The Summer 2025–26 edition of Spotlight captures a season of innovation, leadership and forward-thinking collaboration. This edition opens with CRDC’s 2025 Innovation Call, offering up to $50,000 to innovations and solutions for cotton’s most pressing challenges, from pest management and riparian weed control to optimising nitrogen use. Twenty-nine bold ideas have been shortlisted, with an announcement of the successful applicants to come in early 2026.
Education and capacity-building are also front and centre, with the launch of the new CRDC Cotton Course — a suite of microcredentialled learning opportunities designed to equip growers, consultants, researchers and the wider industry with targeted skills. Complemented by the ACSA Cotton Fundamentals program, these courses ensure that knowledge and best practice flow from the field to the supply chain.
This edition of Spotlight also highlights the industry’s commitment to sustainability, with the release of the annual sustainability report and the launch of a dedicated website built around the PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. Sustainability Framework. The report showcases progress in water use efficiency, soil health and biodiversity, with new tools and indicators to help growers measure and manage their impact.
Readers will also find stories on circular economy research, advances in AI and agronomy, practical advice on module wrap and water use, and inspiring profiles of industry leaders, scholars and award winners in this edition.
