AG2PI Field Day #28 - July 19, 2023

Public-Private Partnerships in Education

This field day aims to explore the establishment of public-private partnerships in education, specifically in areas relevant to agricultural genomic and phenomic analyses. Dr. Thompson will showcase a successful example from a graduate course in computational and plant sciences, where industry groups collaborated with educational institutions to provide datasets and/or expertise. Through this partnership, student teams gained valuable hands-on experience and knowledge in utilizing relevant data for their research and learning. She will highlight the benefits, challenges, and considerations for such collaborations, emphasizing the potential for enhancing student learning and advancing research in agricultural G2P.

Presenter

Addie Thompson is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University working on maize and sorghum genetics and phenomics. In addition to teaching courses in plant breeding and computational plant sciences, her research interests include crop trait discovery, connecting G2P, and optimizing methods for plant breeding.

Public-Private Partnerships in Commercialization

New ideas are intrinsically unpopular and risky. However, when an idea is supported by diverse stakeholders who can envision the mutual benefits from its implementation, the risk is shared and the likelihood of adoption increases. Dr. Gomez will describe the characteristics of successful public-private partnerships, focusing on the commercialization of scientific innovation. She will also outline key milestones in the path from research to commercialization where public-private partnerships can accelerate or decelerate the translation of scientific breakthroughs into new products and services.

Presenter

Nadilia Gomez has a Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Minnesota, an MBA focusing on food, agriculture and biosystems industries from Iowa State University, and leadership experience in startup, corporate, non-profit, and public organizations. As Chief Technology Officer for the Digital & Precision Ag Bioscience Platform, she helps faculty navigate the complexities of translating inventions into impact.

Chat Questions

How can corporates initiate partnerships?

I can tell you they each have a different way to do that. Similar to universities, corporates are somewhat (although less) decentralized - and the bigger the corporate the more coordination is needed to adopt a single process for managing university-industry relations. Often someone from a specific division (e.g., R&D, HR, Sustainability team, etc.) will reach out to universities with a specific request. More and more they are using open innovation platforms to advertise challenges and engage global talent (not just faculty) with less contractual constraints. Sometimes they make a connection at a conference, or they look up a specific subject, then the authors, and then identify the lab they're interested in. Sometimes they have a specific department responsible for external relationships including universities and the partnerships are highly strategic. For example, they may look for the specialist in AI from California and a specialist in Ag from Nebraska and create specific partnerships to address their specific strategic objectives. Given that every university and corporate has a slightly different structure and/or objective, I recommend working with the university corporate engagement unit to expedite the partnership and maximize its benefits.