Since its inception more than 50 years ago, UPL has been a leader in technology, growth and innovation. Through its OpenAg™ purpose, UPL has created an agriculture network that redefines how the industry works and feeds sustainable growth for all.
UPL’s Chief Technology Officer, Adrian Percy, recently spoke with the Scoop about his vision for agriculture innovation and what the OpenAg purpose means to him.
“OpenAg is UPL’s purpose that leads us to focus on facilitating progress for the entire agricultural value chain, including growers, distributors, suppliers and innovation partners. We are building a network that redefines the way an entire industry thinks and works,” said Percy.
To do this, UPL recently launched the OpenAg Center, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to lifting up and fostering partnerships with external innovators. The OpenAg Center, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, will help accomplish UPL’s vision of Open Collaboration through partnerships with other innovative entrepreneurs and companies to advance new technologies to get them in the hands of farmers more quickly.
“This is a laboratory to help confirm and validate technologies coming from startups and university departments. We want to bridge a gap and progress technologies while leveraging our expertise and global footprint. We initiated more than 60 new projects since the center opened,” said Percy.
While the OpenAg Center is a culmination of a long-term vision, Percy looks forward to seeing significant progress within the next two to five years, he said in a recent interview with Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.
“We have substantial laboratory space and a team of seasoned scientists able to quickly validate a wide range of technologies. We see this approach as a prelude to going into field testing. Our goal is to collaborate with startups to accelerate the large-scale evaluation and testing of innovative agricultural technologies,” said Percy.
Startups partnering with large agricultural companies may be turned off by the prospect of finding themselves in an intricate, corporate process. However, Percy is certain that partnerships with UPL are more flexible and agile.
“We are technology agnostic in that we are open to chemical, biological and digital platforms,” explains Percy. “Companies can easily contact us via a portal on our website and start the process within a few days, rather than taking months or years to do this.”
With the new facility, Percy looks forward to seeing biological, chemical and digital technologies converge and work together to solve problems and reduce environmental load, ranging from creating new breeding technologies for crops to digital tools enabling early pest detection and eradication.
The OpenAg purpose strives to generate a deeper impact on society, where agriculture is properly valued, food is sustainable and farmers grow and prosper. To learn more about OpenAg, click here.
