Two leaders from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences — Dean Germán Bollero and Kaiyu Guan, director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center — have been honored with awards from agInnovation North Central, recognizing their contributions to advancing agricultural research and collaboration across the land-grant system.

Their recognition highlights individual achievement and the collective impact of sustained, collaborative research efforts powered by federal investment.

agInnovation North Central connects researchers from land-grant institutions across 12 Midwestern states, catalyzing multistate research collaborations designed to address critical challenges in agriculture, food systems, and natural resource management. These efforts are rooted in strong, consistent federal funding, bolstered by state and private partnerships. 

Agricultural research supported through mechanisms such as the federal Hatch Act’s Multistate Research Fund has been shown to deliver a return of approximately $20 for every taxpayer dollar invested.

As uncertainty around future federal funding grows, leaders across the land-grant system stress the essential role of public investment to sustain the innovation needed to meet evolving societal needs.

"The strength of American agriculture — and our ability to meet future challenges — depends on robust, stable federal investment in research," Bollero said. "The land-grant mission is a promise to serve the public good through discovery and education, and today’s research collaborations across the North Central Region demonstrate how that investment continues to pay dividends for all."

Agricultural innovation is uniquely shaped by time. Unlike many fields where ideas can be tested and implemented rapidly, agricultural research requires years of careful field trials to evaluate and refine discoveries. From initial concept to implementation, it can take decades for breakthroughs, such as new crop varieties, climate-smart practices, or sustainability technologies, to move through research validation, regulatory review, and farmer adoption.

"Crops being developed today are designed for use nearly a quarter-century into the future," Bollero said. "With mounting pressures from climate change, resource constraints, and global food demands, agricultural research remains a cornerstone of national security, economic vitality, and community resilience. Sustained federal investment is essential to maintaining the research pipeline that will meet tomorrow’s food security and environmental challenges."

Bollero received the 2025 AgInnovation Excellence in Leadership Award for the North Central Region, recognizing leadership that strengthens multistate agricultural research and collaboration. Guan received the 2025 agInnovation Research Innovation Award of Excellence for advancing agricultural sustainability through AI, satellite sensing, and supercomputing. His work in real-time crop monitoring and environmental impact quantification has significantly influenced national agricultural policies and been widely adopted by the agricultural industry.

Both will be formally recognized later this year at either the 2025 agInnovation Fall Meeting in Milwaukee or the APLU Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.