Ottawa Research and Development Centre

Overview : The Eastern Cereal and Oilseed Research Centre(ECORC)- Ottawa develops new varieties of corn, wheat, barley, oats and soybeans for Eastern Canada; and biosystematic information and land resource management systems for sustainable production throughout Canada. At ECORC, more than 70 scientists and 240 support employees work in multidisciplinary teams, in partnership with national and international public and private sector organizations. Research and development programs are focused in three areas: CROPS Research goals are to: -Develop winter wheat, oats and barley, with disease resistance and value-added seed traits. -Develop soybeans and corn with early maturity, and tolerance to cool growing conditions. - Develop supporting technologies for varietal development such as crop transformation, haploidy, market assisted selection, and disease diagnosis. -Advance knowledge of the regulation, expression,isolation and characterization of genes for useful genetic modification of plants. - Define alternative land management practices relating crop adaptation advances to soil and atmospheric conditions. LAND AND AGRONOMY Research and development goals are to: - Cooperate with a network of land resource specialists to maintain and upgrade national soil and climate databases. - Develop new knowledge in soil water, climate and crop-yield modelling; land use, cropping systems and remote sensing; soil quality; and the dynamics of agri-environmental indicators. - Develop methodology to evaluate emerging environmental, soil conservation, land resource quality, and lands resource availability issues. SYSTEMATICS ENTOMOLOGY/MYCOLOGY/BOTANY AND BIODIVERSITY Research and development goals are to: - Develop identification aids, computerized and molecular information systems and predictive classification schemes for plants, insects and fungi. - Identify crop and microbial genetic resources to support crop breeding programs. - Collaborate with national integrated pest management and biological control programs. - Provide information essential to protect Canada's borders from invasive pests and support the Canadian strategy on biodiversity. - Create and maintain collections and advanced databases on the systematic of plants, insects and fungi. Environmental Profile Projects Undertaken: A 5 year Great Lakes Water Quality project, on pesticide persistence and leaching in Great Lakes Watershed soils; a 3 year St. Lawrence River Ecosystems project, on heavy metal ion binding and leaching in agricultural soils on the Raisin River Watershed; environmental indicators for agricultural ecosystems; a report on the health of Canada's agricultural soils; biotechnology for crop protection and crop variety development. Scientific Network: Part of the Research Branch network of Centres of Excellence in Agri-Food research across Canada; collaboration with many University Departments; linkages with other Federal Departments and Provincial Governments; various agreements with private sector companies. Sector(s): Agriculture; environmental Products & Services.