NCERC

By John Caupert, NCERC Executive Director
April 2021

For nearly eighteen years, NCERC has been an intermediary for our stakeholders in industry, academia, government and trade associations. And while our position and the way that we work with our partners is unique, nothing could protect us from the storm that swept through in 2020 and ripped away every single contractual project that was taking place in our building.

That storm, the COVID-19 pandemic, brought both challenges and opportunities that we had never faced before. Like our colleagues in the biofuels industry and across the bio-based sector, we were faced with some tough situations that we’re now climbing out of. Now that we’re one year into the pandemic, I’m looking back with admiration for the perseverance the NCERC team demonstrated with high hopes that we’ll come out stronger than ever before on the other side.

On February 28, 2020 at 8:55am, I received a call from a client that has been routinely using NCERC’s facility to produce a bio-product that is currently being shopped around for various uses in the commercial marketplace. Given their global footprint, they knew before many of us did that the SARS virus was causing serious global market unrest and decided to immediately halt their project taking place in the NCERC facility. This was the first of many calls I received, and by the end of March, all current and potential contractual research projects had been halted.

This result of the COVID-19 pandemic quickly became the perfect example of something I’ve been saying for years about NCERC’s clientele base.

“When there is unrest in policy, it leads to unrest in the marketplace. When there is marketplace unrest, it leads to unrest in the investment community. When there is investment unrest, NCERC feels it immediately.”

NCERC’s clients were experiencing unrest like never before, and our bottom line felt it immediately. However, while the situation at the time seemed pretty bleak, it turned out that unexpected opportunities were quickly coming our way.

On March 20, 2020, NCERC became the first facility in the United States to produce a sample of industrial-grade alcohol that met the specs set forth by the World Health Organization for hand sanitizer. Our connection to hand sanitizer production allowed us to partner with companies we otherwise likely never would have worked with, such as Stumpy’s Distillery in Columbia, Illinois. Our connection to the ethanol industry also allowed us to connect consumer product companies to ethanol producers and create relationships that resulted in hand sanitizer production when communities needed it most, as well as countless hand sanitizer donations.

Looking back one year removed, I can’t help but feel pride for how the NCERC team reacted to the pandemic. Our team is stronger than ever and came together at a time when uncertainty was at an all-time high, proving that they really are some of the best in the R&D business. Client activity has returned, and NCERC’s doors are open for new business and new collaborations.

Pictures: Caupert with Congressman Mike Bost at a tour of the NCERC facility, October 2020
Bottle of hand sanitizer from Stumpy’s Distillery