We have been working with IALR through the many growth stages of our company and could not have asked for better partners along the way. IALR's state of the art facilities and talented scientific team have helped us take our RNA technologies from lab to field.
- Ameer Shakeel, Founder, CTO / AgroSpheres
Through this new programming and leveraging of expertise and infrastructure, we have the opportunity to drastically increase domestic seafood and produce production within the state, region, and country, enhancing food safety, security, sustainability, and most importantly, socioeconomically within our agriculture economies.
- Michael Schwarz / Virginia Tech Virginia Seafood Agricultural Research and Extension Center
We are excited to house this facility on the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research’s campus and to benefit from both the technology developed and the associated economic development opportunities it provides for the region. Consumer demand for healthy, local and pesticide-free produce is high, and will continue to increase in the coming decades. We look forward to serving this need through controlled environment agriculture.
- Scott Lowman, Ph.D / Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
We are delighted that the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have combined their expertise to create a top program in controlled environment agriculture. This collaborative effort is creating tremendous energy and excitement because of its potential to provide innovative solutions to the agricultural community. Partnerships like this will help us realize the vision of the SmartFarm Innovation Network Initiative to support the agriculture industry.
