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Opportunities

University of Queensland: Biobased and Biodegradable Controlled Delivery of Agri Compounds

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Opportunity for

  • Agribusinesses, fertiliser and crop protection companies, animal health companies, AgTech developers, manufacturers, and investors seeking scalable, biodegradable alternatives to conventional controlled release systems

    Learn more and explore collaboration opportunities at the Ideas to Impact: Pitches for collaboration session, evokeAG, 2pm on 18 Feb

Opportunity description

Industry description

Many agri compounds, including fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, nitrification inhibitors, and bio stimulants, are highly water soluble or prone to loss to the environment. This results in reduced efficacy, higher input costs, increased application frequency, and negative environmental impacts such as nutrient runoff and off target exposure.

Existing controlled release products partially address these challenges but often rely on persistent plastics that accumulate in soil and create long term environmental risk. As regulatory and market pressure increases around plastic use, there is a clear need for controlled delivery technologies that are both effective and fully biodegradable.

This opportunity addresses that gap through a biobased, biodegradable controlled delivery platform capable of releasing active compounds over agriculturally relevant timeframes ranging from months to years. The platform improves performance and reduces environmental loss while eliminating persistent plastic residues.

Current opportunity

Researchers at the University of Queensland have developed multiple controlled delivery prototypes using nontoxic, bioderived and biodegradable polymers. These systems are water insoluble during use but naturally degrade in soil into microbial biomass, carbon dioxide, and water.

Prototypes developed to date include:

  • Controlled release fertilisers
  • Controlled delivery of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides
  • Nitrification inhibitors
  • Biostimulants
  • Intraruminal devices for controlled delivery in livestock

The materials can be manufactured using established industrial techniques including spray coating, drum and pan coating, extrusion, injection moulding, cold pressing, and dip coating. Release kinetics are tunable through material design, polymer selection, and layered coating architectures.

The current opportunity is to partner with industry to trial, adapt, and commercialise this technology within real world product portfolios. Collaboration may include co-development, field trials, scale up, and first rights to commercialise intellectual property, subject to agreement. Industry investment can be leveraged through competitive research funding schemes, delivering strong capital efficiency.

Submit your EOI by enquiring now.

Heading to evokeAG? Join us at the session on Day 2 of evokeAG: Ideas to Impact: Pitches for collaboration session, 2pm on 18 Feb 2026 to learn more and explore collaboration opportunities. 

Opportunity background

Polyhydroxyalkanoates are a family of fully biodegradable microbial polyesters produced at industrial scale internationally. In addition to biodegrading in soil and aquatic environments, PHAs exhibit excellent water barrier properties, making them well suited to controlled release applications.

The University of Queensland team, led by Professors Bronwyn Laycock, Paul Lant, and Steven Pratt, has over 20 years of experience in PHA research and approximately 10 years developing controlled delivery systems using these materials. Their facilities support world leading capabilities in polymer processing, coating technologies, and high resolution characterisation.

The technology is application agnostic and can be tailored across multiple active agents and delivery environments, including soil, water, and animal systems.

Potential other applications

The controlled delivery platform has broad cross sector relevance, including:

  • Fertilisers and soil amendments
  • Biostimulants and plant growth regulators
  • Crop protection products
  • Nitrification inhibitors
  • Soil conditioners

  • In vivo delivery of active compounds in ruminant livestock

    EVOKEAG17FEB2026

    IDEASTOIMPACT

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