Discovery Ridge is an emerging research park development near Missouri’s top public research university, the ÎçÒ¹Ó°Ôº. It’s becoming a thriving environment of business and research activity – in an atmosphere of innovation, collaboration and creativity. We encourage you to come back often to learn about the park’s new and exciting developments.
History
In 2005, the ÎçÒ¹Ó°Ôº Board of Curators approved the development of a section of Columbia’s South Farm for a new research park. The belief was, and continues to be, that the research occurring in the living fields and laboratories at South Farm, and at the ÎçÒ¹Ó°Ôº, will attract tenants who desire close proximity to innovative intellectual resources.
It is the mission of the ÎçÒ¹Ó°Ôº System Office of Research and Economic Development to link research and commercialization from the system’s four campuses with emerging and existing firms across the state—Discovery Ridge does just that.
Discovery Ridge
In the past 10 years the city of Columbia, Missouri has experienced a 24.4% increase in population and the university has consistently witnessed increased enrollment. Because of Columbia’s growth, the once rural South Farm, is now adjacent to residential neighborhoods and shopping areas. Concern has long existed that the College would lose the farm as a working research, teaching and outreach site. After considerable study, it was determined that a research park could be a mutually beneficial development for the university and farm, thus the creation of Discovery Ridge began. In May 2006, the Board of Curators approved the of the park, which designated 114 acres as the initial phase.
Since that approval, infrastructure within the first phase has been completed, including roads, utility services and improvements to the lake and drainage areas. After donating almost nine acres to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, an interchange and overpass connecting to U.S. Highway 63 has opened.
The park currently has two tenants, ABC Labs and RADIL, and has established a long-range plan that will expand the park to a total of 550 acres.
South Farm
The South Farm of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) at the ÎçÒ¹Ó°Ôº-Columbia totals 1,452 acres and provides hands-on teaching and training annually for more than 1,500 future professionals.
The farm supports the research, outreach and teaching missions of animal science, plant science, veterinary science, biology, botany and other disciplines. It is home to the Swine Research Complex, the Beef Research and Teaching Farm, the Turf Center and the Horse Farm and also supports research and demonstration projects in entomology, poultry and maize genetics.
The Missouri Foundation Seed program also utilizes South Farm to increase the sales of newly developed seed varieties to dealers.
If you have questions regarding current developments occurring at South Farm, call 573-882-4450 or contact Theresa Wybrant, wybrantt@missouri.edu, or Cheryl Recker, reckercl@missouri.edu.
Current Tenants
ABC Labs
Analytical Bio-Chemistry Laboratories, Inc. opened its doors in 1968, but since a major restructuring in 2003, it transformed itself into a modern organization positioned for growth. Understanding that satisfied clients not only need reliable science, they depend on reliable service, its corporate mission is based upon helping clients succeed--by delivering quality data, timely reports and expert solutions to those non-routine problems that are inherent to product development and registration programs.
ABC's focus on operational excellence is evidenced by continuous process improvement, performance monitoring and metrics reporting--rigorous self-evaluation you don't always see in a contract research lab, no matter what their size. As a result of tremendous effort by our scientific and support staffs, ABC boasts an excellent regulatory track record, financial strength and impressive year-over-year growth.
RADIL
IDEXX RADIL serves the community of individuals engaged in biomedical and life science research. Services include comprehensive health monitoring and diagnostic screening as well as genetic testing services, cell line authentication (CellCheck) and contract research. 
Interested in becoming the newest tenant at Discovery Ridge? !