2024 NREC Funded Research Projects – Project Objectives
2024 NREC Funded Research Projects
In 2024, NREC is funding five new and unique projects with 26 continuing multi-year activities. The funding for these projects comes from an assessment of 75 cents per ton of fertilizer sold in Illinois. Additional funds have been earmarked for communications and outreach projects to ensure that farmers and fertilizer industry professionals are receiving timely updates from the research projects. Council-funded projects fall into three main categories with an emphasis on the 4R’s – applying the right source of fertilizer, at the right rate, right time, and right place, looking at ways to capture nutrients within the field using cover crops, and finally exploring methods of capturing nutrients before they are lost in a way that could potentially impact the environment. The last category focuses on methods such as buffer strips, woodchip bioreactors, and wetlands.
| Project Title | Institution | Principal Investigator | 2024 Project Budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beyond cereal rye: evaluating synergies and tradeoffs of winter legumes and brassica cover cropping systems in Illinois | UI | Preza Fontes | $ 78,774 |
| The implementation of innovative practices for dry dams/WASCoBs to address water quality concerns in southern Illinois row-crop agricultures | SIU | Schoonover | $ 136,378 |
| Evaluating the impacts of fall-applied controlled-release N fertilizer on N use efficiency, soil water quality, GHG emissions, and grain yield in a strip-till corn cropping system | UI | Preza Fontes | $ 47,064 |
| Impact of timing of cover crop termination on water quality and soil N and P: Phase two of a long-term cover crop and tillage study in southern Illinois | SIU | Williard | $ 169,074 |
| Enhancing cover crop establishment and spring decomposition to benefit no-till corn/soybean production | UI | Below | $ 129,934 |