UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has today (9/6) announced the winners of a combined £8 million in funding, as part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme.
The feasibility projects competition was created to back new and innovative solutions, aid research and collaboration, and encourage collaboration across the UK’s farmers, growers and foresters.
The competition, managed by UKRI’s transforming food production challenge and delivered by Innovate UK, ran from October to December 2021.
It sought applications of up to £500,000 to support the investigation of early-stage solutions that have the potential to improve sustainability, productivity and resilience of UK farming on a path to net zero.
Projects were required to demonstrate the benefits the concept would generate, as well as how collaboration between farmers, businesses and researchers could be enhanced as a result.
Successful projects
Over 20 projects were successful in their applications, for a range of ideas across: agriculture; animal farming; pest and disease detection; and novel technology concepts.
Successful technology-led projects included Lettus Grow’s advanced aeroponic systems and Muddy Machines’ field-tested harvesting robots, while Yagro aim to utilise drone surveys to provide greater commercial data and intelligence to farmers.
Eyre Trailers, Earth Rover and Performance Projects all developed new concepts for harvesting, from combine harvester vehicles themselves, to broccoli and soft fruit.
Click through to see more about the winning projects.
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Posted On: 10/06/2022