NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – CosmosID announced today that it has partnered with the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Health to help develop new methods for sustainable food crop irrigation.
Last month, the university received a four-year, $10 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture to establish a center called CONSERVE: A Center of Excellence at the Nexus of Sustainable Water Reuse, Food, and Health, focused on finding ways to safely use non-traditional irrigation water on food crops.
According to CosmosID, the center will use its platform for metagenomic microbial identification and characterization as part of that project.
"It's exciting to be part of this effort developed by the University of Maryland because water reuse is a major challenge globally," CosmosID Founder and CSO Rita Colwell said in a statement. "This award by the USDA to the University of Maryland, College Park, School of Public Health is recognition of the strength of the formidable team clearly highly qualified to meet this challenge."