Adelaide, South Australia-The Mosaic Co. has joined with the University of Adelaide to establish a $5 million center for developing and evaluating advanced fertilizers in an arrangement that gives Mosaic commercial rights to whatever emerges from the research, according to word from both parties. Mosaic’s top official in Australia described what will be called the Mosaic Fertilizer Technology Research Center as a good deal for his company. “This is a unique opportunity to collaborate with a research group that is recognized internationally for the quality of its work on fertilizer technology and techniques,” declared Peter Cameron, managing director of Mosaic International Australia. “Through this research center at the University of Adelaide, Mosaic’s global operations will have access to world-leading expertise and facilities in the Asia-Pacific region. This will expand and enhance Mosaic’s capabilities in new product development and evaluation. The research group’s innovation will play an important role in helping to provide leading-edge products to agricultural customers across the world.” Prof. Mike McLaughlin, with the university’s School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, told Green Markets that the research won’t deal with nitrogen but instead will focus on improving the efficiency of sulfur, phosphorus, potash, magnesium and other trace elements. “We are looking at improving formulations for various fertilizer types globally,” McLaughlin noted. McLaughlin will lead the research with his associate Dr. Sam Stacey. Under an agreement with the university’s commercial development company, Adelaide Research & Innovation, Mosaic will fund research at the new center in return for commercialization rights and a share of the intellectual property. McLaughlin said the new research center will enable the University of Adelaide to expand its current research in this area, and to develop new techniques for fertilizer formulation and evaluation. “As well as providing research to underpin the development of new fertilizer technologies,” he pointed out, “a major role of the center will be to contribute to the evaluation of Mosaic’s products under laboratory and field conditions, both here in Australia and overseas. The close relationship with Mosaic will provide us with a clearly defined pathway for our research outcomes to benefit agriculture.”
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain