Three universities, one mission: Arizona's new agriculture innovation hub

When Stephanie Slinski assumed her role as associate director of applied research and development at the University of Arizona Yuma Center of Excellence for Desert Agriculture (YCEDA), she had a clear goal in mind: to work with anyone and everyone who could solve the pressing problems facing the region’s agricultural producers.

That mission is about to get a major boost in the form of a $3 million grant from the Arizona Board of Regents to create the Arizona Hub for Agriculture Innovation (AHAI). AHAI will bring together experts from the U of A, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University to address the real-world challenges faced by the state’s agriculture industry.

“Too often, we see brilliant researchers like data scientists and engineers who develop these wonderful technologies in the lab, but they never make it to the field,” Slinski said. “We wanted to figure out a mechanism for bridging that gap.”

Together with co-lead Tyler Smith of ASU’s Luminosity Lab and representatives from ASU and NAU, Slinski envisioned a model where scientists could bring their ideas or prototypes to a central hub that connects them with research collaborators across the state, provides them with funding, and facilitates the development process.

“Instead of having a request for proposals and making researchers do all the work to build a team, find a grower willing to work with them and navigate the process of getting prototype to commercialization, we’re going to say, ‘You have an idea – we’re going to help you with the rest,’” she said.

Focusing on practical impacts, right from the beginning

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Central to the AHAI vision is the commitment to develop practical, scalable tools and technologies that serve the state’s agricultural producers. Each research initiative will originate from a clearly identified need or challenge identified by industry stakeholders.

“We don’t want a situation where we have a solution in search of a problem,” Slinski said. “When researchers apply to our program, their projects have to address a specific problem statement submitted by our industry partners.”

Jon Chorover, environmental science professor and associate dean for research in the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, said the U of A’s leadership of the initiative is a direct expression of its identity as Arizona’s land-grant institution. He said the designation carries a specific responsibility to serve the state’s residents, industries and communities.

“We have the mission of bringing the university’s expertise to bear on the problems facing our state,” he explained. “That means that we invest a significant portion of our resources in research, teaching and outreach to improving the lives of people who live in Arizona. And historically, supporting agricultural production has been a major focus of those efforts.”

Innovation to meet the moment

AHAI includes two core programs. The Ag Innovation Lab will support teams developing precision agriculture technologies, helping move prototypes from early-stage concepts toward commercial implementation with hands-on support, workshops and access to startup acceleration programs at each university. The Ag Applied Research Program will fund more traditional applied research projects tied to producer-identified challenges in areas like soil health, food safety, crop resilience and water conservation.

Meeting those challenges is vital to the future of Arizona agriculture, as the industry faces mounting pressure from declining Colorado River flows, over-extracted groundwater supplies, labor shortages and climate change.

“We need to make sure our agricultural systems are sustainable and resilient under increasing constraints,” Chorover said, noting that Arizona is responsible for growing a significant share of the nation’s winter vegetables.

Advanced technology will only go so far, however. That’s why AHAI also plans to focus on developing a tech-savvy workforce to support producers’ efforts to innovate their industry.

“We really want to provide undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to work on these projects, to be inspired to work in agriculture,” Slinski said. “I think a lot of people have the mistaken idea that agriculture is an old-fashioned industry, but there are a lot of exciting opportunities in precision agriculture, in agricultural technology, in data science.”

A hub-and-spokes model built for Arizona

AHAI is structured around what Slinski calls a hub-and-spokes model, with Yuma serving as the operational center – home to a smart farm with dedicated broadband for real-world technology testing – and spokes extending to irrigated agriculture operations across the state.

“We have the opportunity to leverage the strengths of each of the universities,” Chorover said “At the U of A, we have really deep, broad expertise in fundamental agricultural sciences, and we have the Cooperative Extension system with expertise and infrastructure to disseminate research advances across the state. The other universities bring strengths to the table in terms of technology development, robotics, systems engineering, environmental science and remote sensing.”

An annual Ag Innovation Summit – rotating among the three university campuses – will bring farmers, researchers, policymakers and technology developers together each year to align priorities and build cross-sector relationships.

The grant covers three years of funding, but the team hopes to build AHAI into a permanent engine of agricultural innovation whose advances benefit arid land agriculture writ large.

“We want to help agriculture adapt to changing circumstances,” Slinski said. “The technologies that come out of the Arizona universities will support arid land agriculture in Arizona and across the world.”