Agri-Tech Global is a partnership between the University of Lincoln, who led the collaboration, Ceres Agri-Tech and the University of East Anglia. Its aim is to develop a truly global Agri-Tech cluster in the Greater Lincolnshire and East Anglia region.
The Agri-Tech Global collaboration has now received an award of £1.49 million as part of the Research England Development (RED) and Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The funding will allow for the networking and growth of agri-tech start-ups in the region and enable them to connect with larger international agricultural and tech businesses.
Agri-Tech Global will also tackle the serious challenges faced by the industry, from climate change to rising food prices and pressures within the supply chain.
Leading the project is the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT) at the University of Lincoln. LIAT is a truly inter-disciplinary specialist research institute bringing together sector-leading expertise in a diverse range of areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, engineering, crop science, environmental sustainability, food manufacturing, product development and supply chains.
Climate change is a continual concern within the Agri-food industry. The sector provides 3.9 million jobs and accounts for £129 billion of the UK economy, but this comes at the cost of being responsible for 24 per cent of national greenhouse gas emissions.
Agri-Tech Global hopes to play a major part in mitigating the damage that the sector causes to the environment by helping to create a more sustainable and economically viable future for the agri-food industry.
Partner Ceres Agri-Tech, based at Cambridge Enterprise, provides translational funding and commercialisation expertise to drive agri-tech innovation by accelerating high-quality research to market.
All images: University of Lincoln