Top Three Tips: Luc Maertens of EV Group provides three tips for How R&D can shape the agriculture of tomorrow
Understanding how farming systems operate, their challenges and what it takes for solutions to succeed within them is the foundation of EV Group’s approach. The company’s expertise in microbial science and natural active ingredients helps drive the development of biosolutions that improve productivity, strengthen resilience, and support global food security.
Luc Maertens, Chief Strategy and Portfolio Officer of EV Group, highlights three priorities that guide this work and maximize its impact.
1. Shape an open expert organization
Effective agricultural R&D starts with understanding growers’ needs and advancing solutions from concept to market through strong science, disciplined development, and close collaboration across the value chain.
Innovation succeeds through partnerships. Working with universities, research institutes, technology providers, and specialized service partners expands scientific knowledge and accelerates development. Early engagement with extension specialists, crop advisers, grower cooperatives, and distribution partners helps ensure biosolutions deliver consistent outcomes, support technology adoption, and contribute to more productive, resilient, and sustainable farming systems.
This is how LIPOFABRIK, EV’s R&D division, operates. Its agile, cross-functional team advances patented biosolutions from the lab to the field, through regulatory approval, and ultimately into growers’ hands.
2. Create a solid technical foundation to anchor and accelerate expertise development
True validation only happens in the field when the product delivers predictable outcomes and rewards growers for their investment. Companies should build their R&D platform with the end user in mind:
- Rapidly test lead candidates under real-world farming conditions to optimize active ingredients, formulations, and application strategies.
- Engage extension specialists and channel partners early into these field programs, helping build the trust needed for successful adoption.
- Validate manufacturing processes at pilot scale, while representative product samples undergo safety assessments to support regulatory submissions.
Continued investment in research infrastructure, advanced technologies, and scientific capabilities keeps the company at the forefront of innovation and enables successful product development.
3. Build the R&D pipeline with a pragmatic, scientific, and market‑driven approach, from field to lab and back to growers
Allow the R&D pipeline to be driven by grower and industry needs, delivering biostimulant and biocontrol solutions for global fruit, vegetable, and broadacre crops.
We are convinced that by combining science with digital tools, companies can accelerate development, introduce new modes of action to address resistance, and provide practical solutions that fit modern farming operations.
We also believe that it starts with products, but product innovation alone is not enough. Success depends on proven field performance that delivers a measurable return on investment for growers. Demonstrated results create market demand, drive adoption through established channels, and secure a place in growers’ production programs.
This integrated approach enables the development and adoption of next-generation biosolutions that support more productive, resilient, and sustainable agriculture.