It’s Johannes Dyring’s job to help turn ideas into profitable ventures.
And he sees opportunities for agriculture.
“I would say data management, even in agriculture production, is probably an area which is going to be very interesting to look at to increase productivity, to lower costs,” he said.
Dyring, who has taken over as managing director of the University of Saskatchewan’s Industry Liaison Office, said his new role involves assisting researchers, companies and entrepreneurs with their new technologies.
“My job is to find new exciting solutions to problems, needs in industry and society and link those needs with solutions that very well may come from the university.”
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Dyring had previously been chief executive officer of SLU HoldingAB, a subsidiary of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences . He said he increased productivity there by building relationships with re-searchers and the agricultural community.
“We gave advice to researchers, inventors, on how to commercialize their idea, and very often people, farmers came to me. Actually, farmers have often excellent ideas,” he said. “So we worked with them to develop their ideas to try to find capital.”
His work at the Swedish university led to an invitation to join the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry as an international fellow.
At the U of S, he said he wants to connect people with the university’s resources, but he will also promote the developments of the university’s researchers.
Dyring said he has thoughts about possible expansion areas for agriculture from what he has observed in Europe, including precision farming. He also said there’s potential in the areas of crop disease and crop management using real time sensors and data management.
“This is just my experience from Europe, where farmers look at these kind of solutions that could increase productivity, lower costs and also benefit … the environment.”
Dyring said he plans to familiarize himself with the area and get to know researchers and farmers before tackling big projects.
