Center for Crops Utilization Research at Iowa State University

Supporting the Agricultural, Food and Biotech Industries Across the U.S.

At Center for Crops Utilization Research (CCUR), our mission is to identify, coordinate, facilitate and foster mission-oriented interdisciplinary research (both basic and applied), development, technology transfer, and commercialization activities that will increase and enhance utilization of Midwestern crops, and create new agricultural utilization enterprises in Iowa.

We believe no grain or crops should leave the state without “adding value,” Iowa remains the world’s primary source of food and feed ingredients, biofuels and biobased products, and Iowa State University becomes the internationally recognized source of new crop utilization technologies.

Serving the Industry

Strategic Areas at ISU Center for Crops Utilization Research

FOOD PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

Located in epicenter of “America’s Breadbasket” and supported by a large land-grant university, CCUR has a long history with strong visibility and reputation in food processing technology development. Affiliated faculty from fifteen departments in five colleges at Iowa State have earned international reputations by pioneering a variety of new products from agricultural resources and developing new processes. The state-of-art equipment enable the successful implementation of those technologies.

INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

In the past decade, academic interest in biocatalyst development has been growing strong nationwide. However, few academic successes have become commercial successes due to the lack of infrastructure for a biomanufacturing process and downstream purification. CCUR has been focusing on investing biomanufacturing infrastructures and training workforce for translational research and development. With its state-of-art infrastructure and staff experiences and expertise, CCUR is well positioned to help its partners to excel in the industrial biotechnology arena.

What Our Partners Say About Working with Us!

We are a startup out of XXXX….. We needed help with scaling up our manufacturing process, and had discussions with numerous potential partners, including with various corporations, with CCUR, and with analogous centers at XXX, XXX, XXX and XXX. We were impressed by the prompt and clear communications we had with Dr. Wen, and decided to collaborate with CCUR.

It was clear to us that CCUR staff are well trained. One can see that right away in the small, repetitive motions, which were carefully and efficiently conducted by all CCUR staff during the experiments. We were also impressed by the equipment CCUR owns. CCUR has the capacity to help companies like ours progress through numerous steps in the Manufacturing Readiness Level scale, from early development, to pilot, to pre-commercial scale.

…. my colleagues and I would like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation to you. You are a phenomenal partner to us and we rarely experience such good technical and customer service in our fermentation partners. We absolutely understand that things have been crazy since COVID set in and we appreciate you being so proactive and checking the status of the fermentation equipment. 


















Facilities & Equipment at  Research Center





Home to some of the best laboratory, processing, and training facilities at Iowa State University, explore the equipment and facilities available through CCUR that you can access when you partner with us.




























FACILITIES





It’s important to us that our facilities are up to all standards and code when we conduct research for the crop industry. Learn more about all of the types of facilities we operate!














EQUIPMENT





From our fermentation facility to our analytical lab, our research center houses top of the line equipment for research and development within the agriculture and crop industries.







































Partner with Us at the ISU Center for Crop Utilization Research Center!







Serving the Industry