National and state leaders in agriculture, food innovation and entrepreneurship will be gathering on Thursday, Nov. 2 and Friday, Nov. 3 for the Arkansas Agri-Food Innovation Summit, according to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
The first-of-its-kind event, meant to spotlight federal funding opportunities that can drive industry transformation, is free of charge and open to food and agriculture professionals and students. It will be held at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences at 1371 W. Altheimer Drive in Fayetteville.
The summit is being hosted by four leaders in innovation: the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, the U of A Division of Economic Development, the U of A System Division of Agriculture and the Catalyst/Research and Technology Transfer at Arkansas State University.
As home to giants in agriculture and retail, “Arkansas is uniquely positioned at the crossroads of an agri-food supply chain revolution, ready to champion transformative advancements,” said Trey Malone, an agricultural economist for the Division of Agriculture and co-host for the event.
“Collaboration is one of the most powerful drivers in agriculture and food innovation,” said Deacue Fields, vice president-agriculture for the University of Arkansas System. “This event has been built to spark and nurture collaboration across public and private sectors, academia and industry and state and federal entities. We are proud to host what we believe will be the start of many successful partnerships.”
Day one of the summit is dedicated to the commercialization track, with day two dedicated to the research track. The first day, running from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., focuses on early state seeding funding from federal sources (seeding, in this case, referring to startup funding rather than actual seeds) and will include talks from successful seed fund awardees and a panel of top academic researchers and industry CEOs.
The second day, running from 8 a.m. to noon, will focus on funding opportunities from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and will include a tour of the Division of Agriculture’s research facilities and face-to-face discussion sessions between Jodi Williams, national program leader for food safety, Robert Godfrey, division director for animal systems and Michelle Santos Schelske, national program leader for education programs.
To register for the commercialization track, click here. To register for the research track, click here.
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