The new ‘Initiative for Biofertilizer Innovation and Science’ (IBIS) will catalyse the development and deployment of effective biofertilisers in the Global North and the Global South. The Novo Nordisk Foundation is co-funding the initiative with the Gates Foundation with a total of DKK 215 mio. allocated to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) over the next five years.
The current reliance on synthetic fertilisers is a key limiting factor for further increasing global food production. With resource scarcity and significant environmental burden, it is necessary to realise the full potential of biofertilisers, and the key to accelerate the needed foundational scientific understanding requires collaboration between academia and industry.
By facilitating and increasing biofertiliser use, the IBIS initiative seeks to enhance sustainability in agriculture. To balance the environmental impact, biofertilisers, which are microorganisms that help plants absorb nutrients, offer a sustainable alternative. They can improve nitrogen and phosphorus uptake, reducing the reliance on synthetic fertilisers we have today.
“Microbial biofertilisers are vital for sustainable food production, but widespread adoption is still limited by scientific and technical gaps. Through IBIS, we will generate the knowledge, tools, and frameworks needed to enable public and private actors to identify, develop, and scale robust solutions tailored to local needs and agricultural practices.” Says Associate Professor Rasmus J.N. Frandsen, Director of IBIS.
The initiative will be housed by the DTU Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine. “At DTU, we are proud to lead this global initiative and to foster the close collaboration between academia and industry that this challenge demands.” Rasmus ends.
A strong research base across the Global North and the Global South
IBIS will establish a comprehensive Open Innovation in Science funding program (OIS) to support the mission of IBIS to enable efficient development of local biofertiliser solutions. The funding program aims to establish an active research environment focused on foundational knowledge, tools, technologies, biological reference materials, and data sets, creating a global hub for stakeholders to find assistance, collaborators, partnerships, knowledge, and training.
“The IBIS project and IBIS OIS program are interconnected. The task is simply too complex for a single research group or company to solve alone, and this platform will enable collaboration between industry and academia. We want a platform, from which both researchers and companies can derive valuable input for the common good,” explains Mikkel Bülow Skovborg, Vice President of Innovation at the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The initiative will establish a strong research base across the Global North and Global South, addressing key knowledge gaps in biofertiliser biology, field performance, and manufacturing. Essential for this will be the creation of an end-to-end development pipeline for testing and characterising biofertiliser candidates, standardising efficacy testing in labs, greenhouses, and field trials.
“The IBIS initiative aligns perfectly well with supporting society in the green transition. IBIS represents an important step towards promoting high-yield sustainable agriculture by creating the foundation for reliable biofertiliser solutions that benefit both small farmers and large agricultural operations worldwide,” adds Claus Felby, Vice President of Agri-Food at the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
The IBIS partners are:
• Technical University of Denmark (Denmark)
• University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
• Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (India)
• Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa)
• Aarhus University (Denmark)
The partners will form two global teams across three regions, one focusing on the manufacturing of whole cell-based biofertiliser solutions and the second one focusing on the agronomy and field performance of biofertiliser solutions.
