Location: Agroecosystem Management Research
Project Number: 3042-21660-001-004-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2023
End Date: Dec 31, 2027
Objective:
The National Measurement and Monitoring Innovations for Environmental and Sustainable Agricultural Systems project was established in Lincoln, NE in FY2023. There is a critical need to modernize ARS research data capture technologies and streamline data collection, integration, analytics, storage, and sharing processes and systems, including expanding the environment and natural resources data we collect and automating the way we capture and process the data. With rapidly evolving Federal data management, access, and cybersecurity policies, ARS requires data technology research that will help equip our scientists with technologies that help them maintain data compliance with those policies while delivering agility, innovation, and relevance. This project will lead the development, assessment, and deployment of high priority, cost effective IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, agricultural data standardization and integration, big data tools and analytics for greenhouse gas (GHG) flux measurement and monitoring, environmental feedback, and data-driven agricultural decision-making. The project will innovate data automation, integration, and visualization through operational leadership of the USDA ARS Partnerships for Data Innovations (PDI). This is envisioned as a data science and technology project delivering novel cost-effective sensors and process and data integration innovations. This will be a highly collaborative project with researchers, technicians, and data managers across ARS research units and our university partners. This specific agreement I covers our collaborative work with Grand Farm.
Approach:
This project will focus on the development of a Global Ecosystem of IoT and Sensor Technology and Research to Augment the Partnerships for Data Innovations (PDI) Tools. This work will consist of identifying private companies and researchers working on IoT and sensors in agriculture using multiple search methods; research identified organizations and researchers to populate information on the purpose of their technology and research in agriculture; develop relationships with accelerators and investment companies with an agriculture technology focus to learn about early-stage start-ups operating within the scope of this project; meet with organizations and researchers identified to gain a better understanding of their technology to build a specifications list for comparison; consolidate findings into manageable, regular reports for consumption by the project team; and, when requested, provide introductions to organizations and researchers with the project team to facilitate networking. The results of this work will be the beginning of a comprehensive and manageable list of the global IoT and sensor technologies, and the development of relationships with these organizations and researchers. As part of a Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement (NACA), Grand Farm will work cooperatively with the USDA ARS project teams, including university partners, to develop a comprehensive, manageable list of organizations and researchers focused on the IoT and sensors for agriculture use-cases. Grand Farm will act as a liaison to both provide information and connect this ecosystem to the project team consisting of University of Nebraska – Lincoln, North Dakota State University (NDSU), and USDA ARS.
