The BENEFIT Project

Photo credit: George diCenzo

The BENEFIT Project

Photo credit: Matthew Bakker

The BENEFIT Project

Photo credit: Hooman Ahmadpanah

The BENEFIT Project

Photo credit: Matthew Bakker

The BENEFIT Project

Photo credit: George diCenzo

The BENEFIT Project

Photo credit: Derek Brewin

The BENEFIT Project

Image credit: Matthew Bakker

BENEFIT Project Logo

Bio-inoculants for the promotion of nutrient use efficiency and crop resiliency in Canadian agriculture (BENEFIT) is a Genome Canada funded research program that aims to develop bio-inoculants to improve crop growth in Canadian agriculture. Using a genomics-driven approach, we aim to identify and optimize microbes from Canadian soils for use with Canadian cereal, brassica, and legume crops.

Our Mission

We adopt an open science approach to identifying and optimizing microbial inoculants for Canadian varieties of wheat, barley, canola, kale, bean, and pea.

Learn more about our mission and values

Research Overview

We are: (i) establishing and sequencing a collection of agricultural soil microbes; (ii) characterizing and adaptively improving the PGPR and industrially-relevant traits of the isolate; (iii) characterizing plant transcriptional responses to microbes; (iv) studying the economics and environmental impacts of inoculants; (v) and more.

Learn more about our research

Publications

Research findings are published in a variety of venues and are generally freely available to be read by anyone who is interested. All results are made publicly available in a timely fashion.

See the full list of publications

Genomic resources

All genomic resources (genome sequences, metagenomes, raw sequencing reads, and others) are made openly available through the appropriate public repositories.

See the full list of genomic resources

CCASM

The Canadian Collection of Agricultural Soil Microbes (CCASM) is hosted by 成人大片 and the University of Manitoba, and was designed to facilitate the sharing of agricultural soil microbes across Canada.

Visit the CCASM webpage

The Team

Lead Investigators

Our team includes 16 Principal Investigators from across six Canadian universities.

Learn more about the PIs

Researchers

Research in the BENEFIT project is performed by a large and growing team of postdocs, grad students, undergrads, lab techs, and others.

Learn more about the researchers

Project Managers

A team of Project Managers help ensure our project stays on track.

Learn more about the management team

Recent News and Blog Posts

Top Crop Manager

Looking back and moving ahead on microbial inoculants: Part Two

Growers Daily

Terrence Bell discusses the soil microbiome and inoculants

Other articles

For a complete list of news articles and blog pots, please refer to the News tab.

See all news articles

Our Funders