Through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) £270 million Farming Innovation Programme (FIP), delivered by Innovate UK, 24 projects have been awarded a share of £12.2 million.
FIP funds ambitious research and development projects to overcome barriers and create a more productive and sustainable sector.
The programme targets farmers, growers, foresters, and related businesses, focusing on research and development in the agricultural and horticultural sectors to:
- help boost productivity
- enhance sustainable practices
- support economic growth
- improve environmental outcomes
- reduce carbon emissions
Environmental resilience
Farming practices and systems need to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of a range of factors including climate change, extreme weather events, pests, and other environmental challenges while maintaining sustainable productivity.
Innovative solutions are needed for fortifying agriculture against the complexities of our changing world.
Evaluating emerging solutions
Thirteen projects across broadacre, horticulture, livestock and bioeconomy sectors will share up to £4.5 million funding in the feasibility strand of the funding opportunity.
Solutions are exploring a wide range of innovations, including:
- robotics for pest management
- peatland restoration
- satellite imagery and machine learning in vineyards
- developing vaccines for E. coli and salmonella in poultry
These projects could offer dual benefits, enhancing both the environment and farmers’ outcomes, increasing yields, bolstering resilience, productivity, and sustainability, fostering biodiversity regeneration, while curbing landscape soil emissions and biosecurity risks.
Progressing emerging solutions
Eleven industrial research projects will see a share of £7.6 million to progress solutions to new products, processes and services.
These projects include solutions to combat a range of diseases and virus across both livestock and crops such as onions, potatoes and sugar beet, and breeding tools in hops and soft fruit.
Other projects are looking to reduce synthetic nitrogen usage in crop production, tools for assessing crop roots and soil health, and an artificial intelligence-enabled (AI) climate-smart fertiliser practice solution.
From concept to commercialisation
Dr Stella Peace, Executive Director for the Healthy Living and Agriculture Domain at Innovate UK, said:
The portfolio of innovative projects spans from the early stages of ideation and feasibility testing to advanced development and demonstration. This dynamic blend of innovators reflects our commitment to supporting the entire innovation journey, fostering groundbreaking ideas and propelling projects towards successful commercialisation.
Further information
Successful projects: feasibility
Eagle Genomics Ltd
Funding award: £330,751
Project: A novel barometer for soil health including physical, chemical and microbial elements to guide regenerative and sustainable agriculture
Crover Ltd
Funding award: £334,788
Project: Improving the resilience of cereal grains and oilseeds in storage and transportation via next generation integrated pest management
Creative Innovations Tech Ltd
Funding award: £359,695
Project: Diagnosing and scoring diseases of crops using AI-based image analysis
Arrevolution Ltd
Funding award: £392,477
Project: Robotic strip cropping
Pollybell Farms Ltd
Funding award: £388,336
Project: Climate SAFE
Deep Planet Ltd
Funding award: £216,828
Project: VineSoilAlert
Terraprima Group Ltd
Funding award: £321,994
Project: Smarter forecasting, communication and management of frost risk in vineyards
Lambda Energy Ltd
Funding award: £411,046
Project: Increasing yield in UK protected cropping by altering light quality
Oxford Simcell Ltd
Funding award: £373,865
Project: Development of SimCell vaccine for effective control of E. coli and salmonella infections in poultry
AviaSenze Ltd
Funding award: £347,151
Project: Flockwatch: automated chicken health management
Folium Food Science Ltd
Funding award: £361,151
Project: Harnessing CRISPR-Cas to reduce ammonia emissions in poultry production
Cambridge Animal Technologies Ltd
Funding award: £408,109
Project: CHERI: calf health evaluation and remote inspection
Hudson and Sanders Ltd
Funding award: £294,553
Project: OPTIclean UV
Successful projects: industrial research
B-Hive Innovations Ltd
Funding award: £787,865
Project: FUSED: integrated fusarium early diagnostic and management
British Sugar plc
Funding award: £663,433
Project: Developing a precision breeding pathway via gene editing for virus yellows resistance in sugar beet
Bactobio Ltd
Funding award: £711,777
Project: Developing new microbe-derived fungicides against potato late blight
Crop Intellect Ltd
Funding award: £781,085
Project: Decarbonising agriculture: synergistic nitrogen-fixing bacteria and photocatalyst to maximise fertiliser efficiency and improve air quality
Bofin Farmers Ltd
Funding award: £811,814
Project: Thriving roots underpinning total soil health (TRUTH)
Mutus Tech Ltd
Funding award: £710,336
Project: AI-enabled climate-smart fertiliser practice for sustainable and resilient farming
James Hutton Ltd
Funding award: £827,081
Project: Raspberry economics in production
Wye Hops Ltd
Funding award: £476,850
Project: Genetic informed breeding of climate resilient UK hop varieties
Folium Food Science Ltd
Funding award: £727,837
Project: Safe poultry, secure future: guided biotics® to mitigate Campylobacter in farming systems for sustainable agriculture
B G Research Ltd
Funding award: £772,168
Project: In-field detection of economically important viral veterinary pathogens
Algapelago Marine Ltd
Funding award: £417,547
Project: Optimising low energy extraction of kelp for soil and livestock nutrition
Top image: Credit: Maksym Belchenko, iStock, Getty Images Plus via Getty Images