Three St. Louis-based innovation hubs are teaming up on a new initiative focused on advancing projects that pair together agriculture and geospatial technologies.
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur said Wednesday it has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to launch the Center for AgTech and Applied Location Science and Technology (CATALST). The Danforth Center will spearhead the initiative in partnership with innovation hub BioSTL and downtown innovation and entrepreneurship center T-REX.
The new center aims to connect St. Louis’ strengths in geospatial technology and agtech to drive innovation and startup creation around precision agriculture technologies, Danforth Center officials said. It aims to achieve that mission by offering proof-of-concept assistance, access to talent and resources, and programming.
“Intentionally pairing the region’s emerging location science cluster with our globally recognized agtech cluster provides a perfect combination to scale innovation-based entrepreneurship that will stimulate new company growth and the commercialization of new technologies that will create jobs for a broad and diverse population,” said Stephanie Regagnon, executive director of innovation partnerships at the Danforth Center. “This provides St. Louis with a distinct competitive advantage to take a leadership role in the fourth industrial revolution and strengthen our economic competitiveness for future generations.”
One component of CATALST will involve using funds to help Danforth Center researchers and startups work together to advance technologies. Those projects will target areas like remote imaging and sensing, smart devices, predictive data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning. As part of its involvement with the new center, BioSTL will assist ventures through its business validation and development programs. For example, BioSTL said its Early Adopter Growing Innovation Community initiative will help startups and researchers access testing sites and pilot customers. It also plans to use its Career Fund for paid interns for companies.
“CATALST allows BioSTL to scale up proven programs that help startups fill gaps and meet challenges,” said Justin Raymundo, manager of regional workforce strategy at BioSTL. “This includes the essential talent needed at the research bench to advance R&D from proof-of-concept to commercialization and the critical connections between startup companies and early-adopter farmers willing to test or purchase a new product. It’s a win for startup companies, and it’s a win for developing and growing St. Louis’ talent pool.”
Meanwhile, the groups behind CATALST also plan to use the center to provide programming on geospatial and agriculture technologies. The Danforth Center said it will host workshops while T-REX, which has placed an emphasis on geospatial technology, plans to stage programming around geospatial technology and the technology’s role in agriculture. Additionally, the new project will provide funding for T-REX’s GeoSeed Grant Program, which last week announced its first winners, to back projects focused on geospatial technology and agriculture.
“We are excited to leverage our existing geospatial resources, including our Geospatial Innovation Center, our network of experts and corporate partners, and our new EDA-funded Extended Reality Lab and associated Extended Reality Consortium to support the CATALST,” said Patty Hagen, T-REX's president and executive director. “Expanding these resources into the agtech space will create opportunities for exponential economic growth that will serve the entire St. Louis region.”
The announcement of the Danforth Center’s grant award and CATALST comes as St. Louis this week hosts the 2021 GEOINT Symposium, the key conference for the geospatial industry. The event, which runs until Friday, is expected to draw more than 3,000 attendees.
