Dashboard and timeline

The charge

June 2020

• Kansas Board of Regents charged all KBOR institutions developing and implementing a plan to bring jobs and direct investment into the state of Kansas.

Conception

2020-2021

• K-State identified four areas of expertise that align with statewide and regional priorities and that would allow the university to engage and attract industry to locate and invest in the state.
• A multi-unit group was formed — K-State, K-State Innovation Partners, and the KSU Foundation — to develop the metrics, outcomes and deliverables.
• The plan was presented to KBOR with the promise to add 3,000 jobs and $3 billion in direct investment to the Kansas economy by 2029.

Execution

2022

• Focus area task forces were formed to make recommendations to university leadership on priority areas for action and the best path for success.
• March:
  • HydroGraph Inc. announced it will be locating a new facility in Manhattan.
• April:
  • Scorpion Biological Services Inc. announced it will be building a 500,000-square-foot biodefense-focused large molecule and biologics biomanufacturing facility in Manhattan.
• Other major awards:
  • $1.3M from USDA for NIFA CAP: "Leveraging high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping technologies to accelerate wheat improvement and mitigate the impacts of climate change technologies to accelerate wheat improvement"
  • $3M from USAID for The Management Entity of the Sorghum and Millet Innovation Lab
  • $1M from USAID for the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of PostHarvest Loss
  • $1.5M from USAID for Rapid Development of Climate Resilient Wheat Varieties for South Asia Using Genomic Selection
  • $1.5M from USDA for "Novel sanitation approaches to control Listeria biofilms in the organic produce industry"
  • $1.3M from KDHE for Kansas Watershed Specialists SFY23
  • $1M from USDA for "Using vulnerability analysis to guide woody plant control outreach efforts in support of maintaining and improving NRCS's Kansas Great Plains Grassland Initiative-identified core grasslands in Kansas"
  • $1.9M from DOE for "B5: Bigger Better Brassicaceae Biofuels and Bioproducts"
  • $1.5M from NSF for RII Track-2 FEC: "BioWRAP (Bioplastics With Regenerative Agricultural Properties): Spray-on bioplastics with growth synchronous decomposition and water, nutrient, and agrochemical management for enhanced field crop production"
  • $2M from US DOC EDA for the TDI Digital Manufacturing Technology Program
  • $2M from EPA for Technical Assistance to Brownfields Communities Cooperative Agreement
  • $2.3M from NIH for the Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
  • $1.5M from DHS for "Food, Agriculture & Veterinary Resiliency Effort to Enhance the Readiness of the Food and Agriculture Sector"

2023

• August:
  • Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus, in partnership with Pure Imagination Studios, the Salina Airport Authority and the state of Kansas, will establish a $41 million, one-of-a-kind spatial computing studio and learning center.
  • K-State College of Education received a $2.6 million federal grant to bring its teacher education program to local school districts and community colleges in an effort to combat statewide and national teacher shortages.
  • Kansas State University's Technology Development Institute helped a Manhattan company develop custom equipment that reduces labor and production time for its unique coin stamping business.
  • The Kansas Department for Children and Families has awarded more than $5 million in initial funding for a collaborative project involving K-State.
• September:
  • K-State launches next-gen Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics.
  • The K-State 105 initiative is supporting small business development in northwest Kansas through a collaborative approach that leverages the expertise and small business connections of higher education and statewide and regional partners.
• October:
  • K-State to lead $22 million Feed the Future Climate Resilient Cereals Innovational Lab awarded by USAID.
  • The United States Economic Development Administration has selected Kansas State University's Technology Development Institute for continued participation in the nationwide University Center program.
  • A coalition of Kansas City regional organizations, including Kansas State University, has been selected as one of 31 Tech Hubs by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration.
  • Technology Development Institute has partnered with PlainsCraft to support international shipping for a unique product: covered wagons for glamping.
• November:
  • The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities has recognized Kansas State University's engagement efforts with a 2023 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Award.
• Other major awards:
  • $1.15M from USDA via UNL for Midwest/Central Plains Regional Food Business Center
  • $3M from USDA for Quantifying Nutrient Budgets in the Farmer to Farmer Digital Conservation Network
  • $1.9M from NSF for PlantTransform: The Genetic Basis of Maize Regeneration and Applications to Plant Transformation
  • $1.4M from NSF for Supporting rural livelihoods in the water-stressed Central High Plains: Microbial innovations for climate-resistant agriculture
  • $7.66M from FFAR for "Increasing water productivity, soil carbon, and sustainability of integrated multi-crop systems using field scale research
  • $1 M from USDA for FogAg: A novel fog-assisted smart agriculture framework for multi-layer sensing and real-time analytics of water-nitrogen colimitations in field crops

Future

• We anticipate future announcements of new partnerships, new funding/investments, new university-industry research activity, new capital projects and new initiatives that support, enable and animate K-State's bold Economic Prosperity Plan.