The areas of activity of the Network encompass the genetic evaluation of sheep and goats, genomics, the coordination of genetics research, the coordination of industry standards, and the creation and maintenance of data exchange systems for the genetic improvement industry.

While the primary focus of the Network is providing services in Canada, it is also open to providing services elsewhere.

A Memorandum of Understanding has now been ratified by the nine organizations, and a legal agreement between them is currently under review.

The creation of a Network was considered by all participants as the best way to further integrate services.

• First, project participants were not inclined to create a new brick and mortar organization.
• Second, the roles, responsibilities and structures of organizations in the project are very different and it would be very difficult to bring them under one roof. Three of these organizations are breed associations, one is a research centre in a university, two organizations have a national role while two others are provincially based.
• Third, a review of services offered showed that there was no duplication of services, but that collaboration could make the delivery of these services more effective and easier to access for sheep and goats producers, and potentially for producers of other species.