1 The problem Please describe the problem or
1. The problem Please describe the problem or opportunity for impact that your idea/solution address Note. A good description should include who has the problem (or what is the opportunity for impact), why it matters to them and any current techniques or solutions that are used (Approx. 250 words) Ecological alternatives to pesticides exist in agriculture and human health, such as augmentative biocontrol and sterile insect technique, and further novel alternatives (e. g. genetic tools such as gene drive) are currently being developed. These novel biocontrol management tools are deployed by a range of stakeholders, including consultants, cooperatives and pest management coordinators or local governments (particularly in human health) as well as the biocontrol industry, such as factories producing sterile insects who are undertaking and directing release programs. However, the current deployment of these tools across the landscape tends to be ‘ad hoc’ (akin to the formulaic application of a pesticide), and not necessarily well-integrated with monitoring strategies or other forms of management, nor optimized for efficiency. We believe there is an opportunity to increase the efficacy, accessibility and commercial viability of novel biocontrol tools by removing the guesswork from the questions of where, when and how many agents to release. To this end, we propose to develop an ecologically- and economically-informed decision-support tool for strategic spatial planning and monitoring of releases that can become a global industry standard across multiple biocontrol technologies. Ultimately, we believe this tool would enable releases of biocontrol agents to become as commonplace, effective and economic as chemical pest suppression, and ultimately for biocontrol to become competitive with other forms of pest control.
2. The solution (what is the value proposition of your idea) Please describe how your solution solves the problem or unlocks the opportunity for impact for your target market. (Approx. 250 words) We propose to develop an online software tool for spatial biocontrol release planning (how many, when and where to release), as well as provide expertise that allows for greater tailoring to particular tech, industry, landscape or pests. Based on ecological and economic knowledge as well as user-input data, the tool will help quantify where and when to release biocontrol tech in space and time to optimize pest suppression. The tool will also integrate monitoring data over time to evaluate success against goals set. No easily-available tools currently exist to the best of our knowledge that can aid spatial decision-making for releases in this manner across both agriculture and human health. We believe some of the key impacts of our solution to more effective deployment of biocontrol technologies would be to firstly take the ‘guesswork’ out of biocontrol releases, allowing users to move beyond applying them in the same manner as a pesticide. Second, it would make new biological control tools more accessible and cost-effective, allowing the industry to scale-up. We would achieve this by overcoming the complexity of biocontrol solutions, providing an ecologically- and economically-informed basis for release decisions. Third, we would be preparing the biocontrol industry for tomorrow’s solutions, today: as technology continues to evolve (e. g. gene drive) the same tools could be applied to answer the same release questions.
3. Target Market Please tell us who your potential customers or users will be, how many of them there are, and why they have the problem or the opportunity for impact that you have described above. (Approx. 250 words) Our target market would be agencies who plan release programs, which could span consultants/cooperatives and pest management coordinators, local governments (health) as well as the biocontrol industry, such as factories producing sterile insects who are undertaking and directing release programs. We also see the biocontrol industry as growing and expanding in new directions as technology continues to evolve (e. g. gene drive). These agencies would want to maximize the efficacy and efficiency in deploying their technology across multiple landscapes for multiple stakeholders, so that it is more likely to be competitive with other forms of pest control. They may also need to generate revenue and build customers for the technology, which will require that they have a means with which they can demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of their technology and deployment strategies. For example, if we take the sterile insect technique (SIT) industry globally, in human health and Agriculture, there are over 30 facilities currently generating sterile insects in both the developed and the developing world. Multiple sub-facilities or pest management coordination groups are associated with these facilities, and it is those groups (or in some cases the production facilities themselves) that are the organizations responsible for releases, and thus are our target market. *The IAEA (FAO) provide a directory of SIT facilities across the world (2018): https: //nucleus. iaea. org/sites/naipc/dirsit/Site. Pages/World-Wide%20 Directory%20 of%20 SIT%20 Facilities%20(DIRSIT). aspx
4. Impact Pathway Which impact area(s) does your idea most align to and what outcomes do you envisage your idea have and for who? For a visual overview of each Business Unit's Impact Plan click here. (For help on Impact areas, please contact Dr. Anne-Maree Dowd or Dr Tom Keenan from the Impact Team) H&B: Industry profitability and market access: Biosecurity threats to Agriculture Market access and trade Environmental health: Mitigating invasive species impacts (includes specifically ‘improved ecological knowledge and delivery of landscape scale, socially acceptable, biologically based management options and decision support tools’) Infectious disease: Including novel approaches to vector control A&F: Sustaining the base: offsite, pesticide losses to the environment reduced Closing yield gap: accelerate adoption of decision support tools and information delivery Harnessing digital agriculture 4 | Presentation title | Presenter name
5. What does your team want to achieve through this program? • An evaluation of whether our value proposition is consistent with what the market wants • Clearly identified and tested customers to define the best opportunity in this area • A pathway to build ideas to meet the market and customer needs 5 | Presentation title | Presenter name
6. What skills is your team missing IE: business development skills, commercialization, engineering, etc. • This will be used to find temporary members to fill in any skill gaps during the two day program. We have been investigating the possibility of getting someone from Data 61 to join us, particularly as we feel this proposal is very relevant to the current D+D (Domain + Digital) initiative. We would appreciate some assistance from ON in finding such a team member as so far we have not been successful (particularly as Data 61 appear to employ people only a contractual basis when it comes to webbased systems developers – the skills we felt were perhaps most relevant. ) 6 | Presentation title | Presenter name
7. Team Members • • Parry, Hazel (A&F, Dutton Park) hazel. parry@csiro. au Legros, Mathieu (A&F, Black Mountain) Mathieu. Legros@csiro. au Trewin, Brendan (H&B, Dutton Park) Brendan. Trewin@csiro. au Tapsuwan, Sorada (L&W, Black Mountain) Sorada. Tapsuwan@csiro. au Olivia Reynolds (NSW DPI) olivia. reynolds@dpi. nsw. gov. au Van Klinken, Rieks (H&B, Dutton Park) Rieks. Vanklinken@csiro. au Froese, Jens (H&B, Dutton Park) Jens. Froese@csiro. au Cate Paull (A&F, Dutton Park) Cate. Paull@csiro. au 7 | Presentation title | Presenter name
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