A tour of a crop science research project at the University of Illinois elicited Senator Dick Durbin’s hope of seeing federal funding for scientific research increase by five percent each year, starting with the next budget.

Researchers with the University of Illinois’ crop research project, Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency -- or RIPE for short -- invited the media and the public to a field day Thursday. Don Ort is the associate director of the RIPE project and a crop science professor at the U of I. He gave Illinois Public Media’s Brian Moline an overview of the project.