Monsanto increases its investment in Mendel Biotechnology, Inc., one of the company's key collaborators on agriculture technologies.

Monsanto increases its investment in Mendel Biotechnology, Inc., one of the company's key collaborators on agriculture technologies.

As part of the announcement, Mendel noted that the increased investment will be used to support the growth of Mendel's new bioenergy seeds and feedstock business to serve the cellulosic biofuels industry, as well as the further development of its core technology platforms. Mendel will also use a portion of the proceeds to repurchase shares from existing share and option-holders.

Monsanto and Mendel have worked together to support the discovery and development of new technologies for agriculture since 1997.

Monsanto creates an annual scholarship to celebrate the invention of glyphosate, to commemorate the induction of Dr. John Franz into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame.

The "Franz Innovation Award" will be awarded annually to a graduate student in Organic Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, where Franz received his Ph.D.