The Canadian rapeseed/canola development effort has spanned the better part of 50 years, encompassing a period of public-sector-based, conventional plant breeding and, more recently, a privately-directed biotechnology-based phase. Throughout that period the industry has faced a number of market failures. This paper uses the new institutional economics to examine the role institutions have played in resolving those failures. In the pre-biotechnology period, incomplete markets and the absence of private property rights led to the development of public research programs and new participatory institutions that managed research coordination, extension and market development. In the biotechnology-phase, private property rights, vertical integration and contracting resolved many of the earlier market failures. However, failures in research coordination, enforcement of property rights and marketing have become evident and may require new institutions for their resolution. This study of the canola industry has implications for the institutional governance of research and development in other sectors. At various stages of development different types of market failures arise, requiring new institutions to address these failures.