Agri-EPI Centre | pioneering agri-tech enabler | farming UK
  • Agri-Tech Excellence Awards 2021

    Agri-EPI Centre’s inaugural agri-tech awards will champion agri-tech SMEs that have made a significant sustainable impact on-farm between January 2019- March 2021.

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  • Agricultural Transition Plan

    DEFRA announced changes to agricultural policy in England from 1 January 2021, moving away from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Read what this will mean for farmers, land managers and agri-tech companies.

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  • Postharvest Storage Solutions

    Central to our nutrition, today, the ability to extend the availability and seasons of perishable goods, such as fruit and vegetables, plays a key role and is an increasing challenge to food producers, processors and retailers.

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    Agri-EPI Soil and Crop Technology | Glasshouse Phenotyping Platform | Postharvest Storage
  • Grain ‘swimming’ robot

    Technology start-up Crover, Agri-EPI and East of Scotland Farmers have teamed up to develop the first robotic device to tackle global post-harvest grain losses.

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    Crover grain robot device
  • Soft fruit robotics

    A large UK agri-food consortium has been formed to address agricultural labour shortages by accelerating the use of robotics and automation (R&A) for picking and packing soft fruit and vegetables.

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    Saga Robotics and the Modular Robotic Platform Thorvald
  • Innovation for Food Resilience

    More than 1200 delegates from over 20 countries worldwide attended a recent virtual conference from UK’s 4 Centres of Agricultural Innovation. All recordings are now available on demand.

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    Agri-Tech Centres Event | 'Innovation for Food Resilience' | 19 November 2020
  • Tech innovators ecosystem

    The Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation hub is an ecosystem of tech innovators, engineering excellence, business thinkers, and food farming experts. Bringing industry, agri-tech and academia together under one roof.

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    Midlands Agritech Innovation Hub | venue space | Technology workshop space | events | Conference | Office Space | Virtual Office

Agri-EPI Centre

Pioneering agricultural engineering, precision and innovation for UK farming. 

Welcome to Agri-EPI Centre. We exist to bridge the gap between the people creating innovative new agricultural technologies, and those who benefit from them.

We were established as part of the UK government’s Agri-Tech Strategy to develop, fund, and commercialise new precision agricultural technologies by fostering relationships between researchers, startups, investors, and farmers to bring the latest innovations to reality.

We at Agri-EPI have a strong network of contacts and facilities with a proven track-record of taking new ideas from theory to practice, in a way that honours our two core goals: maximising profitability and enhancing the sustainability of the supply chains that feed the world. So if you have a new agricultural idea, solution, or technology — we want to hear about it.

How We Can Help

Through our established network of industry partners, together we can create scientifically robust and commercially viable agricultural solutions.

Why You Should Work With Us

We specialise in connecting knowledgeable experts and new solutions across the livestock, crops, horticulture, and aquaculture sectors so that, together, we can deliver profitable and sustainable cutting-edge technologies to market.

Our Ecosystem

Our carefully-crafted ecosystem of agricultural innovation takes aim at the most challenging real-world farming and agricultural problems, stress-testing and then demonstrating the viability of new solutions that benefit not just the industry, but the world at large.

Knowledge Exchange Network

As a key, government-backed player in the agricultural sector, we at Agri-EPI Centre have been able to enlist 25 farms spread throughout the UK to participate in the Agri-EPI Farm Network.

We equipped these farms with a suite of precision sensor technologies to measure variances across every dimension of food production – quality, productivity, wastage, and more.

The basic package includes computers, IT infrastructure, meeting rooms with displays, a DJI drone, and a Davis weather station designed to get ‘offline’ farms digitally connected. We also offer satellite imagery, soil-zoning, soil-sampling, and other bespoke technologies based on the needs of the farm and collaborators.

From there, we can begin to implement the technologies and innovations that will change the future of farming, and assess the ways in which we can work together to bring these ideas to full commercial viability

Agricultural technology projects

The projects we oversee span a broad range of industry-led agricultural technologies in applied research and development. To date, we have successfully delivered 41 CR&D projects and 120 commercial projects, representing a combined value of over £45million.

Healthy Heifer Project

Healthy Heifer: A precision solution for dairy farmers

Strong and healthy replacement heifers are crucial to the longevity and productivity of a milking herd. Supporting timely, informed and accurate interventions, the Healthy Heifer project seeks to create a unique, precision solution giving dairy farmers access to real-time data on young livestock.
Kenyan finger millet

Agritech boost for Kenyan finger millet and smallholder sustainability

Through a purpose-built, precision farming platform, up to 2000 farmers in the Busia and Siaya regions of Western Kenya will participate in a game-changing collaborative agri-tech project led by experts at UK Agri-EPI Centre, Harper Adams University, Nairobi-based Strathmore University, agronomic services provider Newscape Agro Systems and technical services provision company USOMI.

Agricultural technology projects

The projects we oversee span a broad range of industry-led agricultural technologies in applied research and development. To date, we have successfully delivered 41 CR&D projects and 120 commercial projects, representing a combined value of over £45million.

Industry impact

Discover the practical application of new and emerging agri-tech research and innovation.

Case studies - Agri-EPI Soil and Crop Technology | Glasshouse Phenotyping Platform | Postharvest Storage

Extending the availability and flavour of UK apples

Recent research undertaken by Cranfield University, at Agri-EPI Centre’s innovative Postharvest Storage facilities has delivered a way not only to improve apple storage times, but also maintain apple quality and improve flavour during storage without the need for additional ethylene inhibitor treatment, effectively delivering substantial savings for large apple suppliers. Read the full case study.

Industry impact

Our library of case studies illustrates the practical application of new and emerging research and technology. If you would like more information about any of our case studies and the related solutions and services, please get in touch.

Ritchie Beef Monitor

The Ritchie Beef Monitor is an intelligent water trough that offers a convenient method of weighing cattle by scanning tags that send information to an online platform accessible to farmers. With it, cattle experience less stress during weighing and farmers can more closely monitor growth.

Crover: The world’s first bulk grain-monitoring robot

When grains such as wheat and barley are stored long-term in sheds and silos, they’re at increased risk of spoilage from infestation by insects and moulds. CROVER is a robotic device that analyses conditions inside grain bulks to identify sub-optimal storage conditions, as well as physically mix grains in-situ, which helps avoid spoilage. CROVER is remotely operated, with the ability to reach every corner of the grain bulk, meaning workers can avoid performing the risky operation themselves.

Salad Harvesting Automation

The UK’s agri-food labour shortage, worsened by unprecedented geopolitical and pandemic-related events in recent years, has significantly affected farms and supply chains. Agri-EPI has helped to develop a robotic solution that automates the labour-intensive process of lettuce harvesting. The design, now in the prototype stages, lifts lettuce clear from the field with an estimated 50% reduction in the use of human labour compared to traditional methods, circumventing the urgent issue of labour shortages using robotics.

WELL-CALF

The WELL-CALF project works to develop the first precision agriculture integrated monitoring system that was specifically designed for early disease detection or developing health issues in calves from seven days old to sixteen weeks old. The project makes optimising treatment and management practices at an individual animal level a simple and accessible reality for dairy and beef farmers.

Marine Aquaculture Innovation Centre

We are supporting UK aquaculture innovation with a multi-species, marine aquaculture trials facility in Argyll, Scotland. In conjunction with Otter Ferry Seafish, we’ve established a new industry-led R&D facility in Scotland.

On-Farm Demo Day – Godminster

In line with our mission to bridge the gap between the people creating innovative new agricultural technologies and those who benefit from them, we hold regular on-farm demonstration days. Attended by innovators from farm to fork these events offer the opportunity to better understand the agricultural challenges that together we aim to find solutions to.

What our partners say

“Our collaboration with Agri-EPI and the South West Dairy Development Centre gave us the opportunity to produce robust research in a commercial setting. The farm setup allows companies to obtain accurate feeding data whilst also being commercially viable at the same time. The turnaround time from project ideas to implementation of a trial is very quick and a great benefit for companies.”

“I’d heard about the Agri-EPI Centre in Australia and wanted to come and see it for myself. The Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub is ideally located adjacent to Harper Adams University and an ideal ‘landing-pad’ for Agri-tech companies wishing to start up in the UK.”

“The South West Dairy Centre fits very well with Innovate UK’s vision to support the development and adoption of new technologies to help UK farming become more sustainable, efficient and profitable.”

“Agri-EPI Centre – an incredible combination of state-of-the-art facilities, knowledge, and connectivity to everything that is the UK agtech scene.”

“Our collaboration with Agri-EPI and the Midlands Dairy Research Centre on the Harper Adams University campus is affording us the opportunity to conduct high quality, commercially relevant, forward thinking, research with a great team.”

What our partners say

“Our collaboration with Agri-EPI and the South West Dairy Development Centre gave us the opportunity to produce robust research in a commercial setting. The farm setup allows companies to obtain accurate feeding data whilst also being commercially viable at the same time. The turnaround time from project ideas to implementation of a trial is very quick and a great benefit for companies.”

“I’d heard about the Agri-EPI Centre in Australia and wanted to come and see it for myself. The Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub is ideally located adjacent to Harper Adams University and an ideal ‘landing-pad’ for Agri-tech companies wishing to start up in the UK.”

“The South West Dairy Centre fits very well with Innovate UK’s vision to support the development and adoption of new technologies to help UK farming become more sustainable, efficient, and profitable.”

“Agri-EPI Centre – an incredible combination of state-of-the-art facilities, knowledge, and connectivity to everything that is the UK agtech scene.”

“Our collaboration with Agri-EPI and the Midlands Dairy Research Centre on the Harper Adams University campus is affording us the opportunity to conduct high quality, commercially relevant, forward thinking, research with a great team.”

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