Agri-EPI Centre offers a comprehensive R&D service for agri-tech innovators, from idea generation to product development.
The centre can help with consortia building, bid writing and scoping projects, as well as providing access to its world-class research facilities across all sectors of agriculture.
The centre has engineering space for prototyping, testing and refining new technologies, as well as data collection and ground truth assets for validating their performance. The centre also has specialist technical teams with expertise in areas such as robotics, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, etc.
The centre can also provide project management and delivery services for agri-tech projects funded by various sources such as Innovate UK or Horizon Europe.
Our ground-breaking facilities support the development of innovative ideas to help farmers and business owners become more profitable and sustainable.
Located at Loch Fyne on Scotland’s Argyll coast, our Marine Aquaculture Innovation Centre is in partnership with an independent aquaculture company, Otter Ferry Seafish (OFS), jointly funded by Innovate UK.
The centre offers fully serviced research and development facilities to aquaculture producers and technology providers with a focus on improving aquaculture sustainability.
It provides much-needed capacity for developing innovative production technologies for diverse marine aquaculture species, including salmon to near market size. The facility is configured to undertake a wide range of studies, such as evaluating feeds and pharmaceuticals, instrumentation testing and validation of operational welfare indicators.
Our Northern Agri-Tech Innovation Hub, located in Edinburgh, Scotland, is home to some of our operational Agri-EPI staff, Scottish technical and project management teams.
Housing laboratories, a full-time in-house technician, meeting and presentation spaces, the Northern Innovation Hub supports collaboration, research, and commercial trials to growers, agronomists, retailers, scientists and researchers from across the UK and further afield.
Set on the Harper Adams University campus, in the heart of Shropshire, home to British agricultural farming, the Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub is a state-of-the-art premise with modern facilities and amenities.
The Midlands Hub acts as a space for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs looking to develop and build new technologies.
It is one of four Agri-EPI Centre’s ground-breaking facilities and supports the Centres’ mission to help support innovative ideas which will help farmers and business owners become more profitable and sustainable.
There are several workshops, conference, and meeting spaces available at the Hub to rent, as well as lower and upper atriums, perfect for exhibitions and networking events.
Interested to find out more about the equipment and facilities available at the Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub? We will be delighted to talk to you.
Delivering academic rigour, data analytics and agri-tech expertise, our Crop Technology Southern Innovation Hub, located at Cranfield University, is home to world-class collaborative research within state-of-the-art facilities, including the Glasshouse Phenotyping Platform and Postharvest Storage Facilities.
Our world-class soil and crop technology capabilities address the need to improve our land and seek stock in UK farming. Supporting the need for increased yields, whilst adapting to the global issues of soil erosion, climate change, the impact of pests, disease and depleted natural resources.
Agri-EPI’s state-of-the-art South West Dairy Development Centre presents a fresh vision for the UK dairy industry. The resource offers a truly innovative environment for developing, testing and demonstrating new technologies and techniques to support sustainable, efficient, high health and welfare, cost-efficient milk production.
We lend our expertise to businesses in the agri-tech space to get access to grant funding or commercial funding through investors. As your partner, we help identify funding opportunities that are most suitable for you; we support with coordinating proposals, developing across consortia partners, writing and coordinating funding bid applications for R&D projects.
Grants and funding applications are competitive by nature. Funders are looking to support disruptive, innovative projects. We help you scope your project and turn it into a viable and scalable business model that suits the needs of your end-user. Grant project management is not always straightforward. Within Agri-EPI Centre, we employ Project Managers to assist partners with project support, allowing those with the technical insight the focus to deliver the results.
Managing projects requires adequate resources (time and competent personnel) to manage and ensure the project is delivered to meet funders’ requirements, including: budget setting and evaluation; setting up of monthly/quarterly meetings; writing progress reports; managing grant change requests; development of grant project documents.
Agri-EPI Centre has developed systems that takes the project from pre-project start up to project evaluation (post project close).
Agri-EPI’s engineering services can broadly be split into two categories: platforms and data. Both sets of services operate from our hub at Cranfield University. We have invested in manufacturer-independent development platforms which allow sensors and end effectors to be created without needing to create a bespoke system or work directly with a platform developer. This allows collaboration with platform providers to happen only when the requirements of the sensors/end-effectors are fully understood.
Agri-EPI’s state-of-the-art South West Development Centre presents a fresh vision for the UK dairy industry. The resource offers a truly innovative environment for developing, testing and demonstrating new technologies and techniques to support sustainable, efficient, high health and welfare, cost-efficient milk production.
Cranfield University houses Agri-EPI’s Crop Technology Hub. Rent offices and practical technology business incubator workshop spaces, access precision technology and agricultural equipment as well as real-time commercial farm testbeds.
Located at Loch Fyne on Scotland’s Argyll coast, our Marine Aquaculture Innovation Centre (MAIC) is in partnership with an independent aquaculture company, Otter Ferry Seafish (OFS), jointly funded by Innovate UK.
The centre offers fully serviced research and development facilities to aquaculture producers and technology providers with a focus on improving aquaculture sustainability.
Updates from the forefront of UK agriculture
