The U.S. National Science Foundation, in coordination with partner agencies from Australia, India and Japan, today announced the first cohort of awards made under the Advancing Innovations for Empowering NextGen AGriculturE (AI-ENGAGE) initiative. This $2.4 million investment supports six international research projects that will harness artificial intelligence and critical emerging technologies to empower farmers and strengthen agricultural resilience across the United States and Indo-Pacific region.
AI-ENGAGE is a landmark collaboration between NSF, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization of Australia, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Harnessing global research expertise, we seek partners in areas in which we have shared goals to benefit the respective nations. This effort represents a signature achievement of the Quad, demonstrating how the four nations' shared commitment to critical and emerging technologies research can transform agriculture to address pressing global challenges.
The initiative fulfills a commitment to leverage emerging technologies for agricultural innovation. By focusing on AI-enabled scientific discovery in the agricultural sector, these projects advance the administration's goals of boosting national productivity and solving pressing societal challenges.
"By integrating current and emerging technologies, like AI, into agriculture, we are advancing scientific frontiers to provide U.S. farmers and their international counterparts with tools they need to increase crop yields, more effectively manage pests, strengthen agricultural resilience and ensure a more secure food supply," said Brian Stone, performing the duties of NSF director.
These six awarded projects address critical agricultural needs by developing user-friendly, AI-driven solutions:
- Purdue University (U.S., Japan, India and Australia): Developing autonomous aerial and ground robots (UAVs/UGVs) for early disease detection in apple orchards.
- Iowa State University (U.S., Japan, India and Australia): Creating "BRIDGE," an AI-based smartphone app and chatbot to help farmers identify and manage crop pests and diseases in real time.
- Kansas State University (U.S., Japan, India and Australia): Implementing "Smart Scout," a computer vision system to estimate soybean yield and detect "lodging" (falling over) of crops.
- Missouri University of Science and Technology / The University of Tennessee (U.S., Japan, India and Australia): Building the "HARVEST" system, which uses multimodal AI for pest and nutrient management in corn and rice.
- Washington State University (U.S., Japan and India): Advancing AI-driven genomic selection models to develop more resilient and productive wheat varieties.
- Cornell University (U.S., Japan and Australia): Developing image-based phenotyping tools to accelerate the breeding of high-quality tomatoes, onions, and strawberries.
The AI-ENGAGE initiative is unique in its requirement that every project involves researchers from at least three of the four Quad nations. This structure ensures an exchange of expertise and data, while simultaneously maintaining that each partner agency provides funding for its respective national researchers. NSF contributes approximately $2.4 million directly to the U.S. leads, while leveraging $4 million in funding from the other Quad partners supporting researchers in their respective countries, resulting in a combined investment of over $6 million.
