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MTRAC Innovation Hub for AgBio
MSU’s MTRAC AgBio Innovation Hub is designed to bridge the gap between successful academic research results and the point at which an innovation is sufficiently developed, scaled up, and de-risked to enable it to transition to commercial development.
The MSU MTRAC program focuses on agricultural and industrial biotechnology, biomaterials, bioprocessing, and related technologies that fall outside the domain of human medicine. This can include research in areas from animal and crop health to innovative machine learning and blockchain applications useful in agriculture and food production, to novel food, fiber, and biomaterial processing. Recent examples of areas in translational research include funding for bio-based chemicals, biofuel synthesis, livestock health and nutrition, crop improvement, novel consumer food products, and agricultural production tools and methods.
Click the links below to learn more or submit your MTRAC AgBio application.
The Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Innovation Hub for AgBio translates research into the commercial market through licensing or startup formation.
Accelerating commercial development, eligible MTRAC AgBio research relates to food, fuel & fiber, either as inputs or outputs. This includes bio-derived/bio-based materials, natural resources, and animal health. Projects will have shown promise in the laboratory, but need further development to become successful in a competitive market.
All funding decisions are made by an Oversight Committee, which comprises entrepreneurs, external industry participants, and representatives from venture capital firms.
MTRAC AgBio Oversight Committee Composition
Grant funding decisions under the MTRAC program are made by experts from various technical and commercial disciplines in the AgBio innovation marketplace. While the members of the committee change over time, the composition includes at least 3 members from each of the following categories:
Academic Representatives
- These representatives provide expertise related to some of the technical and innovation themes covered in the translational research proposals, as well as the nuances of university patent development, licensing, and technology transfer. At present, this includes the Co-Principal Investigators on the MTRAC grant. This includes the Assistant VP for Research and Graduate Studies and the Executive Director of MSU Technologies. In addition, several senior research scientists with decades of experience in technology development also participate in the committee.
AgBio Venture Capital Investors and Startup Specialists
- These representatives offer valuable insights and expertise on the market attractiveness and suitability of emerging translational technologies for the investor and startup marketplace. They provide important input and direction on the growth potential, competitiveness, and challenges related to specific technologies and commercialization strategies under consideration. Current participants come from enterprises such as Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, The Yield Lab, and various AgBio startups.
Industry Representatives
- Industry participants on the MTRAC Oversight Committee play an important role in evaluating the competitiveness and licensing potential of technologies being considered for funding. They bring decades of relevant experience from various industries closely aligned with the AgBio marketplace. Current committee members are drawn from major enterprises, including BASF, Corteva, and Marquis Energy, among others.
MTRAC AgBio Full Grants
MTRAC AgBio Full grants provide funding of up to $125,000, covering up to one year of translational research on promising technologies.
MTRAC AgBio Starter Grants
MTRAC AgBio Starter grants provide up to $40,000 over six months to allow for initial testing of new technology as part of the early stage of commercialization, such as the generation of data for a prototype, patent application, or other work that would provide a strong foundation for a MTRAC Full grant proposal. As with MTRAC Full grant awards, the research must relate directly to commercial applications in agriculture and/or the larger bioeconomy.
MTRAC AgBio Grant Awards
The AgBio MTRAC Oversight Committee meets several times each year to consider funding of proposals submitted in response to the MTRAC requests for proposals. Click on the links below for more information on some of the grants funded during several recent grant cycles.
MTRAC AgBio Innovation Challenge
The MTRAC AgBio Innovation Challenge (“Challenge”) is a technology concept competition designed to match the fitness of university-derived emerging technology concepts to validated, near-term market applications in agriculture, biomaterials, and industrial and environmental (i.e., non-medical) biotechnology markets. This scope of opportunities is referred to herein as “AgBio”. The purpose of the Challenge is to help the MTRAC program assess technology-market risks and opportunities.
Who: The Michigan AgBio Innovation Challenge invites researchers at public universities, non-profit research institutes, and public hospitals across the state of Michigan to conduct real-time opportunity assessments and technology pathfinding in the AgBio marketplace.
Why: The AgBio Innovation Challenge seeks to award a series of prizes ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 based on the identification and validation of potential technology applications that effectively address the 2024 Innovation Challenge Theme.
What: The body of the MTRAC Innovation Challenge product concept paper will be an opportunity briefing that identifies the technology concept and the intended application (problem to be solved), evidence supporting the strength of the need for a solution, the rationale for why the technology applies and an assessment of the time and resources required to demonstrate the application. (Proposal reviews are conducted confidentially by a panel of experienced technology commercialization professionals. See the program document for more details.)
How to Apply: Complete the Innovation Challenge Concept Paper below and send it to the Michigan AgBio Innovation Challenge grant team by the deadline below.
MTRAC AgBio Program – Innovation Challenge Concept Paper
When: The announcement will be distributed in early May, and participant papers are due by Friday, May 31, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. EDT.
2024 Innovation Challenge Theme:
The 2024 AgBio Challenge focuses on innovations that improve value and efficiency in specialty crop or animal protein (e.g., poultry, livestock, seafood, dairy, etc.) production (or food products derived from them) through precision. Qualified innovations are those that employ improved molecular, microbial, genetic, tissue, or environmental-level detection tools or process strategies to enhance the production efficiency or value of food in the target categories. Of particular interest are farm-level concepts that offer an original (and likely feasible) route to improving yield, quality, resilience, nutrient or natural resource efficiency, and/or sustainability of food production in these categories, including those that describe unique detection, sensing, compositional, and genetic/breeding advances, and those that lead to improved decision-making for specialty crop and animal protein production.