3 days Ago
URBANA — In February, Soybean Innovation Lab Director Peter Goldsmith took to social media to share news of how the lab was likely to close in April amid cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
His words did not fall on deaf ears. A company based in Europe reached out later that month to learn more — and, about 10 days ago, that same business wired a little over $1 million in funds to the University of Illinois Foundation to support the lab, which is focused on opening new markets for soybeans internationally. It’s “pretty much a miracle,” Goldsmith said.
He had previously "cobbled together funding from the university to keep the lab afloat until April 15, which was to be its last day," said officials from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. "At the eleventh hour, Founders Pledge, a global nonprofit empowering entrepreneurs to do the most good possible with their charitable giving, announced a $1.02 million gift from an anonymous donor to fund the lab and core staff for another year.
" The Soybean Innovation Lab was previously funded by USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Labs program. It is operated in partnership with the University of Illinois and located on campus in Urbana. ACES officials noted that while "durable federal investments" are needed to support the previous scale of the lab's work, the gift will allow the program to finish some of its most important efforts and provide more time to seek reliable funding sources for the future.
Goldsmith said that the donation will support eight employees, including himself — compared to a previous staff of 30. It also means that the lab’s scope of work will be narrowed for the time being. “We were working in 30 countries,” Goldsmith said.
“We were all over. Our technology was demanded by a lot of folks, so we were pretty active, but this (gift) allows us to deliver very specifically over the next year in a very targeted area.” He said the funds will be used to restart the lab's project to bring soybeans to the Lower Shire Valley of southern Malawi in Africa.
“SIL’s efforts were strategically positioned to expedite the registration of new varieties for both rainy-season and dry-season production, an advancement that would mark a significant milestone in Malawian agriculture," said Bruce Carruthers, who consults for Agricane in southern Malawi. He added that if the lab were no longer involved, this would have delayed the timeline for when "improved genetic material" could be introduced into the market. Goldsmith noted that the lab recently just finished its first year of helping the region transition to soybeans, so it won’t be starting from scratch on this work.
However, he said that while the lab is grateful for the gift, $1 million is really “the bare minimum.” The lab’s previous annual budget was about $3.5 million and allowed for a broader geographic scope and a “complete suite of services and technologies,” he told The News-Gazette.
“We were kind of a major force as per USAID mandate to really, what they call, move the needle, really affect things,” he said. “This ..
. is targeted and much more limited and will be very successful, but at a much smaller scale.” Goldsmith isn't sure where the lab and its staff might find additional funding to continue past a single year, but he said that they have begun discussions with other parties and the gift gives them time to explore these opportunities.
Unfortunately, it’s his understanding that “there isn’t a lot of appetite out there” for the kind of high-risk, low-immediate-return work that the lab specializes in, in terms of “de-risking” new markets for the private sector. “So SIL will adapt, and we’ll become more focused on delivery in the short-term, and some of those large bets that we were placing and working on — there isn’t funding for that,” he said. “There isn’t an appetite for that.
So it’s a huge gap when USAID left. But more in general, a huge gap is left when U.S.
government leaves the science space, the public-led research space.” More information, along with a link to donate to the Soybean Innovation Lab, is available at aces.illinois.
edu/news ..
