Five projects selected for WARF/Bayer Challenge Grant

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Bayer are pleased to announce that five projects have been selected to receive development funding through the Plant Sciences Challenge Grant.

The grant invited submissions for new technologies focused on novel solutions to fortify our food systems. From advanced pest management to precision agriculture, these projects have the potential to improve crop production throughout Wisconsin and beyond.

“We were impressed by the proposals submitted by University of Wisconsin scientists and are excited to move forward with the funding of these five awardees,” says Dan Ruzicka, Innovation Sourcing Lead for Bayer’s Crop Science Division. “We look forward to developing science-based partnerships with each of these labs to enable the translation of high-potential technology innovation towards solutions for challenges facing agriculture today and into the future.”

The selected projects are led by the following teams:

  • Emily Bick (Entomology) for bugPulse: a 3D Insect Scanner
  • Quentin Dudley (Chemical & Biological Engineering) for Genomic Architectures for Consistent Expression of Multiple Transgenes in Plants
  • Jason Kwan (Pharmacy), Jo Handelsman (Plant Pathology) and Christine Mlot (Pharmacy) for Novel Biological Control and Biopesticide(s) Derived from a Cool-Temperature Bacterium to Combat Pathogenic Oomycetes
  • Bhuvana Krishnaswamy (Electrical & Computer Engineering) and Mallika Nocco (Biological Systems Engineering) for Wire-Free Water Management: In-Situ Soil Moisture Sensing with Buried Battery-Less Tags
  • Marisa Otegui (Botany) and Sushmita Roy (Biostatistics & Medical Informatics) for Manipulating Autophagy to Enhance Nutrient Utilization and Crop Resilience

Read more: https://www.warf.org/news/five-projects-selected-for-warf-bayer-challenge-grant/