PlantInvent OÜ is a research and development company founded in 2016 by leading plant biology researchers from the University of Tartu. Its mission is to produce and market plant diagnostics instruments developed by plant biologists with a physics background at the University of Tartu since the 1970s. PlantInvent instruments are essential in global research and development efforts aimed at breeding crop plants that use minimal resources and are resilient to climate change. Accordingly, the company develops and manufactures instruments for measuring basic plant growth parameters, CO₂ uptake through photosynthesis, and water evaporation, i.e., transpiration. PlantInvent’s devices enable gas exchange measurements in plants under various environmental conditions. The company has currently developed three devices:
- Jyrkki – a multi-chamber stationary gas exchange device designed for measuring gas exchange in smaller plants, mainly from the Brassicaceae family.
- Jyrkki MAX – also a multi-chamber stationary gas exchange device, intended for larger plants (e.g., cereals, ferns, tomatoes, shoots of deciduous trees, etc.).
- KaRaL – a portable gas exchange measuring device that enables measurements in outdoor conditions.
What makes PlantInvent’s technology unique is that it is the only producer in the world of multi-chamber plant diagnostics systems, offering significant advantages over competitors, such as the ability to perform parallel measurements, vastly faster data collection, higher data quality, and user-friendliness. The operating principle of PlantInvent’s devices is to measure the amount of CO₂ assimilated by the plant during photosynthesis over time and, simultaneously, the amount of water vapor released during transpiration. The chambers can simulate various environmental conditions, rapidly altering CO₂ and water vapor concentrations as well as levels of air pollutant ozone.
PlantInvent aimed to secure additional funding from the EIS applied research small projects scheme to continue developing its Jyrkki device. The project application was prepared in collaboration with the Haap Consulting team, who supported the project team with drafting the project plan, financial forecasts, and budget, as well as general project management. As a result of our cooperation, PlantInvent submitted a successful funding application and secured €150,000 to advance its development work under the applied research scheme.
This development activity is of significant global importance, and we wish the project team every success in the successful implementation of the project!
