Leveraging Bio-Chemical and Greenhouse Gas Sensors for Sustainable Agriculture Innovations (BioSenseInnovations)

This award is funded by NSF Global Centers program, an innovative program that supports use-inspired research addressing global challenges through the bioeconomy. It is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering, the Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, and the Directorate for Geosciences. It supports U.S.-based researchers developing global international partnerships and building multi-stakeholder engagement to advance use-inspired research, in the aim to develop their project toward a large-scale international effort.

The BioSenseInnovations project is dedicated to tackling global challenges in nitrogen management, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and their interactions in relation to sustainable agriculture. It develops cutting-edge sensors that can detect nutrients, chemical compounds, soil microbiomes, and GHGs. Collecting these data in real time is essential for advancing precision agriculture and promoting sustainable practices.

By focusing on how soil, microbes, and plants interact, innovative technologies are conceptualized and generated to help farmers manage their crops more effectively and sustainably. The transdisciplinary team includes experts in chemistry, computational biology, omics, microbiology, and metabolic engineering. They develop and translate to the agricultural sector new nitrogen management strategies and GHG emission mitigation technologies.

The research takes place in key agricultural regions with primary test sites in the U.S. (corn research sites in Kansas). The mid-term goal is to extend this effort to potential partner countries, Canada (wheat sites in Quebec) and the UK (wheat sites in Sheffield), and ultimately globally. This project integrates research, education, stakeholder engagement and outreach.

It provides support and training to undergraduate and graduate students, notably from underrepresented groups in STEM, as well as outreach toward K-12 students, farmers and producers, and industry partners.

The researchers focus on the overall understanding of fertilizer, plant, and soil interactions. They prioritize three research thrusts: (1) creating innovative sensors to reliably sense and measure key nutrients (ammonium and nitrate) and GHG emissions (nitrous oxide and methane) by actuating processes within the soil-microbe-plant-environment continuum; (2) designing greenhouse gas (GHG) modeling systems and advanced machine and statistical learning techniques; (3) establishing and testing a biosensor network to monitor plants with Biological Nitrification Inhibitors (BNI) to support sustainable agriculture.

Additionally, they engage in crosscutting activities that include (4) stakeholder engagement and collaborative research initiatives to strengthen the global science and technology community, and (5) workforce development and educational programs. With collaborators in Canada and the UK, the team develops alternative nitrogen fertilizers including biofertilizers, biostimulants, and fertilizers derived from waste recovery.

It assesses how the complex soil-microbe-plant system and the environment (GHG emission) can be studied by the development and optimal deployment of low-cost sensors. These sensors measure nutrients’ presence in the fertilizers and the soil, microbial activities, GHG emission, pH, and moisture, as well as their spatial and temporal variations in real field applications.

This award is funded by NSF Global Centers program, an innovative program that supports use-inspired research addressing global challenges through the bioeconomy. This award support U.S.-based researchers developing global international partnerships and building multi-stakeholder engagement to advance use-inspired research, in the aim to develop their project toward a large-scale international effort.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.