AgStart Announces New Innovation Lab

By Tim Hammerich with the Ag Information Network

AgStart, the Woodland-based, food and ag incubator program, announced a public-private collaboration to fund a new, shared-use innovation lab. When complete, the $1.3 million ‘Lab@AgStart’ will feature a fully-equipped shared-lab and kitchen space as well as a co-working office space

John Selep is President of the Agtech Alliance, which is the non-profit parent organization for the AgStart Program.

“A lot of these companies, a lot of the technology-based innovations they have require some development and refinement, testing, et cetera,” Selep said. “And one of the things that a lot of startup companies have been sharing with us is they really are struggling to find space.”

“If they’re a postdoc or graduate student coming out of UC Davis, anything they do on UC Davis campus is owned by the university. Any intellectual property they come up with, any refinements to inventions or developments they do on the UC Davis property are owned by the university. And so it’s imperative for them to find an off-campus facility where they can conduct their research and innovation, and particularly the commercialization and refinement, so that they own those developments themselves,” he said.

Selep said the facility will be open to all qualifying entrepreneurs, not just people from the university. It is designed to accommodate development and commercialization of technologies that relate to agriculture, food, and health.

A broad coalition of public and private funding sources have been assembled to finance this project. Learn more at AgStart.org.