Featured News


Featured News


Save the Date- Alliant Energy Agriculture Innovation Lab Ribbon Cutting - Thursday, December 5, 2024

Alliant Energy Agriculture Innovation Lab ribbon cutting has been set for December 5, 2024. Please join Alliant Energy, Iowa State University and the ISU Digital Ag teams in celebrating the opening of this new building at the ISURP. Doors will open at 3:00 with a short program to follow. 

 

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Innovation Impact Lunch Club Series - Friday, October 25, 2024

Join us for the October Innovation Impact Lunch Club. In this monthly series, we will tackle a piece of our economic development ecosystem. Come to network, eat lunch, learn, and ask questions in a comfortable space. These events are free and open to all. October Innovation Impact Lunch Club will feature Jason Henderson from Extension and Outreach. 

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EDIR Business After Hours - Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Join Iowa State University's Economic Development and Industry Relations team at our annual Business After Hours event. This is a fun and casual evening of drinks, appetizers, and networking opportunities. 

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Biobased Products Funding Opportunity-Innvovation Grant - Monday, September 23, 2024

OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Fall 2024

BIOBASED PRODUCTS FUNDING OPPORTUNITY – INNOVATION GRANT

Background
The Iowa Economic Development Authority and Governor Kim Reynolds have identified four bioscience platforms as key growth engines for Iowa’s economy. Iowa State University (ISU) is uniquely positioned to provide innovation leadership for three of the platforms – Biobased Products, Digital & Precision Agriculture, and Vaccines, Diagnostics, and Immunotherapeutics. ISU is working in partnership with BioConnect Iowa to establish nationally renowned innovation ecosystems in these Iowa-advantaged bioscience platforms, foster commercialization of new technologies and innovations, and help the state continue to grow and diversify its economy. To support these efforts, the state of Iowa has provided new funds to Iowa State University to work across university, industry, and government partners to accelerate transfer of technologies to commercial product development in these three large and growing markets.
The Biobased Products platform includes biobased chemicals and biomaterials, biofuels, biobased fertilizers, ag biologicals and biopesticides, alternative proteins, fermentation and nutritional products, carbon mitigation technologies and upcycling of waste and byproduct streams. A total of $600,000 in awards is available for this grant call.

Award Duration and Size: The projects are generally for 12 months with a maximum of $60,000 per project. Potential for follow-on funding based on progress and availability of funds.

Proposal Due Date: October 16, 2024

Eligibility
• Any applicant meeting ISU PI eligibility guidelines with a desire to develop commercial-relevant expertise in the above Biobased Products categories. Postdoctoral Associates and graduate students are encouraged to apply as Co-PI’s.
• Projects need a letter of support from partner company(s) that must either be headquartered in Iowa or have a significant footprint in the state.

Proposal Requirements and Considerations

 The proposal should include the following components:

• The proposal should clearly state the goal of the biobased products innovation project including how the funding would be used to develop expertise and technology relevant to commercialization.
• The proposal should include a clear statement about the economic development potential and impact of the work related to the state of Iowa. This criterion can be met through, for example, the intended commercial product addressing an issue of particular importance within Iowa and/or product development or production providing economic benefit to the state through jobs, tax revenues, etc.
• There should also be a discussion of how the project will be leveraged to create follow-on funding either from the company(s) or through partnered proposals to other funding agencies.
• Special consideration will be given to applicants that are commercializing ISURF intellectual property.
• Special consideration will be given to project applicants that include prior participation or a commitment to participate in I-Corps or Startup Factory training programs.
• Applications from prior awardees are allowed, provided that prior reporting requirements have been met.

Applications
Proposals should be completed in Times New Roman or Palatino, 11-point font size, and not exceed three pages.
Additional documents required are (not part of the above 3-page limit):

1. Cover Page – Title, PI, Co-PI’s and company partner(s)
2. Budget and budget justification (one page)
3. CV of ISU PI (2-page)
4. Letter of Commitment from industrial partner(s) – Company commitments of significant value to the project will be reviewed favorably.

Application and Review Process
Please submit your application as a single, complete PDF file via the Smartsheet form linked HERE by October 16, 2024.

Proposals will be reviewed by a committee convened by the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR), with membership including representation from the OVPR, ISU faculty, ISU EDIR, BioConnect Iowa, and industry representatives without conflicts.

Proposals will be evaluated on:
• Potential for impactful development in a Biobased Products scope area
• Project technical merit
• Commercialization potential for Iowa
• Potential for continuation of the work beyond the funding award
• Evidence of prior or commitment to other entrepreneurial activities, including IDF filing, ISURF patents, I-Corps and Startup Factory participation

Selections will be made no later than November 15, 2024. Please contact CTO Kevin Moore, [email protected], if you have any questions about this opportunity.

Reporting Requirements:
A final report will be due to the Office of the Vice President for Research at the completion of the project. The final report should outline progress toward stated goals. Potentially patentable results should include the filing of an Invention Property Disclosure and Record with the OIC. In addition, the final report should describe future plans. Award recipients will receive an email notification containing links to reporting templates several weeks in advance of the due date. Report narratives and supporting material will be submitted via Smartsheet.

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CropX Acquires EnGeniousAg for Breakthrough Nitrogen Sensing Technology - Wednesday, September 18, 2024

EGA Brings Patented Technology for Plant, Water, and Soil Nitrogen Monitoring

San Francisco, 18 September 2024 – CropX, a leader in digital agronomic solutions, announces the acquisition of EnGeniousAg, a startup focused on advanced nitrogen sensing applications for agriculture. EnGeniousAg developed an innovative nitrogen sensing technology with the potential to transform nitrogen management by offering farmers new precision tools to optimize nitrogen fertilizer application and minimize environmental impacts.

  

EnGeniousAg’s patented technology provides users with near-instantaneous, in-field nitrogen measurements. This data can inform nitrogen fertilizer applications to ensure plants have the proper levels for maximizing profitability, sustainability and crop performance during various growth phases. Specifically, EnGeniousAg’s technical breakthroughs greatly extend the range of ion-specific electrode sensing in precision agriculture. The company’s patented technology permits in-situ monitoring of nitrogen in plant tissue, drainage and irrigation waters, and soil. CropX will integrate EnGeniousAg’s technology into its agronomic farm management system, enhancing its capabilities in agricultural nutrient management.  

Precision nitrogen fertilizer management is a critical challenge in modern agriculture. Nitrogen fertilizer represents one of the largest crop input costs in agriculture worldwide. Inefficient nitrogen usage costs farmers billions of dollars each year while substantially increasing greenhouse gas emissions and nitrate loading to watersheds and aquifers.  

EnGeniousAg’s technology will offer significant cost-savings and operational efficiencies for farmers and agribusinesses on the CropX platform. By allowing simple and effective in-field nitrogen measurements coupled to data-driven agronomic recommendations, CropX’s integrated system of sensors and analytics will provide a powerful and practical new method to boost crop nitrogen use efficiency.  

"Acquiring this nitrogen sensor technology underscores CropX's commitment to providing farmers with one-stop-shop agronomic solutions," said Tomer Tzach, CEO of CropX. "Nitrogen management is a critical, unsolved challenge of modern farming. We are eager to provide a solution with such transformative potential. In our global search for synergistic technologies in the nutrient management space, EnGeniousAg stood out with high-potential technology that is ideally suited to our mission.”  

Mike Castellano, one of four co-founders of EngeniousAg, said, “We have spent years optimizing and field testing EnGeniousAg’s nitrogen sensor technology and are excited to work with CropX to bring the benefits of this technology to the global market at scale as part of CropX’s agronomic farm management system. The combination should be a big win for farmers’ profitability and environmental sustainability.” Co-founder James Schnable said, “We are grateful for research funding from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs of the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Agriculture. Turning fundamental scientific discoveries into real world products is a key goal of these programs. We’re excited to work with CropX to enable that translation.”  

CropX’s agronomic farm management system leverages data from soil to sky to deliver real-time decision support and data management to enhance farm profitability and sustainability. The acquisition of this advanced nitrogen sensor technology further solidifies CropX's position as a leader in agricultural innovation, empowering farms to be successful and sustainable. This is the sixth acquisition for CropX, following its most recent acquisition of Australia’s Green Brain in December 2023.  

Read more about this acquisition here. 

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About CropX Ltd. 

CropX is one of the fastest growing providers of agribusiness farm management solutions in the world, deployed in over 70 countries and across all arable continents. Our flagship product, the CropX agronomic farm management system, synthesizes data from the soil to sky to offer advanced soil and crop intelligence and a suite of digital agronomic decision and planning tools, all on an easy-to-use app capable of tracking multiple farms and fields. CropX is backed by the world’s leading agribusinesses and VCs, who recognize that CropX’s precision-ag technologies set new standards for best practices in environmental sustainability and greater farm productivity. Learn more at www.cropx.com. 

 
 

About EnGeniousAg 
EnGeniousAg, LLC designs, manufactures, and deploys low-cost, instant readout, high-performance, field-based nutrient sensors for crops, soils and water, thereby improving agronomic management practices, increasing grower profitability and sustaining the environment. EnGeniousAg is a spinout from Iowa State University (ISU) based on research conducted with funding from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E's ROOTS program. EnGeniousAg was founded by Michael Castellano (ISU), Liang Dong (ISU), James Schnable (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and Patrick Schnable (ISU). Read more at www.engeniousag.com. 

Media Contact: 
Hanna Day-Woodruff 
CropX  
[email protected] 

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Economic Development & Industry Relations (EDIR) - Featured News