PEORIA, Ill. – A “state of the art” veterinary innovation academy that will serve as both a learning center and an ag-tech business incubator is coming to the University of Illinois campus.

Designed to reflect the embodiment of a land grant university for the 21st century, the Illinois Veterinary Innovation Academy (IVIA) will develop new ways to use technology in the delivery of veterinary care while building on the college’s world-class educational programs for veterinarians, allied industry and animal owners.

“We think that technology is going to be the biggest change in animal care and health,” said Dr. Jim Lowe, associate dean of online programs and Extension for the U of I College of Veterinary Medicine. He believes the U of I’s sustainable competitive advantage, achieved through its learned student body and reliable land grant funding, will lead the technological transformation of animal health.

“The IVIA will help to position the U of I and the state in general at the forefront of this transition in animal health,” Lowe said.

The IVIA, which will be housed among the university’s famed round barns, will strive to establish scholarly excellence in the measurement, analysis and prediction of animal health. It will also provide excellence in the application of synthetic biology to animal health while training and developing an animal care workforce. Lowe did not disclose a cost for the project, which will breathe new life into historic round barns located on the U of I campus.

“With the round barns (circa 1910, 1912 and 1914) we have a cool spot with the Office of Veterinary Medicine nearby. We’re going to build the facility adjacent to this. The round barns suggest the significance of what the university has done over time,” Lowe told a group of ag-tech professionals who attended a Sept. 17 Greater Peoria Ag-Tech Connect meeting at Distillery Labs, a business incubator in Peoria.

Lowe and his colleagues are currently working on veterinary knowledge synthesis and transfer, health measurement, analysis and prediction. AI will be a big part of training future veterinarians, with surgical skills taught using Oculus-type vision headsets. To that end, they are currently working on utilizing computer vision to help resolve issues with animal comfort in relation to Proposition 12 requirements. They are also studying the interaction of AI into the modeling of animal disease transmissions.

In addition to serving as a state-of-the-art veterinary research and development hub, the IVIA will also function as a low-cost business incubator for ag-tech startup businesses. This will help the university to cover the cost of sustaining the barns (re-roofing will cost $1 million per structure) and constructing the IVIA building, which will be modeled after the historic barns.

“We have worked out a low-cost fee-per-service model. We have a team with a lot of experience in field-based R-and-D that will help you work on your project in the animal health and livestock space, and take it to market. We have a business consulting team. You’ll have full access to campus-wide resources and support programs, including mentoring, and within campus we have a (patent) legal consultant,” Lowe said. 

Funding for the innovation center was granted to the College of Veterinary Medicine through the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Investment for Growth (IFG) program for FY24.

“By developing a vibrant community of clinicians, technologists, and educators, we aim to develop technology-based care delivery systems that improve the consistency and quality of care across providers, which, over the long term, can help address the global problem of inadequate access to quality medical care for animals and people,” Lowe said.