Stakeholder Advisory Committee

 Terms of Reference

 

 1.      Background

On October 1, 2014, Dr. Stuart Smyth launched a five-year, tenure-tracked faculty position in the Department of Bioresource Policy, Business and Economics in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan. Over the period from October 2014 to June 2019, Dr. Smyth will hold the Industry Funded Research Chair in Agri-Food Innovation. The funding for this position has been provided by firms and organizations within the Canadian agricultural industry. Specifically, the investing partners are: Bayer CropScience Canada, CropLife Canada, Monsanto Canada, the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission (SaskCanola) and Syngenta Canada.

In addition to the preparation and distribution of annual updates, a Stakeholder Advisory Committee has been established to provide for the two-way flow of information, insights and feedback between the chairholder and the investing partners. Each of the above investing partners will designate one individual to participate in the Stakeholder Advisory Committee.

2.      Mandate

This research chair is designed to be a national leader in the facilitation of understanding and responding to challenges and opportunities of new crop genetics by focusing on the core issues of governance, regulation and trade in order to add value to the genomic sciences. To complement and enhance these activities, this advisory committee has been established that will:

  • provide communication, feedback and observations about new issues of interest or importance to Canadian agriculture;
  • suggest events, conferences, workshops or symposia that may be of use or value to attend or participate in;
  • recommend publications, presentations or news stories that have relevance to the project;
  • address and respond to new and emerging issues as they arise; and
  • participate in the dissemination of the research outputs.

The stakeholder advisory committee, and their representative firms and organizations, will have no ability to dictate, control or otherwise influence, the research outcomes of this research chair.

3.      Committee Membership

Each investing firm or organization will be entitled to have one representative as a member of the advisory committee for the duration of the five-year period. Each firm or organization has the right to change the representative at any time during the tenure of the committee. As issues arise and if the need presents itself, additional representatives from any stakeholder can be included in scheduled meetings for information and communication purposes.

4.      Meetings

Meetings will be held three times a year, following the academic calendar year. The first meeting should be held in November, the second February/March and the third in June. For the June meeting Dr. Smyth will provide the committee with an update of the years research activities and outputs.

Dr. Smyth will develop the agenda and chair the meetings. He will record the minutes of the meetings and share them with the committee. 

5.      Governance

This is an ad-hoc, informal committee and has been created for the purposes of communicating and sharing information regarding innovative agricultural topics and issues. As such, there will be no formal governance structure required.