The first funding from a £90 million fund will launch later this month to revolutionise how food is produced and dramatically reduce its environmental impact.
The Transforming Food Production Challenge, part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy, will bring together the UK’s world-leading agri-food sector with robotics, satellite, data and digital technologies and artificial intelligence to make the UK a world leader in the precision farming techniques needed to make sure the planet is able to feed a population of nine billion people by 2050.
The Challenge, which is funded through the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) aims to fuel rural growth, create high-skilled jobs and open up new export opportunities while reducing pollution and minimising waste and soil erosion.
The first funding competition calls opens on 20 August 2018 with an investment up to £20 million. The Industry-Led Collaborative Research & Development call has two main themes:
- To drive productivity and improve environmental outcomes in crop and ruminant production systems
- To develop new, highly efficient, high-value food production systems that maximise productivity and improve environmental performance
Projects must focus on the development of enhanced decision support, precision agriculture technology solutions and systems. This includes:
- Combining digital technologies and engineering solutions with biological, environmental and/or social science to drive productivity
- Developing technologies and solutions that connect farms and supply chains
- Transferring technology from another sector into agriculture, providing this requires innovation