With the first year of the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (SCAP) Grape & Wine Science Cluster completed, each of the activities has provided a brief update on their research done under the program in 2023-2024. Click below to view each research priority area's list of activity summaries.

We thank Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, the British Columbia Wine Grape Council, Grape Growers of Ontario, Ontario Grape and Wine Research Inc., Conseil des Vins du Québec, Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, and the Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia, along with our various industry partners, for funding this research. For more information, please contact us.

Climate Change & the Environment
Economic Growth & Development
Sector Resilience & Societal Challenges

This priority area focuses on research aimed at developing solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon for agriculture to contribute to 2030 and 2050 climate targets. For the Grape & Wine Cluster, research activities in this priority area will:

Promote sustainable viticulture and winemaking by developing and/or improving strategies to minimize the industry’s environmental impact;
Positively contribute to national climate targets;
Adapt to the challenges brought on by climate change.

Activity 15 - From carbon sequestration to terroir: Understanding the impact of abiotic stresses on grapevine, berries and wine quality to foster sustainable grape and wine production

Activity 17 - Enhancing the resilience of Nova Scotia vineyards to climate change through improvements to ecosystem services

This priority area focuses on research to increase value-added domestic and export sales of agriculture, food and agri-based industrial products, develop emerging technologies that address labour challenges, increase productivity, and improve input use efficiency, and support alternative productive systems. For the Grape & Wine Cluster, research activities in this priority area will accelerate the economic development of the industry by:

Optimizing grape and wine quality and increasing market share of Canadian wines;
Addressing the economic impact of viral, microbial, and insect pressures;
Expanding knowledge of varieties and vineyard practices that will foster greater productivity.

Activity 9 - Influence of temperature and heat-stress mitigation strategies on grape quality in British Columbia vineyards

Activity 11 - Wine flavour modification through non-traditional yeasts, oenological treatments and taint remediation

Activity 14 - Increasing climate change resilience by a better understanding of cold hardiness and with novel frost protection methods

NOTE: Activity 18 - Growing More Resilient and Hardy Wine Grapes in the Face of Climate Change in an Eastern Canadian Environment was approved for a four-year timeline beginning in 2024-25. Research summaries for this activity will be available starting next year.

This priority area focuses on research aimed at improving sector resilience in response to market, societal and other pressures. For the Grape & Wine Cluster, research activities in this priority area will bolster the resilience of the Canadian grape and wine industry by: