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Fortenberry achieves $11M in funding for USDA agriculture research facility at Nebraska

Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, was successful in achieving $11.2 million in federal funding for the planning and design of a USDA Agricultural Research Service facility.

The funding is included in the federal 2021 omnibus appropriations bill, which was approved by Congress yesterday. Fortenberry said the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be the site of the facility.

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Nebraska Innovation Campus

200,000 gallons and 6,000 miles — The man who helped sanitize Nebraska, and the team that produced it

In early April, when the pandemic was keeping most Nebraskans home, Lew Sieber started setting his alarm for 4 a.m.

The 57-year-old would leave his northwest Lincoln home in the dark, headed for Innovation Campus and a 5,000-gallon tanker truck. He wanted to be first in line when the Green Plains ethanol plant near York opened at 7, and he had nearly an hour’s drive west ahead of him.

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Lew Sieber, manager of the Nebraska Forest Service Fire Shop, with the tank truck he used to haul 200,000 gallons of ethanol across the state to be mixed into hand sanitizer.

Nebraska PPE partnership project receives Excalibur Award at AURP 2020 International Conference

The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) announced recipients of the Awards of Excellence during the 2020 virtual international conference. The Nebraska PPE Partnership Project, a partnership between Nebraska Innovation Studio (NIS), the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Food Processing Center and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, received the Excalibur Award.  

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Hand sanitizer production facility at the Food Innovation Center

Students, Innovation Studio team up to help Whiteclay Makerspace

In a small way, a group of University of Nebraska–Lincoln students and staff are helping Whiteclay, Nebraska, make a big change.

Through a partnership with Rotary International District 5610 out of southern South Dakota, staff from Nebraska Innovation Studio and students from the College of Engineering learning community, Engineering to Change the World, made 30 individual toolboxes for Native American artists who are utilizing the new and developing Whiteclay Makerspace.

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Students assemble toolboxes in Nebraska Innovation Studio on Oct. 17. The boxes will be given to the Whiteclay Makerspace.

Virtual Incision Receives Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to Initiate Study of First-of-its-Kind MIRA Platform

Virtual Incision Corporation, a medical device company pioneering a first-of-its-kind miniaturized surgical platform, today announced it has received an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the company’s MIRA® (“miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant”) Platform.

The IDE will allow the company to initiate a clinical study of MIRA at a limited number of U.S. hospitals in support of the system’s regulatory pathway to approval.

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Virtual Incision Receives Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to Initiate Study of First-of-its-Kind MIRA Platform

On Nebraska Innovation Campus, The Combine incubator hatches new agtech startups

Before Seattle-based Costco broke ground on its $280 million poultry operation in Fremont in 2017, Scott Niewohner remembers a conversation with his cousin about the pros and cons of building barns to raise chickens to supply the plant. 

Chief among the cons, according to Niewohner’s cousin: daily retrieval of the dead birds scattered throughout the barns, which at a ‘typical’ capacity can contain up to 50,000 chickens at once.

“He said he wanted nothing to do with picking up all those dead birds every day,” Niewohner remembers.

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Photo courtesy of The Combine

How a Biomedical Engineer Helped Meet the Need for Hand Sanitizer During the Pandemic

In March of 2020, many people began moving to working and learning from home as coronavirus made its way across the nation. Hand sanitizer was hard to find, not only for individuals and families—but for businesses and organizations on the front lines and for essential workers. From ingredients to make hand sanitizer to plastic to package it, supplies were low and availability was limited.

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Hunter Flodman

Agtech incubator at Innovation Campus gets $600,000 grant

An incubator program for agricultural startups that's based at Nebraska Innovation Campus has received a $600,000 grant from the federal government.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced Monday that Invest Nebraska was one of 52 organizations from 36 states receiving a Venture Challenge grant to support entrepreneurship, acceleration of company growth, and increased access to risk capital across regional economies.

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The Rise Building (right), is home to the Combine Incubator at Nebraska Innovation Campus.

NIC hosts drive-in screening of Le Sueur documentary Sept. 30

“The Art of Dissent,” a feature documentary film by historian James Le Sueur, explores the role of artistic activism during Czechoslovakia’s communist takeover and nonviolent transition from communist power. It will be screened as a free drive-in film at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at Nebraska Innovation Campus, 2021 Transformation Drive, in the northwest corner of the A lot.

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James Le Sueur's new documentary, "The Art of Dissent," explores the role of artistic activism during Czechoslovakia’s communist takeover and nonviolent transition from communist power.

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