Crop Modeling Project Awarded $5M
- Next Generation Crops

FFAR was created to advance innovative science that addresses food and agriculture’s most pressing challenges. This project is a perfect example of using technological advances to identify how crops will respond to environmental stressors and how to help the crops thrive despite environmental changes – all while saving time, money and making this platform publicly available. Supplying ample food for a burgeoning population will depend on transformative projects like Crops in silico.Sally Rockey, Ph.D.
Executive Director
This grant extends the original project, which created a platform to link computational models to simulate plant growth and development. The new funding will allow researchers to quickly and accurately test how a plant responds to a combination of changes. The grant also makes the entire platform available to the public.
Co-Investigators on the grant include Illinois’ Matthew Turk, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA); Stephen P. Long, Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences; Kaiyu Guan, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences; and Meagan Lang, NCSA Research Scientist. Collaborators from other institutes include Jonathan Lynch, Professor of Plant Science at Pennsylvania State University; Bedrich Benes, Professor of Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue University; Lee Sweetlove, Professor of Plant Sciences at Oxford University; and James Schnable, Assistant Professor of Agronomy and Horticulture at the University of Nebraska.
“This approach has already identified opportunities that resulted in successful field trials by optimizing single processes like photosynthesis or single organs like root architecture,” said Steve Long. “By scaling up our work to whole plants and fields, we can move years ahead in optimizing plants for different growing conditions.”
The Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment at Illinois provided $350,000 in seed funding to establish the original Crops in silico project in 2015 in collaboration with NCSA, which has provided $212,000 in seed funding, designed the Cis infrastructure and interface and developed many of the tools used to visualize crops and simulate conditions. Marshall-Colón and Turk received a $274,000 grant from FFAR in 2017 to extend this work.
“We are so grateful for the support we have received from FFAR, iSEE and NCSA,” Marshall-Colón said.
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Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization originally established by bipartisan Congressional support in the 2014 Farm Bill, builds unique partnerships to support innovative and actionable science addressing today’s food and agriculture challenges. FFAR leverages public and private resources to increase the scientific and technological research, innovation and partnerships critical to enhancing sustainable production of nutritious food for a growing global population. The FFAR Board of Directors is chaired by Mississippi State University President Mark Keenum, Ph.D. and includes ex officio representation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Science Foundation.
Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking
Media Contacts:
Tony Mancuso, Communications Director, Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Environment, 217-300-3546, tmancuso@illinois.edu
Tiffany Jolley, Strategic Content Specialist, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 256-225-3879, tjolley2@illinois.edu
Sarah Goldberg, FFAR, 202-624-0704, sgoldberg@foundationFAR.org