priorities:
- Produce high quality fibre rapidly for economic and environmental benefits
- Detect early and manage invasive insects and diseases that threaten the health and ecological integrity of Canadian forests, the forest sector and forest communities
See our forestry success stories highlighting how research transforms tree breeding, and provides faster and more accurate identification of diseases and insect pests.
Health
The GRDI supports Canada's regulatory role related to health through the following priorities:
- Inform and support regulatory decisions related to therapeutics and biologics
- Enable the detection and characterization of foodborne microorganisms
- Explain the effects on health of food contaminants, food allergens, nutrients, novel foods and novel food ingredients, prebiotics, and probiotics
- Develop markers of health and disease in the context of exposure to microorganisms, allergens, food contaminants, and specific nutrients
- Protect human health from adverse effects of environmental contaminants, radiation, consumer products and pesticides
- Study the responsible use of genomics for societal benefit, taking into account ethical, legal and socio-economic considerations.
The GRDI also supports public health through the following priorities:
- Enhance the prevention and control of priority pathogens
- Enhance the response to antimicrobial resistant pathogens and the surveillance of infectious diseases
- Enhance public health security measures
- Develop biologics treatments in collaboration with private partners
See our health related success stories about how research reduces foodborne illnesses, wins international recognition with a new HIV test, leads the way to safer treatments, enables Canadian researchers to lead a revolution in regulatory toxicology, and improves the understanding of allergies.