OMAFRA Research Advisory Network (ORAN)

Table of Contents

• Final Meeting of the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee

• Background

• ORAN

• Agricultural Service Committees

• Advantages of ORAN

Final Meeting of the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee

The final meeting of the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee OASCC) was held on June 24, 2009 at Peter Clark Hall, University of Guelph. Participants included the chairs and representatives of the 9 Research and Services Committees, their corresponding sub-committee chairs, the OMAFRA Director Champions, University of Guelph Research Program Directors, ARIO and OMAFRA staff.

The meeting officially launched the new OMAFRA Research Advisory Network (ORAN) which replaces the former OASCC system as a mechanism for setting research priorities for OMAFRA funded research. The ministry also discussed its plans to preserve the valuable service function that was provided by a number of the OASCC Research and Services committees.

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Meeting Agenda

1. 10:00 Welcome - Stacy Favrin, Research Analyst
2. 10:10 OMAFRA Priority Setting Structure - Karen Chan, Assistant Deputy Minister, Research and Corporate Services Division
3. 10:40 Meeting the Needs - Oswald Zachariah, Manager - Research Program Coordination
4. 11:00 Question and Answer Period - Karen Chan /Oswald Zachariah
5. 11:30 Knowledge Translation and Transfer Plan - Michelle Schurter, Manager- Innovation and Knowledge Management

Background

Research helps to achieve OMAFRA's vision of a thriving rural economy, agriculture and food sectors. OMAFRA invests about $50 million in agri-food research annually (in addition to funding laboratories and education).

Early in 2007, the ministry adopted several ARIO recommendations for ministry-funded value-added/market-driven research. Recommendations included:

1. Replacement of existing research themes with seven new research themes
2. Development of a comprehensive strategy for infrastructure,
3. Review of its system for setting strategic research priorities (including a review of OASCC and assessment of the value of expert panels)

Since February 2008 OMAFRA has undertaken work on a more efficient priority setting structure to help guide research program development for OMAFRA-funded research (OMAFRA/University of Guelph partnership and competitive research).

ORAN

The new OMAFRA Research Advisory Network (ORAN) was implemented effective June 24, 2009. The Ministry believes the outcome will help to better align research spending/research needs with research programs (including those under the Agreement).

Key components of ORAN include:

1. Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario:

• Legislated body that advises the Minister on the overall direction for agri-food and rural research

2. Expert Panels:

• Meetings every 5 years (members include industry, government, researchers and NGOs)
• Determine long-term strategic priorities, identify long-term trends, issues and barriers in the theme area

3. Theme Director Champions, Research Analysts and Research Program Directors

4. Theme Advisory Groups (TAGs) whose function will be to:

• Ensure an appropriate level of ministry and stakeholder engagement
• Evaluate input in the context of Expert Panel strategic priorities to capture emerging issues and shifts in research needs between Expert Panel meetings
• Provide in-depth information to support high level priorities
• Advise on research priorities for annual call for proposals (competitive research and UofG Agreement)
• Monitor progress in the research theme area and advise on research program development
• Support the knowledge translation and transfer (KTT) strategy
• TAG Deliverable: Annual Updated Priorities and Emerging Issues document.

5. Stakeholders

6. Researchers

ORAN (and TAGs in particular) are designed to work alongside the governance structure of the OMAFRA/UofG Agreement.

Agricultural Service Committees

Some OASCC committees provided valuable service and technical advisory functions to industry and the ministry. A process is underway within OMAFRA, in consultation with stakeholders, to establish Agricultural Service Committees (ASCs). The ASC structure and membership will be determined over the next several months to ensure these valuable functions are maintained. ASC's do not have a formal priority setting role, but may be used as a means of obtaining stakeholder input into the TAGs

Advantages of ORAN

• The new model better supports the ministry's strategic directions in research

• The approach is forward-looking, flexible, and responsive to industry and ministry needs.

• ORAN reflects OMAFRA's commitment to ensuring that information flows seamlessly from researchers to users and from users to researchers.

• Provides long-term, strategic guidance for research program development as well as identification of short-term and emerging research issues

• Allows participation from a broader array of stakeholders and institutions

Figure 1. OMAFRA Research Advisory Network