This article was originally published on FarmWeekNow.com
3/12/2025 | CHAMPAIGN, IL | Phyllis Coulter
The AgTech Innovation Summit at the University of Illinois Research Park in Champaign recently celebrated the power of collaboration.
Collaboration is needed in bioprocessing, from design and construction to suppliers of feedstock all the way to the end user, said Jeremy Owen, solutions manager at Black and Vetch, which specializes in creating and adapting facilities for bioprocessing projects.
“Sometimes we repurpose facilities with companies with visions outside the box,” said Owen, speaking as part of an international panel of the bioeconomy and bioprocessing experts at the 10th annual summit which welcomed almost 600 people. Over the last decade, the event has included more than 239 speakers from 150 companies, both startups and established companies.
A current challenge is how to best collaborate along the whole value chain, agreed Mohammed Kanji, chief open innovation for L’Oreal cosmetics. He said the company spends $1.3 billion on research annually to create sustainable products using responsible ingredients. Today, 18 of 36 brands of the company based in Paris are U.S. brands with a hub in New Jersey.
Kanji said the company develops a network to source ingredients and technologies, not only from new startups but also from companies with existing capabilities. All steps must be considered from procuring feedstocks to transportation and putting the various nuggets together, he said.
As for employees, Owen said in the construction business, trade skills are needed, even though artificial intelligence (AI) has a big impact today. “A little bit of reskilling is needed for technical projects,” he said.
Apprenticeships are essential for Buhler Group, a Switzerland-based company manufacturing equipment and related services for processing foods and manufacturing advanced materials. “We live apprenticeships. It’s a way to build a skilled labor force loyal to the industry,” said Thierry Duvanel, director of innovation of the company that has 600 apprentices.
There’s a lot of synergy among companies and researchers making products for consumers, looking for efficiency and sustainability. “It’s dynamic, always changing,” Duvanel said.
Partnerships are particularly crucial in the growing new segment of precision fermentation, said Allyson Fish, Archer Daniels Midland Company’s (ADM) chief commercial officer for precision fermentation. Together partners, in what she calls “the next generation of technology,” try to take costs out of each step in the value chain to make bioproducts affordable.
While ADM, with 120 years of experience, does some things very well, including handling feedstock and transportation, Fish said they are part of an ecosystem. “We can’t do it alone. We don’t have all the puzzle pieces.”
ADM works closely with Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing (iFAB)’s tech hub at the University of Illinois in Champaign, which outgoing Chancellor Robert Jones celebrated at the summit.
He called such research and innovation projects “radical collaborations” where different departments of the university work with other universities, businesses and industries. The problems they are tackling today are too big for any one group, he added.