Innovation Hub Welcomes New Members

How does your company address challenges in agriculture?

Agerpoint replaces and augments subjective assessments common in agriculture with more objective and repeatable digital methods. Our toolkit features two main products that work in conjunction: Capture and Cloud.

Capture is Agerpoint’s scanning application that uses consumer-grade smartphone cameras to create digital twins of nature as easily as recording a video. While Agerpoint’s platform can analyze data from more complex sensors, our focus on smartphones removes the need for expensive and difficult-to-operate machinery, making collecting data accessible and affordable.

Once data is acquired, it can be uploaded to our Cloud platform for further insights. High-definition 3D models (digital twins) that are rendered can be analyzed using AI models that support object classification, species ID, plant inventories, plant morphologies, disease detection, yield estimates, biomass estimates and more.

Why did you choose to be a member of the Innovation Hub?

Agerpoint is committed to the Triangle region, having its headquarters in RTP along with a customer base of agriculture enterprises in North Carolina. Membership in the PSI Innovation Hub further strengthens our ability to explore applying our technology to pressing agriculture needs, aligning our team’s expertise in software development, spatial computing and AI modeling to the interdisciplinary research areas represented in the PSI. PSI also offers world-class facilities for in-person collaboration and access to high quality talent as Agerpoint grows.

Does your company partner with NC State in other endeavors?

Agerpoint and its staff have worked with NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences faculty and staff on a range of applied research projects over the past few years, primarily in the field of geospatial analysis and modeling.

What do you think about approaching grand agricultural challenges through interdisciplinary research and technology development?

Many technology solutions exist today to help support the future of agriculture and to address hunger and climate risks, but the innovations and bold action urgently needed are in the form of creative collaboration and partnerships like those that PSI enables.

Why did you choose to be a member of the Innovation Hub?

With Envu’s proximity to NC State and the PSI, it was natural for Envu to bring local talent, researchers and entrepreneurs together here to contribute to advancing healthy environments for everyone and solving the problems for the industry we serve.

Does your company partner with NC State in other endeavors?

Over the years we have had close ties to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Poole College of Management. Many of the faculty collaborate to provide results from studies we commission with them.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Through global innovation, we’ve shaped the environmental science industry with a half-century of experience because we are committed to advancing healthy environments for everyone, everywhere. That takes unparalleled innovation, breakthrough solutions and more sustainable formulations that move our world forward.

We’re focused leaders, solving today’s problems while anticipating the opportunities for a healthy tomorrow. Our global footprint includes industry-leading scientists, state of-the-art innovation hubs, and a customer-centric mindset that embraces entrepreneurship and ingenuity.

We’re environmental visionaries, committed to protecting the spaces society and nature share while pioneering a new frontier in environmental science: one that offers more precision, more transparency and more sustainability.

We’re trusted partners, working alongside our customers, partners and academia to fill portfolio gaps, develop breakthrough solutions and explore new markets for collective success. Solution development, formulation technology, digital and data science, and portfolio management are just a few ways we bring our strategy to life to address important environmental challenges, because only through widespread and consistent innovation can we ‘Be a Force With Nature’ to shape a world where humanity and nature can both thrive.

How does your company address challenges in agriculture?

At our core, legacy strengths in formulation and field development provide viable options for growers to address the threat of weeds, disease and pests on crop yields. Our seed technology platform is commercializing opportunities for growers through nutritional solutions such as Nuseed Omega-3 Canola and renewable energy solutions such as Carinata and energy cane.

Why did you choose to be a member of the Innovation Hub?

Nufarm’s role as an agricultural innovator is rapidly evolving as we pursue crop protection solutions and technologies that support plant-based sources of food, feed and energy. Early development partnerships and pre-development capabilities will be integral to the role that Nufarm plays in the future of agriculture, as will the ability to advance emerging technologies, integrated solutions and more sustainable products.

Does your company partner with NC State in other endeavors?

Nufarm has broad research and development partnerships across North America, and we work closely with NC State researchers and extension in the evaluation of crop and turf protection product chemistries under development. We are also a supporter of the IR-4 Project, which has its headquarters at NC State, and the efforts the group has in development of products to support specialty crops.

What do you think about approaching grand agricultural challenges through interdisciplinary research and technology development?

Yes, collaboration will be essential to solve the complexity of tomorrow’s production agriculture demands in the discovery and exploration of new molecules, improved genetics and their intersection with emerging technologies. Nufarm is positioned to participate and is investing in meeting these opportunities and future challenges.

How does your company address challenges in agriculture?

Challenges in agriculture are the premises that Oerth Bio was formed upon. Modern agriculture has worked to overpower mother nature, resulting in a remarkably efficient global food system. But this approach comes at an environmental cost and potentially a health cost. The demands on our food system continue to grow exponentially while the need for greener, safer and more sustainable solutions escalates. Existing pesticides and herbicides are becoming less effective as destructive weeds, insects, fungi and viruses resist them. As climate changes increase, it is imperative to develop these solutions now rather than later to be able to increase the yields and nutritional benefits for the future of our world. Thus, Oerth Bio’s focus daily is to pioneer a rational design-enabled agri-chem operating system, empowering farmers with innovative tools to safeguard crops, combat climate challenges and enhance food nutrition.

We’ve built Attune — the world’s first engine for Ag PROTAC molecules. Using a rational target-based design process, we design small molecules that direct the degradation of specific proteins in a pest or crop of interest. This new modality enables farmers to control pests in a targeted manner and increase crop resilience to abiotic stressors. This is expected to be a game-changing modality for agriculture and for farmers.

Why did you choose to be a member of the Innovation Hub?

Members of the N.C. PSI Innovation Hub are all aligned with the goal to revolutionize the farming industry for generations to come. We believe this initiative brings brilliant groups together to share research-based techniques and innovative technologies, particularly those that can help reduce obstacles to bring these discoveries to market faster to farmers so that they can thrive in the face of climate change.

Does your company partner with NC State in other endeavors?

Oerth Bio is grateful for our various collaborations with NC State over the years. Our key leaders, including John Dombrosky, our CEO, attended NC State’s entrepreneurship events including the “Looking to the Future of Ag Science” event last year. We have sponsored a postdoc and plant transformation services, while also working with a NC State staff members on a viral-induced gene silencing project.

For several months, Oerth Bio occupied a lab and greenhouse in the Plant Science Building and donated a chemical spray booth to NC State during that transaction. We also have and will continue to engage with NC State for internships.

The “why” to our partnership with NC State is the unmatched dedication to our common goal — and that they are right in our backyard.

What do you think about approaching grand agricultural challenges through interdisciplinary research and technology development?

As our Earth emerges from the Ice Age, it is inevitable that the climate will change, which we believe is the greatest challenge we face. Oerth Bio is the product of using interdisciplinary research and technology development. Who would have thought to partner a pharmaceutical company with an agriculture company to tackle these challenges? We envision this partnering of ideas and trusted mechanisms will be the game changer. Furthermore, addressing these challenges in a way that protects and enhances the environment will help to ensure that these breakthroughs will live well past our lifetimes.

How does your company address challenges in agriculture?

Syngenta innovates with world-class science to protect crops and improve seeds. Our two core businesses support farmers with technologies, knowledge and services so they can sustainably provide the world with better food, feed, fibre, and fuel. 

Why did you choose to be a member of the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiatives Innovation Hub?

Syngenta knows that the current challenges facing agriculture globally are too big for one company or organization to solve. Collaboration is part of Syngenta’s DNA, and we see that being part of the PSI Innovation Hub allows us to connect and collaborate with cutting edge science focused on some of these challenges.

Does your company partner with NC State in other endeavors?

Both Syngenta Seeds and Syngenta Crop Protection have a long history in collaboration with NC State University. Over the last 8 years alone we have launched 17 collaborations across a range of science disciplines as well as funded two FFAR fellowships. Syngenta also played a big role in the formation of the PSI, with Syngenta having two members on the advisory board.

What do you think about approaching grand agricultural challenges through interdisciplinary research and technology development?

Syngenta is a strong believer that interdisciplinary project teams are essential to solve complex challenges in agriculture. This is the way the Syngenta RTP site was designed, with over 25 diverse science disciplines collaborating to deliver the next generation seeds and crop protection products and technologies. This was a big part of what drove us to partner with the N.C. Plant Science Initiative and be part of the Innovation Hub.