Preparing Next-Gen Ag Formulations Innovators

A not-so-secret sauce of university and industry collaboration that has helped make North Carolina one of the world’s leading agricultural technology hubs is seasoning a new NC State University Agricultural Formulations course to strengthen agriculture’s talent pipeline.

Launching this fall, the course represents a first step toward a proposed multicourse certificate program to provide undergraduate, graduate and nondegree students with the knowledge they need to help develop the next generation of pesticides, fertilizers, growth regulators and biological products.

We want to provide the cross-training that the industry needs and yet doesn’t exist in the United States and possibly not in the world.

Ideas for an interdisciplinary agricultural formulations curriculum have grown out of ongoing discussions among representatives of the ag tech industry, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative.

As Deborah Thompson, CALS’ director of research partnerships, explains, “The topic of ag formulations came up over and over again in countless conversations with our industry partners. Formulations — for seed coatings, soil and over-the top applications, delivery of biological treatments and more — is a siloed industry.

“We want to provide the cross-training that the industry needs and yet doesn’t exist in the United States and possibly not in the world,” she adds.

Taking a Team Approach to Fill the Gap

To begin laying the groundwork for an ag formulations course and certificate, CALS and the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative hosted a workshop last September with industry partners and university faculty members and administrators with relevant expertise.

Terri Long, a professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and the initiative’s platform director for education and workforce development, used feedback from the workshop to flesh out plans and secure university support.

Terri Billeisen, an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, and Jim Martin, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, agreed to teach the course.

Their goal, Billeisen says, is to provide students in chemistry, agricultural sciences, engineering and other disciplines with an edge when it comes to entering careers in a complex industry.

“A lot of people in industry have said, ‘We’ve got excellent, well-trained students, but they are in these kind of knowledge-and-experience silos: Our formulation chemists know so much about basic science and chemistry and how these compounds work together, but they have very little knowledge or perspective when it comes to how these products perform in the field,’” Billeisen says.

“At the same time, graduates who’ve been trained in crop and soil science, entomology, plant pathology and other applied disciplines have that good grasp of what goes on in farmers’ fields, but they don’t typically have a good understanding of how agricultural products are developed, tested and marketed,” she adds.

The course, Billeisen says, is designed to bridge those gaps.

On Tap: Lectures, Case Studies and Industry Visits 

Billeisen, Martin and guest lecturers from industry leaders who’ve made the Research Triangle Park a hotbed for ag tech innovation will teach students about formulation chemistry, product stability, application methods and regulatory considerations.

They’ll also discuss drawbacks of current formulations and brainstorm potential chemical and biological solutions for making farming safer and more productive, profitable and environmentally sustainable.

We want to attract students in different disciplines who can work together, learn from each other and understand the complete product development process.

Case studies will be key to the course. Working in teams, students will draw on their scientific knowledge, stakeholder input and industry standards to develop formulation prototypes addressing real-world agricultural challenges.

“We want to attract students in different disciplines who can work together, learn from each other and understand the complete product development process, from identifying needs to developing solutions and applying them in the field,” Billeisen says.

Area ag tech industry partners have also offered to open their doors to allow students a firsthand look at how they approach ag formulations.

Next Steps

If plans toward the certificate continue to progress, Billeisen and Martin’s course will account for three of the required 12 hours, with others being drawn from existing courses in pest management, toxicology, chemistry, bioprocessing and related topics.

So far, Long says, the plans have been well received by the NC State’s provost’s office and CALS’ dean and associate deans. Faculty members in the departments of Chemistry, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Molecular and Structural Biochemistry, Entomology and Plant Pathology, and Crop and Soil Sciences have expressed their support.

 “Our vision is ultimately to be able to offer certification courses so that people from all over the country and all over the world can engage.

“With the initial course ready to launch, our next steps are to develop a second course to complete the core curriculum for the certificate and collaborate with the Office of Instructional Programs and CALS Academic Programs Office to formalize the certificate program,” Long says.

 “Our vision is ultimately to be able to offer certification courses so that people from all over the country and all over the world can engage,” Long says. “And given our areas of expertise at NC State and our access to some of the world’s leading ag tech companies right here in the Research Triangle, I think we are well positioned to be a hub for research and training in ag formulations.”