Regina’s AGT Foods makes shortlist for innovation fund
A proposal involving Regina-based AGT Foods and Ingredients has been shortlisted for the $950-million federal Innovation Superclusters Initiative.
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale was in the city Wednesday to announce the shortlisted supercluster applicant from Saskatchewan.
AGT Foods, founded by Murad Al-Katib, is one of largest suppliers of pulse crops in the world.
Of more than 50 proposals involving 1,000 firms and 350 participants, nine have been shortlisted and up to five will be selected as Canada’s new superclusters.
The Protein Innovations Canada (PIC) Supercluster — of which AGT is a part — proposes to position Canada as the world’s paramount supplier of plant-based proteins and related products.
According to the federal initiative, superclusters are dense areas of business activity, attracting large and small companies that collaborate with universities, colleges or not-for-profit organizations to turn ideas into solutions that can be brought to market.
The Superclusters Initiative plans to leverage a federal investment of up to $950 million to generate public-private partnerships in innovative industries across the country, according to a news release.
The federal government has touted superclusters as the means to “build a skilled workforce, enhance Canada’s global competitiveness and create thousands of well-paying jobs for this generation and the next.”