Here is Read Magazine’s Weekly Roundup of the top news from global markets. In this fast paced world, breaking down information helps readers grasp the nuances that follow the news.
In Aerospace News this week…
NASA Awards Contracts to Assess Near-Space Communications Capabilities. NASA has selected two companies – Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) USA of Denver and SpaceLink Corporation of McLean, Virginia – to develop capability studies to explore and demonstrate communications and navigation services in support of Artemis missions to the Moon.
The awards, under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-2 (NextSTEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Appendix O, are firm fixed-price milestone-based contracts in the amounts of $161,638 for KSAT and $189,881 for SpaceLink Corporation.
In Agritech News this week…
Water-Saving and Drought-Resistant Rice Key to High-Quality Crop Production, Experts. A field demonstration and technical session on water-saving and drought-resistant rice (WDR) was held in Hefei, east China’s Anhui Province on Wednesday, to discuss and exchange views on WDR online and offline.
Industry experts, including researchers, government officials and crop producers who attended the event, believed that water-saving and drought-resistant rice key to high-quality crop production.
In Automotive News this week…
Ford Opens Atlanta Research and Innovation Center to Tap Local Tech Talent. Ford Motor Company is opening the Ford Atlanta Research and Innovation Center (FARIC) to advance the company’s digital transformation in areas such as software-led connected vehicles, artificial intelligence, university research and more.
FARIC joins a network of Ford research and development facilities in Tel Aviv and Palo Alto dedicated to pioneering the future of transportation with automated, connected and electrified vehicles. Now, the new Atlanta location places Ford in one of the most diverse tech talent markets in the U.S. and enables the company to develop a pipeline of software experts with a variety of backgrounds.
In BFSI sector news this week…
CanPay Announced as Sole Digital Payments Solution for Seed & Beyond. The largest digital payments network for cannabis merchants and retailers, CanPay, is now available as the sole digital payment solution in Seed and Beyond’s advanced end-to-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
Through the new integration, cannabis merchants with Seed and Beyond and CanPay can now allow customers to simply scan their CanPay QR code at the register to pay for products. The point-of-sale (POS) user interface has been tailored to meet the specific needs of cannabis retailers and is fully customizable.
In Biotechnology news this week…
Cloud Automation is Speeding Up Innovation in Pharma and Life Sciences. In recent years, the life sciences and pharma industries have experienced an increase in regulatory oversight while also facing pressure to respond to global healthcare crises. This tension between regulation and innovation will only increase as security and data privacy concerns limit the ability of many industries to take advantage of public cloud services.
Looking forward, as technology expands, these industries will continue to see a steady escalation in regulations. “By optimizing data sharing and advancing collaboration and innovation, cloud computing can facilitate world-changing discoveries.”¹ Herein lies a unique difficulty for those operating within life sciences and pharma industries — organizations must innovate at the fastest pace possible to compete while still adhering to critical regulatory requirements.
In Chemicals sector news this week…
Wanhua Chemical Partners with Agilis to Launch Digital Commerce Portal for Global TPU Portfolio. Wanhua Chemical has partnered with Agilis, a U.S.-based provider of digital commerce solutions for the chemical industry, to launch a branded commerce portal for its TPU (thermoplastic polyurethanes) product portfolio.
“Wanhua has an extensive portfolio of TPU products,” says Dr. Tao Yu, Technical Director, Wanhua Chemical (America). “With Agilis, our customers from around the globe can easily find the products they need, research the right formulations, select the specs that are best suited for their applications, and instantly connect with our sales teams to get quotes, samples, and more.”
In Energy & Power news this week…
FREYR Battery Signs License and Services Agreement with Aleees to Produce Active Cathode Material (LFP). FREYR Battery, a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, has entered into an agreement with Aleees, the Taiwan-based lithium-iron phosphate (“LFP”) cathode battery material manufacturer. The agreement, which includes ongoing services and support from Aleees, provides FREYR with a worldwide license to produce and sell LFP cathode material based on Aleees’ technology, and to build production facilities leveraging Aleees’ industrial expertise. FREYR anticipates that the agreement will enable FREYR to meet the future LFP cathode material needs of the Giga Arctic battery production facility in Mo i Rana, Norway. Volumes could furthermore be deployed to FREYR’s planned Giga America project in the U.S.
In Food & Beverage news this week…
Taste and Waste Are Top Reasons Most Americans Get Half the Amount of Veggies They Need. According to a recent OnePoll survey conducted with 1,000 millennial parents of school-aged children on behalf of Veggies Made Great, the majority of parents know how many cups of vegetables they need each day (63% said they should get two to three cups of vegetables a day), yet in reality they admit to getting half of this – only one to two cups per day. The good news is that 88% are interested in increasing the amount of veggies in their diet.
Among the top barriers to getting more vegetables in their family’s diet was the taste of certain vegetables (49%), followed by forgetting they were in the refrigerator (42%).
In Healthcare news this week…
Avirmax Inc. Announces Issuance of U.S. Patent Covering Catalysis. Avirmax Inc., a company focused on delivering protein therapeutics via recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 11,453,869, which is directed to the composition and methods related to the use and administration of catalysis deactivated angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for preventing SARS-COV-1 and SARS-COV-2 infection.
In IT news this week…
Mode Analytics Achieves Google Cloud Ready – BigQuery Designation. Mode Analytics announced that it has successfully achieved Google Cloud Ready – BigQuery designation.
BigQuery is Google Cloud’s powerful big data analytics platform, used by all types of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Big Query Ready (BQR) is a partner integration validation program designed to increase customer confidence in partner integrations with BigQuery. By earning the BQR designation, Mode Analytics has proven its collaborative business analytics and data science platform has met a core set of functional and interoperability requirements when integrating with BigQuery’s. Google Cloud engineering teams validate partner integrations into BigQuery’s using a three-phase process: 1) run a series of data integration tests and compare results against benchmarks, 2) work closely with partners to enhance existing offerings, and 3) refine documentation for mutual customers.