The plant protein ingredient market is experiencing explosive growth world-wide as markets shift away from animal-derived ingredients. To meet this global demand, substantial investments have been made across the Canadian Prairies to unlock the value of their plant protein fractions through secondary processing of its high-quality agriculture feedstocks. The ‘Canadian Agri-food Protein Training, Utilization, and Research Enhancement (CAPTURE)’ training program seeks to produce young scientists with combined technical, leadership and business skills to help drive economic growth and position Canada as a global leader in the expanding plant protein ingredient sector. The program includes new collaborative graduate protein-focused courses, webinars, industrial internships, an annual research forum [i.e., round-table discussions with industry, research presentations] and intensive workshops related to experiential learning in the protein sector [i.e., problem-based group activities, industry tours, etc.], leadership [i.e., emotional intelligence, goal setting, communication, etc.] and business [i.e., entrepreneurship, project management, understanding budgets, etc.]. CAPTURE is run by an interdisciplinary research team from the Universities of Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, as well as government and industry collaborators to meet the market demand.
