QUOLL®: A Low-Cost, Real-Time Soil Health Monitoring Tool – Seeking Investment and Development Partners
Opportunity for
- Investors and commercial partners to support product refinement and market launch.
- Farmers, agronomists, and grower groups interested in trialling the technology for on-farm decision-making.
Opportunity for
- Investors and commercial partners to support product refinement and market launch.
- Farmers, agronomists, and grower groups interested in trialling the technology for on-farm decision-making.
Opportunity description
Industry challenge
Soil health is critical to sustainable agriculture, yet traditional testing methods for biological activity and soil carbon are slow, expensive, and require laboratory analysis. Farmers and researchers lack rapid, field-deployable tools to assess soil microbial activity and understand the impact of management practices on soil function.
Without timely insights, growers risk ineffective soil interventions, suboptimal carbon sequestration strategies, and reduced farm productivity. Current soil biology measurement methods are particularly costly and do not provide real-time data, making it difficult for landholders to evaluate whether soil management strategies are improving soil biological activity and soil health.
The QUOLL® e-nose addresses these challenges by offering a fast, affordable, and easy-to-use tool that enables farmers, researchers, and agronomists to detect biological changes in soil health through gas analysis. The QUOLL® e-nose, a field deployable electronic nose (e-nose), will provide farmers, agricultural consultants and extension officers with a tool to explore the impact of various soil management practices or the benefits or otherwise of various soil improvement products. It can also be used in pot trials in the laboratory or glasshouse.
The QUOLL® has been developed by the Soil CRC in collaboration with leading agricultural researchers from the University of Tasmania and other partners in the Soil CRC.
Current opportunity
The QUOLL® team is seeking investment and research partners to advance the development, field validation, and commercialisation of this portable soil e-nose technology.
We are currently seeking to connect with:
- Investors to support product development and commercialisation pathways.
- Industry groups to assist with validation trials, calibration of sensor readings, and integration into existing soil health frameworks.
Opportunity background
The QUOLL® e-nose has been developed by the Soil CRC in collaboration with leading agricultural researchers to provide a low-cost, user-friendly soil monitoring solution. The device builds on existing e-nose technology and has been tested in laboratory and field trial settings with promising results.
To date, the QUOLL® e-nose has received support from industry researchers and agronomy specialists to validate its potential. However, additional investment is required to scale its application, refine its sensing capabilities, and transition from prototype to a fully deployable field device.
Potential other applications
Beyond direct use in agriculture and soil health monitoring, the QUOLL® has broader applications in:
- Carbon farming and emissions reduction – could provide an affordable tool for early forecasting of soil carbon trends and supporting soil carbon sequestration projects.
- Environmental and land rehabilitation – assessing biological activity in degraded soils to guide land restoration efforts.
- Biological research and education – offering a practical, field-deployable tool for studying soil microbial dynamics in agricultural and ecological research.
- Product assessment – assessing the impact of agrichemicals (pesticides, fertilisers etc.) and soil improvement products (microbial inoculants, biological amendments etc.) on soil biological activity and soil health.
By partnering in the QUOLL® e-nose’s development, stakeholders can contribute to a major breakthrough in soil science while unlocking new commercial and environmental opportunities in sustainable land management
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