Western Grains Research Foundation (WGRF) is pleased to announce a $15,000 per year commitment for graduate scholarship funding at the University of British Columbia (UBC). The scholarship will be available for outstanding graduate students in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS) whose research is focused in any of WGRF’s priority research areas.

With approximately 250 graduate students, the Faculty of Land and Food Systems will select student(s) in Plant Science or Soil Science for this scholarship, especially those investigating crops such as barley, canary seed, canola, chickpea, corn, faba bean, flax, lentil, mustard, oats, pea, soybean, sunflower, wheat and winter cereals.

“WGRF is excited to be expanding graduate scholarships to include UBC,” says Dr. Keith Degenhardt, WGRF Board Chair. “UBC has made some significant strides in recent years to grow and expand their grain crops program. We look forward to building a long-standing relationship between WGRF and UBC to help advance agricultural research for the benefit of Western Canadian farmers.”

The Faculty of Land and Food Systems offers research-based degrees in six disciplines that seek to find solutions from farm to fork.

Rickey Yada, Dean and Professor, UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems adds: “Working more closely with WGRF is an excellent opportunity for our researchers to tackle urgent issues affecting grain crop producers who play an important role in the Canadian economy and ensuring local food security.”

WGRF funds a broad range of research in variety development and crop production in 15 different western Canadian field crops.

Since 2011, WGRF has invested over $1 million towards more than 22 graduate student scholarships at the Universities of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan and recently expanded to add a graduate scholarship at the University of Lethbridge in July 2022.