More of a good thing for the CEA and cannabis industries: Dutch contract research organization Innexo BV and LED lighting solutions provider Fluence announced they’ve expanded their research partnership. Innexo’s new Acceleration Platform for Innovation (API) program will leverage Fluence’s VYPR Broad R4 LED lighting as API’s first round takes off.
True to Innexo’s focus on molecular farming and medicinal plants, the 2023 API program empowers innovative, small-scale companies adjacent to the cannabis industry to perform research in medical cannabis cultivation. The first round of participants, which includes biostimulant and fertilizer producers, will conduct research trials focused on plant health, strength and resilience under Fluence LEDs.
“Fluence is the natural choice for a lighting provider to support API because we share a common vision to make research accessible and drive technological innovations that unlock the future of medical cannabis cultivation,” said Dominique van Gruisen, co-founder and managing director of Innexo. “Fluence’s science-backed product development and in-house team of horticultural experts is unique among lighting providers. The insight and guidance API participants will receive from subject matter experts at Innexo and Fluence will accelerate their ability to build intellectual property through these research trials.”
In a LinkedIn post sharing Fluence’s announcement of its 2023 API support, Fluence Principal Scientist David Hawley wrote, “… when Dominique approached us about lighting his ‘Acceleration Platform for Innovation’ (API) at Innexo, a program that lowers the financial barrier to entry for would-be cannabis researchers, it was with great enthusiasm that we provided the lighting hardware. This is particularly good for the incoming researchers because they can now execute their research under our R4 spectrum, the most predominant spectrum in the European cannabis market; the researchers don’t need to be concerned that they’re working in a light environment that isn’t commercially relevant, and/or that their results might be confounded by unusual lighting.”
The Fluence booth at GreenTech Amsterdam 2023, June 13-15, will host a series of research sessions featuring van Gruisen, Hawley and Sebastian Olschowski, Fluence EMEA research project manager.
Image source: Innexo BV.