The University of Wisconsin, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and 40 Chances are working together on the 2014 Agricultural Innovation Prize (H/T ScienceInsider). The prize was prompted by the recommendations from the 2012 report on the agricultural research enterprise from the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Those recommendations included encouraging further collaborations between students and agricultural businesses across disciplines.
The competition is geared around student teams, and their universities (or businesses they create) could receive the prizes, which total over $200,000. Entries are due February 28. They start with a business plan for a process, product, service or technology that address one or more challenges in the food system. The ultimate goal of the entries would be to “address social and agricultural challenges within food systems to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s population.”
While a first read of the prize website comes across to me as a bit too business-oriented, I don’t think entries that are oriented more towards the public sector or are arranged around alternative business models (such as open source) would be dismissed out of hand. I think some of this uncertainty may be resolved as judges are announced.
The prize organizers are also offering funds to help support interested student teams in learning more about agricultural innovation to help them develop their entries.
As Science magazine noted in a rare exploration of agricultural science policy, the nation’s agricultural research capacity needs rebuilding. This prize can help, but it’s one small measure that should be joined with several other efforts to grow and nurture practices and institutions that support agricultural research.
Pasco Phronesis 