The team for inspiring ideas

A laser scarecrow to protect sunflowers from bird damage? Melvin Huber from our Innovation Management team got this idea from aviation: A beam of light keeps birds away from landing and nesting on airports – so why not see if it wards off birds from our sunflowers? After a year of research, the team leased some fields in North Dakota in May 2023, sowed sunflower and set up the laser. Its beam tirelessly traverses the field all day long. And with success: An installed wildlife camera shows that the same animals did not return to the field after coming into contact with the light beam. The difference was particularly evident in comparison to the control field: There was 62 percent less bird damage on the field with the laser. In this way, the team was able to protect our sunflowers without the need for pesticides.

With Microsoft and Start-ups

Backed by their wide-ranging expertise, they work with established companies such as Microsoft, but also support promising start-ups. “That’s a great opportunity to get out of a silo mentality,” states Meredith Mendola, Operations Lead, who has been with the team since its inception. “There are lots of ideas with fantastic potential we might not yet know about. We can acquire valuable knowledge for KWS through our close collaboration with start-ups, universities, and other external organizations.”

Ideas can come from the team itself, but also from colleagues around the world. If a colleague asks the team for a soil sensor, for example, that sets the process in motion: The members look at whether the proposal has a benefit for KWS, what risks it harbors, and whether it fits in with our strategic objectives.

Then the scouting phase begins, in which the team starts to get an overview of the current state through networks, research and collaboration with external experts. They have a dedicated Technology Scout, Marina Shimono, who drives the search and evaluation of companies.

Once the technological roadmap has been finalized, the team sets up a pilot project, either through collaboration with an established company or a start-up, and sometimes by purchasing the solution if it’s available off-the-shelf. Finally, an assessment is made if the solution was viable and can be scaled further internally, or whether the team wants to change their hypotheses based on their learning and experiment again. “Some ideas and implementations work perfectly, but with others we realize that the concept doesn’t always shape up,” says Meredith Mendola. “Then we learn from that experience and do things differently next time.”