The Food Safety Research Program is an open, competitive research fund with the mandate to support food safety research in three broad areas:

• Development / validation of testing methods for pathogen and chemical detection in food and water;
• Data to support risk assessments / risk assessments, including the identification of emerging hazards and contaminants; and
• Risk management and control in food safety.
• Research Priorities

Proposals are being solicited that will generate new knowledge and/or technologies in the following areas:

• Analysis of food safety economics;
• Threat identification and prioritization;
• Detection and surveillance;
• Pathway analysis; and
• Prevention and control of disease.

For the 2014 call, we have identified a number of research needs, such as:

• Development and validation of food safety interventions for small and medium scale operators;
• Validation of manufacturing processes related to various ready to eat food
• products such as dried/dehydrates meats;
• Identification and prevention of food safety risks associated with fish processing activities; and
• Interventions to reduce risks of environmental impacts on food safety (e.g. climate change).

Application Process

Interested applicants must apply to the call through a Letter of Intent (LOI) by the submission deadline of Thursday, May 29, 2014 at 4:00 pm EST. Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.

Who May Apply

We invite applicants from universities, research institutes, industry, government agencies and partnership networks with demonstrated capacity to perform quality research to submit a Letter of Intent. Applicants outside the province of Ontario are eligible but must clearly indicate how their proposed research will benefit Ontario’s food safety system. Staff from Ontario provincial ministries cannot apply as Lead Applicant to this program.

How to Apply

Researchers apply using the Research Management System (RMS), OMAF and MRA’s on-line system for managing and administering Ministry-funded research programs. If you have previously applied to a research program through the RMS, log in to your Researcher Workbench to access the Call documents and application form.

If you have not previously applied to a Ministry-funded research program through the RMS, you will need to register to create a user file before you can apply:

• Click here if you are an applicant with a Research Office or other approval Authority  (such as applicants from colleges, universities, hospitals, government)
• All other applicants click here (i.e. applicants from business, commodity groups, industry, municipal organizations, Non-Government Organizations etc.)

More information about the 2014 Food Safety Research Call can be accessed from the program’s homepage.

Information Session

An information session to provide an overview of the 2014 Food Safety Research Program will be hosted on May 7, 2014 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm in the Conference Centre (Room 3) at 1 Stone Road West, Guelph, Ontario. Interested applicants may attend in-person or via Webex. To register for the information session, please contact Stacy Favrin, Senior Research Advisor (519-826-5178)