In 2019, NREC is funding 28 projects – 19 projects continued from previous years and 9 new projects. The $4 Million available for funding 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 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, bio-reactors, and wetlands.
2019 NREC Projects
2019 New Projects
| Institution | PI | Project Title |
| SIU | Schoonover | Water and Sediment Control Basins (WASCoBs) influence on Crop Yields and Water Quality |
| UI | Zheng | Designer Biochar to Capture and Recycle Phosphorous from Tile Drainage Systems |
| UI | Gentry | Reducing Nutrient Loads in WASCOBs in Southern Illinois |
| SIU | Williard | Minimizing phosphorus and nitrogen loss from agricultural systems with cover crops and tillage in Southern Illinois |
| UI | Bhattarai | Watershed-scale response of agricultural systems to drainage water management in Central Illinois |
| UI | Seiter | Insect Management in Cover Crop Systems |
| SIU | Schoonover | Modelling and Designing Saturated Buffers for Nitrogen and Phosphorus Mitigation in Illinois |
| SIU | Sadeghpour | Precision Nitrogen Management of Corn for Improving Farm Profitability and Water Quality in Southern Illinois |
| UI | Below | Nitrogen placement and application timing for best efficiency, growth, and yield of corn across Illinois. |
2019 Ongoing Projects
| Institution | PI | Project Title |
| ISU | O'Reilly | The effect of cover crops on surface water quality: A paired watershed experiment in the Lake Bloomington watershed |
| UI | Gentry | Nitrogen management systems in tile-drained fields: Optimizing yields while minimizing losses |
| TWI | Kostel | Demonstration and monitoring of nutrient-removal wetlands in the Big Bureau Creek watershed (Northern/Central Illinois) |
| UI | Gentry | Evaluating nutrient loss reduction strategies: longer rotation with cover crops and bioreactor |
| IFCA | Schaefer | Nitrogen Rate Research & NREC Project Partnership |
| UI | Pittelkow | Assessing synergies and tradeoffs of recommended BMPs to reduce nutrient loss |
| UI | Arai | Understanding mechanisms and processes of dissolved reactive phosphate (DRP) loss in Illinois tile-drained fields |
| UI | Gentry | Cereal Rye Ahead of Corn: N Catch and Release |
| UI | Coppess | Web-based Decision Support Tool for Cover Crop Management |
| Purdue | Armstrong | A Long-term Evaluation of Nitrogen Application Timing and Cover Crops Impacts on the Fate and Availability of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Crop Production on Tile Drained Fields |
| UI | L. Christianson | Drainage water management and saturated buffers for achieving NLRS goals |
| UI | L Christianson | Bioreactors for Illinois: Smaller, Better, Faster |
| UI | Guan | Assessing Suitability and Benefits of Cover Crops in Illinois |
| UI | Bhattarai | Assessing tile depth and spacing impact on nutrient losses and crop production |
| SIU | Williard | Water quality and agronomic impacts of Gypsum applications in Southern Illinois |
| UI | R Christianson | Reducing P Loss in Southern Illinois: Producers, Practices and Productivity |
| UI | Margenot | Evaluating slow-release P fertilizers to increase crop production and environmental quality |
| UI | Cooke | On-Farm evaluation and demonstration of reduced off-farm nutrient transport through Drainage water recycling |
| UI | Kent | Towards management of Dissililatory Nitrate Reduction to Ammonium for Nitrate Retention in Agricultural Soils |
