The Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada (FVGC) and the University of Windsor have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that aims to address the unique challenges facing the greenhouse vegetable sector — energy resilience, sustainability, and economic growth.

This partnership will accelerate the development of made-in-Canada strategies that integrate cutting-edge research, technology, and policy to ensure a thriving and competitive greenhouse industry, says FVGC president Marcus Janzen.

“This collaboration with the University of Windsor highlights the innovation that characterizes Canada’s fruit and vegetable growers,” he says. “Now more than ever we need smart food policies that strengthen food security, drive economic growth, and support the resilience of Canadian agriculture.”

Both parties recognize the growing need and urgency for made-in-Canada solutions.

The growers’ Greenhouse Vegetable Working Group plays a critical role in informing policy and regulatory decisions that support sector profitability and sustainability, maintain and enhance market access and trade, and ensure an innovative, competitive sector with a strong growth agenda. Its national, sector-led development of the Canadian Greenhouse Excellence Network is one part of a strong Canadian approach to solve complex challenges with evidence-based policies that meet the triple bottom line of economic, environmental, and social sustainability.

The University’s Agriculture UWindsor (AgUWin) project is focused on developing and integrating innovative technologies, scientific advancements, and educational programming with benefits to the greenhouse and broader agricultural sectors.

“The University of Windsor’s extensive expertise in automation, energy, industrial engineering, and talent development lends itself extremely well to solving complex agricultural challenges,” says Shanthi Johnson, UWindsor vice-president, research and innovation. “The partnership will help to embed the express and real needs of the sector into the University’s educational programming and research pipeline.”

Essex County is home to the largest acreages of greenhouse agriculture in North America and second in the world only to the Netherlands. AgUWin is well-positioned to deliver the infrastructure, expertise, and experience to develop and integrate innovative technologies and scientific advancements useful to the greenhouse and broader agricultural sectors.

As Canada navigates the complexities of food security, sustainable energy, and economic resilience, partnerships such as the one between FVGC and the University of Windsor are critical to ensuring a thriving fruit and vegetable sector.

Richard Lee, vice-chair of the Greenhouse Vegetable Working Group, notes: “Greenhouse vegetable growers contribute $4.8 billion annually to Canada’s economy, supporting year-round jobs and the supply of fresh, nutritious produce for all Canadians. We need evidence-based policies, feasible on-farm energy options, research, innovation, and funding incentives, to position the sector for success.”

The Leddy Library has joined the shared national institutional repository service Scholaris. This means that the institutional repository, Scholarship @ UWindsor, will be migrating to a new platform. It will move from its current Digital Commons platform to a Scholaris-hosted DSpace instance by June 30, 2025.

The UWindsor community will see changes to Scholarship @ UWindsor as part of the migration. Primarily, the base URL of the institutional repository will change from “scholar.uwindsor.ca” to “uwindsor.scholaris.ca.” While redirects will be put in place, users linking to an article record in Scholarship @ UWindsor (e.g. in a CV, ORCID record, etc.) may wish to update that link in July 2025.

Note that further changes and updates will be shared on the project landing page: https://leddy.uwindsor.ca/institutional-repository/scholarship-uwindsor-migration-project.

Direct questions, comments, or concerns to the Scholarly Publications team at Leddy, via scholarship@uwindsor.ca.

This summer, the University of Windsor will host cutting-edge events aimed at advancing knowledge and expertise in the growing hydrogen energy sector.

Held at the Centre for Engineering Innovation, the Hydrogen Summer School 2025 offers two key courses for a variety of professionals.

The first, an introductory course, will kick off on April 24, while the intermediate, two-day course will follow on June 22 and 23. Organized in collaboration with the Turbulence Energy Lab, this educational event is designed to benefit students, researchers, utilities, system operators, and large energy prosumers alike.

The course will focus on key aspects of hydrogen technology, providing participants with insights into both the challenges and solutions related to the increasing demand for hydrogen as a clean energy source. This growing sector has seen exponential growth as global partners make substantial investments in infrastructure — projected to exceed $200 billion by 2030.

The event will feature Dave Haberman and Matthew Fairlie, recognized leaders in the field. Their expertise will guide attendees through interactive, hands-on sessions, ensuring maximum engagement and personalized learning within small class sizes. These sessions are designed to foster rich discussion, allowing participants to deeply explore hydrogen technology and its implications.

As hydrogen hubs continue to form across Canada and international partnerships strengthen to meet global emission reduction targets, the Hydrogen Summer School 2025 will provide valuable knowledge on the history of hydrogen, its role in current energy systems, and the technical considerations for the future of energy.

Participants will leave with a thorough understanding of hydrogen’s past, present, and future, positioning them to contribute meaningfully to the energy transition and the global effort to tackle climate change.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from industry-leading experts — register now for Hydrogen Summer School 2025.

The Student Success and Leadership Centre is recruiting undergraduate students to serve as faculty leaders to mentor and guide incoming first-year students through their first few weeks of school, while building a sense of campus community and faculty pride.

Ideal candidates demonstrate school spirit, get involved in their academic societies, and are passionate about being a member of their faculty community.

Find more information about these positions, and an online application, on the orientation website.

President of the Equine History Collective, Carolyn Willekes researches human-animal relationships in the ancient world, with a particular emphasis on the transmission of equestrian traditions and ideas from antiquity to the present day.

She will share some of what she has learned March 6 in her free public lecture, "Horses, Mules, and Donkeys, Oh My! Human Hierarchies and the Status of Equids in the Classical World.”

Dr. Willekes is a senior lecturer in the Department of General Education at Mount Royal University, and teaches classes on ancient history in its Department of Humanities. She is the author of the 2016 book, The Horse in the Ancient World: From Bucephalus to the Hippodrome.

Thursday’s event begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Oak Room, Vanier Hall, and is presented by the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

Information Technology Services is launching a Digital Spring-Cleaning Challenge to clear up UWindsor OneDrive and Outlook accounts in advance of the upcoming Microsoft storage changes.

Complete any of the tasks outlined below and you can enter the Digital Spring-Cleaning Challenge draw to win a $50 UWinCash Gift Card.

Digital Spring-Cleaning Challenge Checklist:

• Delete personal files from OneDrive
• Delete duplicate or outdated files from OneDrive
• Organize and archive important files and data
• Empty your OneDrive recycle bin
• Empty your downloads folder
• Delete old emails from Outlook
• Organize important emails
• Empty your Outlook deleted and junk folders
• Unsubscribe from emails and newsletters

Commit to the Digital Spring-Cleaning Challenge by signing up online.

As a reminder, beginning April 7, the following storage limits will be implemented:

In addition, Teams and SharePoint sites will also be limited to 25 GB of storage and shared mailboxes will be limited to 20GB.

Refer to the Microsoft Storage Knowledge-Base articles to learn how to clean up your digital storage.

If you are currently using more than the allotted storage amounts for your account type listed above, you will need to start reducing duplicate and redundant data in your UWindsor Outlook email account and OneDrive to get below the threshold. Users who may require more than the allotted quota for work, academic, or research purposes can submit a request to IT Services for review.

Canada’s top university track and field athletes are coming to Windsor for the 2025 U Sports track and field championships March 6 to 8 at the Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse.

This is the biggest stage in Canadian university track and field, where provincial champions meet national contenders in a battle for supremacy. Expect record-breaking performances, unforgettable moments, and an electric atmosphere as the best of the best compete for gold.

With home track advantage, the Lancers will look to make their mark and claim national success in front of a passionate Windsor crowd. Let’s pack the stands and give them the support they deserve.

Secure your tickets today and be part of history. Visit golancers.ca/feature/USPORTS2025 for event details and ticket information. See you at the championships!