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Sixteen companies have joined the 2026 cohorts of ARID and SHIELD, two sector-specific accelerators run by the NSF ASCEND Engine, a National Science Foundation-backed regional innovation initiative led by Innosphere across Colorado and Wyoming.Ìý

ARID's 10 companies focus on wildfire risk and grid resilience, while SHIELD's six companies address soil health, adaptive grazing and water quality; each eight-month program gives participating startups access to testbeds and up to $150,000 in prize money per cohort.Ìý

Three of the newly named companies are CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï startups founded on discoveries made by researchers on campus: BioSensor Solutions, which measures soil biology in real time with a low-cost printed sensor; BioStamp, which synthesizes DNA barcodes to protect the intellectual property of engineered microorganisms; and PAGE Technologies, which builds low-cost water and soil sensors paired with AI analytics. All three have advanced through Venture Partners at CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï's programming, including the campus' NSF I-Corps^TM Hub West.

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The University of Colorado Connection

BioSensor Solutions was founded in 2023 by Ìýand Ìýthrough CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï’s inaugural Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator. Both David and Carl were individually interested in this technology and later joined forces, partnering with , professor of mechanical engineering at CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï, and his °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï Experimental Electronics and Manufacturing (BEEM) Laboratory to commercialize revolutionary soil health monitoring sensors. BioSensor Solutions has announced partnerships, including InstaFarm out of Loveland, Colorado. BioSensor seeks to first explore the indoor home agricultural market, followed by large-scale outdoor farming operations.

BioStamp, which synthesizes DNA barcodes for engineered microorganisms to enable biological intellectual property protection and high-fidelity identification, was co-founded by , a Ph.D. student of environmental engineering at CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï, and assistant professor of environmental engineering at CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï. BioStamp completed the 2026 Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator, and their final pitch video can be viewed here.

PAGE Technologies was founded in 2023 by , PhD alum of materials science and engineering, and Ìýto commercialize their innovative low-cost environmental monitoring platform, developed during a collaborative research project as PhD students at CU °Ç¸ç³Ô¹Ï and UC Berkeley, respectively. Supported by key research and innovation initiatives, PAGE Technologies is dedicated to transforming agricultural and environmental monitoring, improving fertilizer-use efficiency, enhancing water resource management and advancing climate resilience efforts.

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