The Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, or AURI, works to foster long-term economic benefit for Minnesota through value-added agricultural products. Its 2019 New Uses Forum is dedicated to the idea of accelerating innovation and investment. The forum brings together some of the most knowledgeable voices on topics related to new uses innovation, including development, investment and support.
It also includes panels on finance opportunities, entrepreneurial startup experiences, regional resources and reverse pitch partnership opportunities, as well a variety of breakout sessions for participants. The breakout sessions cover a variety of topics, ranging from innovations in new uses agriculture to investment opportunities via incubators and accelerators.
In addition, this year’s forum is hosting Minnesota’s first-ever Open Innovation Reverse Pitch Session.
Minnesota is leading the way to the future of food. And at this Reverse Pitch, some of the world’s largest and most influential food and agricultural companies will gather to present “reverse pitches” to an audience of researchers, entrepreneurs, innovators and subject-matter experts. The businesses will talk about distinctive industry challenges and invite the audience to propose solutions.
Each participating company will present one to three reverse pitches across the following range of challenge areas:
- Sustainability solutions for the food sector
- Farm management software data incentives
- Virtual reality financial benchmarking
- Improvements in animal production incentives
- Regenerative agricultural practices for animal production
- Traceability of food safety and quality issues
- Ag processing efficiencies
- Pesticide application innovations
- Improved pest detection in stored food products
- New uses for dairy byproducts
- Packaging innovations
- Alternative ingredients and functional benefits
- New food product development
- Improved food sensory attributes
- Practical food applications to improve human nutrition and health
Host organizations include global leaders like Cargill, Ecolab, Compeer Financial, General Mills, Grow North, Hormel Foods, Land O’Lakes, Schwan’s, Syngenta, Techstars Farm to Form Accelerator, and the University of Minnesota
Discover more stories from the region’s food & agriculture community by visiting makeitmsp.org.