Faculty of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences
A healthier, sustainable world. Made by the next generation of experts.
Our world is hungry for solutions. And your support will help the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences face the world’s food, water and health challenges – and opportunities.
At the core of human survival is the food we eat, the water we drink, and the land these resources are tied to. Now more than ever, the availability, safety and sustainability of these resources are under threat from a complex array of factors. We have what it takes to face these challenges – and opportunities.
Based at Macdonald Campus, our passionate students and 100+ world-leading faculty members collaborate across disciplines, sectors and borders. They are discovering new and creative ways to re-envision the agricultural, environmental and health continuum, in developing and developed worlds alike.
We have a focused vision for how we can lead in finding solutions to the most pressing challenges of the coming decades, while training the kind of versatile thinkers who will shape our collective future.
With your help, we can provide students and researchers with the resources, skills and partnerships they need to become the successful food, water and health pioneers of tomorrow.
Download: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Case for Support
Discover our vision for the future
Creating a new hub to solve grand food and water challenges
The Smart Agri-Food Hub will bring together researchers and students from across academia and industry to drive integrated, impact-oriented research programs.
These activities will take place in a new, state-of-the-art facility featuring novel technologies, spaces designed to encourage collaboration and innovation, and learning environments that bring people and ideas together in new ways.
Your support can help build our unique physical environment by funding:
- Three Integrative Research Hubs in Translation, Incubation and Data Analytics to support deepening relationships with industry, government and other stakeholders, as well as to facilitate the development of commercializable research, and acting as the setting for integration and analysis of large, complex data sets
- A Simulation Centre to enhance partnerships between academic colleagues, industry partners, health providers, and government agencies and allow for high-capacity computing
- Interactive engagement spaces, smart classrooms and knowledge colliders to foster creative collaborations from all actors in the food ecosystem and enhance training, research and outreach
Conducting leading interdisciplinary research into food systems and environment
Dedicated to research and training, the Food and Water for the Future Centre will allow for a more rapid translation of research from the lab to the field, farm or table, and even more meaningful contributions to some of the most significant challenges we face.
The Centre will focus efforts around two research programs:
- Sustainable Food Systems: Integrated research around food production settings will link considerations related to crops and livestock, the effect they have on the environments that support them, the resources required, and the long-term sustainability of current and possible practices.
- Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems: Research will focus on local food systems, including the sustainable harvest of wild plants and animals, traditional methods of food production, and emerging opportunities for agricultural innovation.
Complementing this research will be a renewed focus on areas where the Faculty already has robust programs, including:
- Effective and Sustainable Food Systems: meeting the dietary needs and food preferences required for a healthy life by ensuring access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food, while finding new means to create equitable and effective food systems
- Leadership for the Ecozoic: building new collaborations aimed at re-engineering our practices to promote enhanced relationships between human societies and the natural environment
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship: promoting opportunities for students and faculty to strengthen links to industry and accelerate the rate at which new ideas become businesses, products or practices
Your support can also help establish:
- Research Chairs to help recruit world-class scientists and lead core research themes
- Professorships to strengthen existing research domains
- Fellowships to attract and support outstanding graduate and postdoctoral students
Enriching programs to train future-ready students
Contributing to a safer, healthier and more sustainable world involves training a new generation of leaders with the skills, experience, agility and global perspective to find solutions to future challenges that we cannot even imagine.
Whether they end up in industry, government, academia or the NGO, we are providing them with the tools to succeed, as professionals and citizens, in the world we all share.
To achieve this, we are seeking funds for:
- Enhanced experiential learning opportunities such as field study semesters, internships and mobility training programs that give students immersive, hands-on experiences
- Leadership training to help students sharpen the skills needed to excel in their careers and step into leadership roles
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship programming designed to cultivate entrepreneurial spirit and skills by providing opportunities for entrepreneurship and participation in the McGill Dobson Cup start-up competition and other international competitions
Explore by story
A world with less hunger. Made possible by the generosity of donors like Margaret A. Gilliam.
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