Representatives of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation opened on Wednesday, October 23, a new, modern greenhouse in the Research Park.

The planned greenhouse will support the RIPE research project for Sustained Yield Increase, which is led by Illinois researchers Steve Long and Don Ort.

RIPE is funded by the Gates Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Research Foundation and the UK Government Department for International Development.

The greenhouse will become a modern plant phenotyping plant and will join the growing agro-technical cluster in the Research Park, which includes the world's largest seed companies, equipment manufacturers, retailers and bioprocessing leaders.

“The RIPE project is a prime example of how Illinois is moving forward to provide sustainable nutrition for our growing global population. Achievements in the field of digital agriculture, including this phenotype and our new Center for Digital Agriculture, are necessary for this goal to become a reality.

We are grateful to the Gates Foundation, as well as to Dr. Long and Orth for their commitment, ”said Kim Kidwell, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in Illinois.

Located on Fourth Street, south of St. Mary's Street, the building will be owned by the University of Illinois and will be managed by ACES College in collaboration with the Institute of Genomic Biology. Carla R. Woes.