ships, shadowing, trips to companies and employment,” says
Korn. It’s a constant source of well-educated talent for the
local private sector as well. For example, approximately 25
percent of Bayer’s 140 employees in its West Sacramento veg-
etable seed R&D center are UC Davis graduates. More than
half are millennials, capable of handling the technology
the industry requires, says Peter Visser, global head of trait
development, Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds in West
Sacramento.
As premium Seed Central members, private sector com-
panies receive reduced rates on overhead to fund early-stage
technology research at UC Davis. It drives a constant flow of
technology the university can license, and the private sector
can develop with the goal to commercialize new vegetable
varieties through plant breeding that are suited to global
market needs and today’s climate conditions.
Sakata Seed America
has an R&D facility and
research station in Wood-
land, and is a member
of Seed Central. “It’s a
very productive use of
our time to interact with
industry, academia and
future employees,” says
Jeff Zischke, senior di-
rector of research and
development at Sakata.
“Also, it gives us that net-
working time necessary to put the right people in touch with
[those who] are leading consortia at UC Davis.”
Sakata Seed America is part of a consortium funding
early research on carrot varieties to address the differ-
ent market needs of seed producers, carrot growers and
consumers, Zischke explains. In addition to consortiums,
individual companies can fund specific projects — HM
Clause in Davis is currently funding early-stage research
to identify traits that would improve texture and f lavor in
melons. Consortium funding by Seed Central members also
helped sequence the spinach genome to address resistance
to downy mildew, which increasingly infects California’s
spinach market.
This early-stage technology results in downstream eco-
nomics for UC Davis. Once it’s licensed to the private sector,
UC Davis may receive upfront licensing fees, milestone pay-
ments as the technology is developed, and royalties on net
sales once a product is on the market, explains Dushyant
Pathak, associate vice chancellor of research and executive
director, UC Davis Venture Catalyst.
UC Davis also develops its own plant varieties patents,
generating a large source of revenue, which can be reinvested
in university research and technology development. Seventy
plant variety patents managed by UC Davis generated nearly
$14 million in fiscal years 2015-2016, according to UC Davis
data provided by Pathak. UC Davis’ plant variety patents re-
sulted from traditional plant breeding in general, and none
from GMOs or gene edited technology, Pathak says.
But incubator space — where entrepreneurs and startups
can cultivate ideas into marketable products and businesses,
and spur local economic growth — are lacking in the Capital
Region. In response, the UC Davis-HM Clause Life Science
Innovation Center opened in 2014. The space provides UC
Davis faculty and students, and biotechnology entrepreneurs
and startups, a space to attract venture capital (also lacking
in the Capital Region) while they remain close to the univer-
sity and grow their ideas into
successful businesses, explains
Cecilia Chi-Ham, director of
Innovation, Intellectual Prop-
erty, and R&D Strategy at HM
Clause. And in December 2017,
Bayer CropScience opened the
newest incubator space in the
region at its West Sacramento
facility, the CoLaborator.
Incubators and innovative
hubs throughout California are
being united as a single net-
work called Verde Innovation Network for Entrepreneurship
through a $500,000 grant received by AgStart and UC Agri-
culture and Natural Resources in September 2017, explains
John Selep, president of AgTech Innovation Alliance, a non-
profit, which sponsors the efforts of AgStart.
The value of those connections is where the industry can
thrive, Chi-Ham explains, envisioning a future of globally
connected regions. And we’re beginning to see that, she says,
adding that companies from abroad want to come and incu-
bate at the UC Davis-HM Clause innovation center to be a
part of this strong agricultural market.
“So when we think of innovation, we can’t just think of it
being in Davis or being in Sacramento, Chi-Ham says. “We’re
really excited because agriculture is global. We all eat.”
Seventy plant variety patents
managed by UC Davis generated
nearly $14 million in fiscal
years 2015-2016.
Jennifer Berry writes about science, nature and the
environment. Her work has appeared in numerous
publications and on the air, from Highlights for Children to
Public Radio International. More at www.berryink.net.
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