<b>By ANN HINCH<br>
Assistant Editor</b> </p><p>

FRANKFORT, Ind. — After 42 years of farming as an adult, not to mention a childhood spent on the farm, Clinton County resident Mike Beard is always eager to see new ideas for using the soybeans he grows.<br>

With the new year comes Indiana Soybean Alliance’s (ISA) newest program, INVEST – Indiana New Ventures and Enterprises in Soy Technology – designed to financially help individuals and small businesses (with fewer than 10 full-time employees) possessing new ideas for using soy-based products, get those products to customers. Ryan West, ISA director of new uses and technology commercialization, explained this might mean anything from product development to testing or marketing.<br>
“What we’re looking for is more than an idea in somebody’s head,” he said, adding the time and effort an applicant has spent trying to develop their idea will play heavily into the selection panel’s decision-making process.<br>

Ideally, what ISA would like is to help a person or business in the testing or refining stage of their new product or process. This way, the organization knows the grant recipient is serious about their venture and can provide that “final push” to launch their creation.
“ISA, historically speaking, has been very open and very good at finding new technology,” West said. INVEST, in its first year, seeks to continue that tradition by asking, “How do we get in touch with more of those types of items?”<br>

Funded by soybean checkoff revenue, INVEST has $125,000 available for this round of financial awards – that is, if the final result is even plural. West, whom Beard credits with the program’s idea, said realistically, the money may be distributed among a few winners, but it’s possible there could be only one recipient. Or none.<br>

“We want to make sure that we don’t shortchange anyone and, at the same time, that we’re doing the most good we can,” West explained.<br>

To his knowledge, Indiana is the only state using its checkoff dollars for such a program. “We have not found any other program that’s quite like this,” he said, adding while ISA is only advertising it locally for now, he is hopeful the board of directors will renew it for future years and that eventually it can be marketed nationally.
This application process is not limited to Indiana residents or businesses, nor is there a set formula for how heavily soy should be used in the winning entry(ies). But, West pointed out there are five categories of criteria the selection panel will use, and one is obviously relevant to soy.<br>

“If you took a ton of material and put in a teaspoon of soy, it’d be relevant … but probably wouldn’t score very well,” he said.
Beard said the point of INVEST is simple: To find new ideas and uses for the soybeans that ISA farmer-members grow. “Biodiesel was once just an idea,” he said – and while he acknowledged it’s been around for a long time, it wasn’t until lately that it was developed to feasibly use a sizable amount of soybeans.<br>

“About as close as we’ve come (to INVEST) is with Purdue (University), with the students,” Beard said, describing ISA’s annual Student Soybean Product Innovation Competition, which challenges small teams of young researchers to invent and develop environmentally-friendly soybean-based products. “It’s kind of a ‘Junior Achievement Gone Wild.’”<br>

West said the selection panel will be made up of, at minimum, the ISA Soy Utilization Chair from Purdue University, one individual from the finance/lending industry, one person from agribusiness, one from soy processing, one with the state government and two ISA board members. These people have not yet been appointed.
The deadline for entries is Feb. 29. Applicants must submit several materials, including a business plan, product summary, results of a patent search and a projected budget. Full guidelines may be downloaded at www.soy-invest. com/INVESTRulesGuidelines.pdf
Winners will be notified by March 31. West said the process is moving quickly because ISA starts its budgeting process in June and for the board to consider renewing INVEST for next year, he believes it would like to see that progress is being made by the recipient(s) at that time. Quicker approval, therefore, means work can begin sooner and more can be done by this summer, he added.<br>

Though Beard can’t speak for the rest of the board, for his part, if he sees something new taking shape in June, he’ll approve INVEST for a second year. “I would vote for such a program if we found opportunities here,” he said.<br>

To learn more, visit www.soy-invest.com online or contact West by e-mail at rwest@indianasoybean.com or by calling 317-347-3620.