History & Mission of Heartland Plant Innovations
About Us
HPI is a plant biotechnology company located in Manhattan, Kansas. Our company develops and applies advanced technology for gene discovery, trait validation and crop improvement to deliver new products and production platforms. Our core business is Advanced Plant Breeding Services. This includes doubled haploid technology, mapping population development, traditional crop breeding, wide-crossing, trait development, sequencing and various molecular breeding techniques. We also work with public and private plant breeders through proprietary projects to find new and innovative solutions.
Many highly skilled scientists and technicians make up our global research team at HPI. Our scientists have expertise in breeding, plant molecular biology, agronomy and plant management, and lab and greenhouse management. The entire team has exemplary technical skills necessary to deliver our core services.
HPI’s focus is on emerging commercial opportunities for wheat, sorghum and other crops – areas in which Kansas has world-renowned leadership and expertise. We work diligently with private and public partners to deliver new products and production platforms that target unique, high-value market opportunities.
What Makes HPI Different
What sets HPI apart from other plant research organizations is our expertise and innovative organizational structure that maximizes the complementary skills, interests, capabilities and resources of our public and private sector partners. We focus on three main areas:
- Identification and prioritization of targets for scientific investigations.
- Development and validation of concepts for new products and production platforms.
- Production of new knowledge that advances plant design capabilities and enables development, commercialization and delivery of new products.
History
Heartland Plant Innovations was founded in 2009 through a public and private collaboration of Kansas wheat producers and their state grower organizations, Kansas State University, the University of Kansas, and a number of individual and private company investors.
Our company was established with the goal of revolutionizing and accelerating innovation in plant breeding and genetics to meet the unprecedented opportunities to deliver market-driven research discoveries for rapid commercialization.
For the first five years of operation, HPI received critical startup funding through the Life Science Center of Innovation Program at the Kansas Bioscience Authority and private investors. With this funding, HPI was created as a 501(c)6 for-profit entity and established the initial vision and mission:
Our Vision
Create substantial new wealth in the state of Kansas through advancing plant biotechnology as measured by:
- New businesses
- Job creation
- Licensed technology
Our Mission
Accelerate research, development and commercialization of profitable innovations by achieving dramatic improvements in the market performance of wheat, sorghum and other crops.
Today, HPI relies solely on revenue generated from its core business services, proprietary research projects, and state and federal grants.