- The award-winning project replaces traditional cereal-based substrates with liquid fermentation for fungal cultivation, reducing production time by approximately 50% and enhancing operational control.
- The Rovensa Next R&D team in Brazil outpaced 49 competitors at the IEL Talent Awards in São Paulo to win the Innovative Project category and secure a spot in the national finals.
- The manufacturing innovation reinforces Rovensa Next’s commitment to scaling highly effective, science-backed biosolutions for growers worldwide
Madrid, September 30, 2026. Rovensa Next, the global leader in biosolutions for agriculture, has been awarded first place in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, in the Innovative Project category of Inova Talentos, an initiative of the IEL Talent Awards.
The winning project, “Biological input production platform through liquid cultivation of filamentous fungi”, was developed by Rovensa Next’s Research and Development (R&D) team in Brazil, with the participation of fellow Lara Bianchetti and under the mentorship of Dr. Rafael Rocha, R&D Coordinator at Rovensa Next. Competing against 49 projects in the category and sharing the podium with companies such as Hyundai and Natura, the recognition secured the team’s participation in the national stage of the awards, which will take place in Curitiba, Paraná, in December 2026.
For Johana Rincones, Global R&D Manager at Rovensa Next, the achievement underscores the team’s ability to compete on a broader industrial scale. “By bringing together projects from different sectors of the national industry, the IEL Awards create a highly competitive and qualified environment. In this context, achieving first place among companies with a recognized track record of innovation reinforces the strategic relevance and transformative potential of the initiative developed by Rovensa Next.”
According to Rincones, the project began approximately two and a half years ago within the Inova Talentos program, which brings companies, researchers and professionals together in research and innovation projects.
Transitioning from rice-based to liquid fermentation
The project’s key differentiator is its modernization of the traditional process used to cultivate fungi for agricultural biological inputs. Historically, a large proportion of companies producing biological crop protection products have relied on cereals, such as rice, as a solid substrate for fungal growth. The team’s proposal was to replace this process with a technology based on liquid fermentation.
The research focused on the Trichoderma koningiopsis strain, isolated by Dr. Sérgio Mazzaro and Dr. Maira Schuster from SRM Brazil Technology, who partnered on the project from its inception. According to Rafael Rocha, laboratory and field studies contributed to validating the efficiency of the strain also in the new process developed by the team.
Enhancing productivity, control, and efficiency
The shift to liquid fermentation delivers measurable benefits across different stages of production. By fusing innovative separation, drying, and formulation stages, the platform developed significantly reduces the time required to cultivate the microorganism by approximately 50%, driving major efficiency gains while concurrently increasing overall productivity and reproducibility. Furthermore, this model provides greater operational control, minimizing the losses that typically occur during extraction and separation. This standardization is essential for preventing contamination and ensuring the quality and reliability of biological inputs.
While liquid fermentation is widely used in the production of various microorganisms and bioproducts, Rovensa Next’s advancement lies in adapting this proven platform specifically for fungal spore production, expanding the possibilities for the use and development of biological solutions for agriculture. Developed with a focus on semi-industrial scale-up, the technology has already undergone field validation, demonstrating agronomic performance on par to positive controls.
Innovation with potential for agriculture
Beyond improvements in the production process, the technology supports the expansion of agricultural biological inputs, a growing market in Brazil and globally. The platform can be applied to the production of biological solutions for large-scale crops such as soybeans and corn and has the potential to be used with other fungi of agricultural interest.
For Rovensa Next, the achievement recognizes both the technology developed and a working model that integrates applied research, talent development and industrial innovation.
The Innovative Project category of Inova Talentos honors companies, fellows and mentors involved in research, development and innovation projects, evaluating originality, impact, and scalability. “This award represents the result of a great deal of work, learning and collaboration,” said Lara Biancheti. “I am very proud to be part of this achievement and grateful to Rovensa Next and Inova Talentos for the opportunity to bring scientific research closer to the needs of the industry, generating innovation for agriculture,” added.
Scaling these production capabilities allows the company to provide distributors and growers with effective solutions to meet their needs. This industrial milestone reinforces Biosolutionize Agriculture, Rovensa Next’s science-backed campaign that shows how biosolutions help growers improve performance, profitability, cut synthetic load and farm more sustainably across crops and climates worldwide.
About Rovensa Next
Rovensa Next is the global leader in biosolutions for agriculture. With over 2,200 employees spread around the world, Rovensa Next markets its products in over 90 countries. It brings together a global network of 39 R&D laboratories, excellence centers, fields, and greenhouses, 12 production plants, over 170 partnerships with research centers and universities, 100 R&D and innovation specialists and a dedicated team of more than 850 field experts.
Rovensa Next markets the broadest biosolutions portfolio in the industry, including biostimulants, biofertilizers, bionutrition, biocontrol, and adjuvants. The company builds on innovative technologies and farming practices, supporting distribution partners and growers with holistic solutions to increase profitability, boost yields and maximize performance.
Rovensa Next is the result of the integration of twelve pioneering sustainable companies with decades of successful track record in biosolutions: Agrichembio, Agro-K, Agrotecnologia, Cosmocel, Idai Nature, Microquimica, MIP Agro, Oro Agri, OGT, Rodel, SDP, and Tradecorp.
For more information, please reach out to:
Elisa Lipperheide
Global Communication Manager
Elisa.lipperheide@rovensanext.com
