Duration: 10/01/2026 to 09/30/2031

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Agricultural challenges related to crop production, environmental sustainability, and human health remain central to the nation’s well-being. Addressing these issues requires rigorous research in agricultural and environmental sciences, plant physiology, genetics, and ecology—fields that depend heavily on controlled environments to generate reliable, reproducible results. Controlled environments are essential for understanding plant growth and development, advancing new technologies, and providing the scientific foundation needed to inform agricultural policy and practice. Therefore, the use of controlled environments for research, education, and commercial crop production continues to expand rapidly. As our understanding of plant growth and development advances, facilities are continually upgraded with increasingly sophisticated technologies. This growing complexity creates a pressing need for consistent guidelines to maintain, monitor, and report environmental variables such as light quantity and quality, air temperature, humidity, and atmospheric gas composition.

The NCERA-101 Committee serves as an important platform for sustained dialogue among scientists, engineers, and practitioners. Through its diverse membership spanning academia, industry, government agencies, and international partners, the Committee promotes collaboration to ensure controlled environment technologies evolve in step with research and production needs. By fostering interdisciplinary information exchange, the Committee enhances coordination, encourages innovation, and strengthens the collective impact of controlled environment research and application.

Over the years, the NCERA-101 Committee has played a leading role in establishing, developing, and disseminating standards and operational guidelines for controlled environments. These include recommendations for recording environmental variables, selecting instrumentation, and determining appropriate units of measurement and data recording frequencies. The Committee has developed and published guidelines for growth chambers, tissue culture projects, greenhouse environments, the use of Light Emitting Diode (LED) fixtures for plant production, and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) applications for indoor vertical farming systems. These efforts, often conducted in collaboration with professional organizations such as the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), the Design Light Consortium (DLC), and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), have resulted in publications in national and international peer-reviewed and trade journals.

Independent evaluation of emerging technologies and products is essential to validate performance, build trust among manufacturers, researchers, and producers, and promote transparent information exchange across sectors. To support this goal, the NCERA-101 Committee maintains and circulates a collection of analytical instruments that enable members to calibrate sensors and measurement devices critical for the safe and accurate operation of controlled environments. These instruments ensure consistency and quality control across research and production facilities, helping safeguard the reliability of environmental data. Upgrades and replacements are regularly evaluated and discussed among NCERA-101 Committee members to ensure the package includes commonly used instruments as well as emerging analytical capabilities. Sustained dialogue among scientists, engineers, and commercial users ensures that equipment capabilities and technical expertise continue to evolve with research and industry demands.

A well-trained workforce is essential to design, develop, operate, manage, and advance controlled environment facilities for research, education, and commercial production. A shortage of trained personnel can lead to inefficient management, suboptimal use of resources, and reduced returns on investment in new technologies. Education, communication, and coordination are therefore central to the NCERA-101 Committee’s mission. The Committee provides leadership in disseminating information and connecting researchers, educators, professionals, students, and industry partners working in controlled environments both nationally and internationally. It also supports professional development through conferences, workshops, webinars, published research, and educational materials.

Building on its long history of international engagement, the NCERA-101 Committee maintains strong partnerships with controlled environment organizations around the world to expand dialogue and provide US leadership at the global scale. These collaborations ensure that North American technologies and practices evolve alongside global innovations while strengthening US industry competitiveness and contributing to local economic growth.

Agricultural production challenges, environmental impacts, food security, and dietary health are central to the planning and governance of local, state, and national economies. Controlled environments play an increasingly important role in addressing these issues. The NCERA-101 Committee supports research that provides the scientific foundation needed to guide policies, inform regulatory decisions, and promote sustainable production practices. As more energy- and labor-efficient technologies emerge, the Committee will continue to help define guidelines for their responsible and sustainable adoption. Through these collective efforts, the NCERA-101 Committee strengthens communication and collaboration across disciplines, supports innovation in controlled environment technology, and ensures that this critical infrastructure continues to enhance the productivity, sustainability, and economic impact of North American and global agriculture.

Participating Stations

The NCERA-101 Committee has strong and diverse participation, with members representing multiple states and industry sectors. Agricultural experiment stations in nine North Central (NC) region states (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, ND, OH, WI) are represented on the Committee. Additionally, agricultural experiment stations in 21 states outside the NC region have designated Committee members (AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, KY, NJ, NY, NC, RI, TN, TX, UT, WV, WY). The USDA is represented by NIFA in Washington D.C., and by two laboratories (Sustainable Agricultural Systems, and Crop Systems and Global Change in Beltsville, MD), as well as members from USDA-ARS laboratories. Several representatives from the NASA facilities in Ames Research Center, CA, and Kennedy Space Center, FL are involved with the Committee.

The commercial sector is well represented through private research and engineering consultants, private companies supporting NASA (Sierra Space, SyNERGE LLC, Space Life Sciences Lab), and major growth chamber manufacturers (BioChambers, Conviron, Environmental Growth Chambers, Percival Scientific, Hettich Benelux). Manufacturers of lamps, sensors, environmental control systems (Apogee, Argus Control Systems,  BIOS Lighting, Heliospectra, HortAmericas, iGROW Induction Lighting, LiCor Biosciences, Light4Food, GE Current, PP Systems, Valoya, Fluence by OSRAM, Totalgrow Lights) as well as agricultural and biotech companies (Ball Horticultural Company, Dow AgroSciences,  Corteva AgriScience, Fraunhofer-Center for Molecular Biotechnology, PanAmerican Seed Company, Syngenta Crop Protection, Karma Verde Fresh-Mexico, Koidra Tech LLC, Signify) regularly support and participate in meetings, information exchange, deliberations, and the organization of the Committee.

Canadian academic institutions and industry have been integral to NCERA-101 since its inception, making the Committee essentially North American in terms of outreach and influence. Approximately one-third of the membership consists of trained agricultural engineers with expertise in controlled environment agriculture. The remainder are plant physiologists and horticulturists working in various areas of plant science, biology, and crop production. This mix of “basic” and “applied” researchers strengthens the Committee, fostering diverse interests, perspectives, and evaluations that drive research efforts, technological innovations, partnerships, and agricultural applications. A list of participating stations and its project members is included below:

 

North Central Region

University of Illinois	K.C. Ting
Purdue Agricultural Research Programs - Indiana	Celina Gómez
Iowa State University	Christopher Currey
Kansas State University	Kimberly Williams
Michigan State University	Erik Runkle, Roberto Lopez
University of Minnesota	Nathan Eylands, Gary Gardner
North Dakota State University	Iris (Xiaoyu) Feng, Xinhua Jia
The Ohio State University	Peter Ling, Chieri Kubota, Darren Drewry
University of Wisconsin	Jiwan Palta

States not represented: Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota

 

North Eastern Region

University of Connecticut	Richard McAvoy
Cornell University - New York	Neil Mattson
University of Delaware	Qingwu (William) Meng
University of Maryland	David Fleisher
Penn State University	Robert Berghage
University of Rhode Island	Camilo Villouta
Rutgers University - New Jersey	A.J. Both

States not represented: Dist. Columbia, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire

 

Southern Region

Tuskegee Univ. / Auburn Univ.- Alabama	Conrad Bonsi, Brendan Higgins
University of Florida	Ying Zhang
Clemson University – South Carolina	Nihal Rajapske
Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station	Rhuanito Ferrarezi
University of Kentucky	Qinglu Ying
University of Mississippi	Qian Wen Zhang
North Carolina State University	Carole Saravitz, Ricardo Hernandez
The University of Tennessee	Carl Sams
West Virginia University	Nicole Waterland

States not represented: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Virginia

 

Western Region

Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station	Meriam Karlsson
University of Arizona	Murat Kacira, Gene Giacomellli
University of California	MdShamim Ahamed
Colorado State University	Joshua Craver
University of Hawaii	Kent Kobayashi
University of Idaho	Senay Ugur
University of New Mexico	David Hanson
Texas A&M University	Genhua Niu, Azian Zahid, Shuyang Zhen
Utah State University	Bruce Bugbee
University of Wyoming	Liping Wang, JJ Chen

States not represented, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington

 

Note: Names in italics are emeritus professors.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

The Committee accomplishes its objectives through communication and coordination among members. Annual meetings are hosted by different Committee members at local sites. These meetings are well attended, with participation growing over the years. 

Annual meetings feature presentations and discussions by scientists and industry partners on issues such as new advancements, novel applications, funding opportunities, multi-state project collaborations, and adaptations of controlled environments in research, teaching, outreach, industry, and commercial crop production. Strong collaborations and interactions during and between meetings ensure effective knowledge transfer in design, instrumentation, environmental monitoring, and control techniques.

The Committee collaborates regularly with similar controlled environment groups in Europe (UK Controlled Environment Users’ Group) and Australia (Australian Controlled Environment Working Group). International conferences have been held every three to four years in collaboration with these groups, including in the UK (2001, 2012), Australia (2004, 2016), and North America (Florida 2008, Arizona 2022). The next international conference and annual meeting is planned for September 2026 at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where US and international participants are expected to attend and present papers on environment control technologies. Others analogous groups from Asia and Mexico have also been participating in previous meetings and may host future conferences/meetings/events.

Quality control is a central focus. The NCERA-101 Committee will continue to develop guidelines and standards relevant to research and commercial use of controlled environment technologies. Committee members will continue to publish research, exchange information, prepare educational materials, and participate in organizing and attending national and international meetings, conferences, and webinars. The Committee will continue to host and maintain its dedicated website (www.controlledenvironments.org) to support outreach and ensure that publications by members of the Committee are widely accessible. The Committee will also continue to maintain a calibrated set of environmental measurement instruments that are available for use by researchers and commercial members.

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

The NCERA-101 Committee has established, and will continue to strengthen, collaborations and interactions among research, academic, government, and industry representatives. These partnerships, fostered through annual meetings and ongoing discussions, ensure effective knowledge transfer in areas such as design, instrumentation, environmental monitoring, and control technologies in controlled environments.

Guidelines and standards for measuring and reporting controlled environment research activities and design practices will continue to be developed, refined, and promoted by industry, government, and academic partners. Partnerships among manufacturers, researchers, educators, and operators of controlled environments will be encouraged to advance new techniques, technologies, and improved management practices.

The Committee will also continue to engage undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and technical staff in presentations, meeting organization, and the development of guidelines and standards through participation in annual and international meetings, workshops, webinars, and other scientific activities. The Committee is committed to integrate controlled environment research into classroom teaching, graduate research, and outreach and extension educational programs. The healthy interaction of different perspectives and interests assures findings and results benefit for agricultural communities, continued research and educational efforts, technological advancements and the society in general.

 

Organization/Governance

The committee identifies participating institutions. The approved experiment station representatives are usually active for the duration of the project. At each annual meeting, a secretary is nominated and elected. The secretary serves one year and then becomes chair-elect and chair the following two years. Celina Gómez (Purdue University) is the current chair, Dr. Qingwu Meng (University of Delaware) is chair-elect and will become chair during FY 2026. Marc Blonquist (Apogee Instruments) serves as the current secretary. Administrative guidance is provided by an assigned Administrative Advisor and a NIFA Representative. Currently, Dr. Ramesh Kanwar (Iowa State University) is Administrative Advisor and Dr. Stephen Thompson is NIFA representative. Mark Romer (McGill University-Phytotron) serves as Officer for Membership and Dr. Carole Saravitz (NC State University-Phytotron) leads Committee Website.

Literature Cited

N/A

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

AK, CA, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, MI, ND, NJ, TX

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

Biora (MineARC Systems USA), Metamer LLC, TotalGrow Lights LLC