Launching the next big name in plant science innovation
Catalyzing a Culture of Entrepreneurship
Through Seed2Grow Startup Program, N.C. PSI students, faculty and recent alumni build on NC State’s entrepreneurial infrastructure to bring great ideas to market. We strive to grow entrepreneurs with grit and determination to improve the world through plant science innovation, accelerating new discoveries and technologies and launching new startups, all in the interest of advancing agriculture in North Carolina and beyond.
NC State’s cutting-edge tools, investor networks and institutional support – including a tech transfer office that’s among the best in the nation and a Chancellor’s Innovation Fund that supports short-term commercially focused research – empower interdisciplinary teams to take big ideas and run with them.
Startups Get Their Start Here
The N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative’s Seed2Grow Startup Program offers exciting new opportunities for researchers who want to turn their ideas into local and global solutions. Admission to the program, granted by our Commercialization Advisory Council, offers:
> Access to the Plant Sciences Building’s specialized labs, core facilities, research and meeting spaces > Proximity to talent: leading faculty members, graduate students and undergrads > Mentoring with an Executive in Residence > Networking Opportunities > Assistance with Business Plan Development and Marketing
Methane has proven to be one of the main drivers behind climate change, and cows emit this gas every time they burp. Hoofprint Biome, a startup led by Scott Collins and Kathryn Polkoff, is out to provide producers, and our climate, with a solution: a feed additive that eliminates the microbes that cause methane in a cow’s rumen.
Appointed by the advisory council, executives in residence provide guidance to startup companies, liaise between the companies and the council and serve as advocates for companies in identifying and overcoming hurdles.
A Place to Incubate
The Incubator Hub is a 2,500-square-foot combined open office and wet lab space in NC State’s Plant Sciences Building houses agricultural technology startup companies emerging from the university.
For more information
Kathleen Denya, Ph.D.
Director of Innovation Partnerships kmpitche@ncsu.edu or 919.513.2073
