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September 15-16, 2026 Danville, VA

Greenhouse Growers | Vertical Farms | Indoor Agriculture

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CEA Innovation Center Tours Will Return For CEA Summit East, September 15-16,2026!

Details to Come.

IALR Conference Center | Danville, VA

Cap off your CEA Summit experience with a guided tour of the cutting-edge CEA Innovation Center, a joint venture between the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) and Virginia Tech. Explore the research greenhouse, automation systems, and ongoing trials driving the future of controlled environment agriculture. This tour offers a firsthand look at how science and innovation are shaping real-world CEA solutions.

 The CEA Innovation Center is primarily housed in Danville, VA on the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research campus in a modern greenhouse complex and vertical farm. Research and collaborators of the CEA Innovation Center are located around the state including on the Virginia Tech main campus in Blacksburg, VA. The CEA Innovation Center brings together industry, government, and academia as a demonstration site, agricultural technology training center, and research hub for CEA. Research, education, training programs, and resources range in topics that include nutrient management of CEA crops, biological controls, biostimulants, computer vision, robotics, and aquaponics

Tour highlights include:

  • Innovative Crops: Learn about research in microtomatoes, micropeppers, edible flowers, and watercress investigated for production in indoor vertical farms and greenhouse.
  • New and Latest Technologies: See the use of robotics and imaging in plant science and new substrates driving the future of controlled environment agriculture (CEA).
  • Biotechnology and Industry Collaborations: Learn about beneficial microbe applications in CEA, biological control strategies, and collaborative projects with industry shaping the next generation of edible crop production.

Tour the CEA Innovation Center

CEA Innovation Center

The Mission

The Controlled Environment Agriculture Innovation Center is a joint project between Virginia Tech, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR), and industry that is working to advance the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) sector in Virginia, the U.S., and internationally through leveraging our collective resources, skills, and expertise by addressing the needs of the industry with our research, education, and extension programs.

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CEA Innovation Center

The Research

The CEA Innovation Center team is exploring a wide range of research topics.  Among them:  micro-tomatoes, microgreen production, edible flowers,  dill & fennel, pathogen management in edible CEA crop production, microbial biostimulant application in CEA production and more.

The Research
Business Generator

The Vision

The vision of the CEA Innovation Center is to build meaningful industry and academic collaborations, conduct outstanding research to address knowledge gaps, develop and provide excellent training materials and programs, provide undergraduate and graduate student education, and support entrepreneurs in the controlled environment agriculture sector. It was established in 2019 to leverage technology and research to accelerate advancements in the growing CEA industry

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