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Open Innovation Platform Agro

Is your chemical compound active as a crop protection agent? Become BASF's innovation partner. Just send us a sample and we will do the in vivo screening for you. Read more about the whole Open Innovation Platform process.

What's the benefit?

The Open Innovation Platform (OIP) Agro enables scientists to submit their compounds for biological evaluation in BASF's preliminary in vivo screen. Results from this test will be provided to the participant and can be used for scientific publications in accordance with the OIP Agro agreement.

What do we want?

For biological evaluation, we are interested in single chemical compounds (no extracts or mixtures), fragment-like molecules, small organic molecules and natural products.

Who are we looking for?

The Open Innovation Platform Agro is open to scientists from: universities, research institutes, biotech companies and pharmaceutical companies.

Benefits for innovation partners

  • All biological results from the preliminary tests will be provided to the participant and can be used for scientific publications in accordance with the OIP Agro agreement. 
  • Interesting hits from in vivo tests may also be included in our philanthropic public health programs against human pathogens (e.g. malaria) . Those results will be also available to the participant.
  • Synthesis cost for the re-ordered compound for further in vivo tests could be reimbursed.
  • Free shipping of participant compounds to BASF. To ensure the best solution and simple procedures, we also provide you right packaging materials (vials, boxes and labels).
  • A further collaboration with BASF may be developed, based on interesting results generated in the preliminary screening. 
A photo of Anna Michrowska in a lab

Steps of the OIP Agro process

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future crop protection_samples.jpg

Steps 1 to 3

Your OIP Agro journey begins once you, or respectively your institution, enter into the OIP Agro agreement (available on request from oipAgro@basf.com) with BASF. In the next step the participant submits compound structures to the OIP Platform. An account is created for the participant´s institution with multi-user log in.

An in silico analysis (virtual screening) is used to determine whether the participant’s compounds fit our desired compound profile. The confidentiality of the structures is assured and the structures themselves are not integrated into the internal compound database at this stage. If the participant’s compounds fulfil our requirements, we will request the participant to submit compound samples for the biological evaluation.

At any stage of the cooperation, the participant is free to discontinue cooperation with BASF.

Importantly, all intellectual property (IP) rights remain by default with the participant, unless decided differently based on the further cooperation contract.

Laboratory staff

Steps 4 to 6

For biological evaluation the minimum amount of compound we will accept is 2 mg (the standard amount is 8 mg). Samples should be delivered in a dry form (no solutions in solvents).

Compounds submitted by the participant will be evaluated in preliminary in vivo tests as potential herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. All biological results from the preliminary tests will be provided to the participant by the OIP Agro team. In case participant's compound(s) show activity in the first assays, we would ask you to provide us with a larger amount of the selected compound(s) (20-50 mg) if possible. The OIP Agro team may choose to reach out to certain participants to negotiate in good faith further cooperation conditions that are in the interest of both parties. 

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