To facilitate effective networking on the day, would you please send us a single powerpoint slide, with the following information:

• Your name, your organisation’s name and the sector to which you belong.
• What particular research challenge(s) would you like to see addressed in any collaboration with your organisation? (growers and supply chain delegates)
• What are your interests or offers relating to engineering solutions? (engineering delegates)

(You may also like to include contact details in the form of an e-mail address on this slide)

We will be offering you the opportunity to speak to these during the workshop, but we would also like to collate this information as part of the delegate handout packs, so please ensure you email it to anna.baginska@esktn.org by 17th July.

If you are interested in having a stand at this event please let us know ASAP as places are limited.

Event Purpose

This day-long capacity building workshop aims to broker novel partnerships relevant to the horticulture and potatoes sectors in preparation for the proposed TSB Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform call for projects on Engineering Solutions for the Agrifood Industry.

Objectives

• For the engineering community to understand the challenges that the horticultural and potatoes industry faces which offer opportunities for novel engineering solutions.
• For horticultural and potato stakeholders to identify the opportunities that the engineering community can offer for collaboration and development of innovative approaches to develop future sustainable horticultural and potato supply chains.
• To identify opportunities for collaborative research and development of technology and to extend practical knowledge and understanding of its applications in the UK and beyond.

Outputs

• A shortlist of potential partnerships relevant to the horticulture and potato industries and options for the development of collaborative innovation projects within the context of the forthcoming agri-tech strategy and anticipated TSB call.

Outcomes

• Identification of areas where there is potential to develop collaborative, innovative approaches and applications of technology to increase sustainability in the horticultural and potato supply chains.
• Development of initial potential partnerships to formulate collaborative R&D bids

Further information about the proposed SAF-IP competition – please note that this is only provisional information at this stage and will be confirmed after the publication of the Agritech strategy, but is supplied here so that the horticulture industry can prepare to make the most of this opportunity:

The next planned competition under the SAF-IP will in all probability focus on ‘Engineering Solutions for the Agrifood Industry. It is intended to build on recommendations from the recent IAgE report, which highlights innovation opportunities available in engineering science to understand the performance of highly complex systems and provide routes to optimised operations from farm to fork.

The competition will focus on stimulating innovative technologies relevant to engineering and precision agriculture across the agri-food supply chain, to maximise productivity, reduce resource use efficiency and the environmental impact of food production. We are seeking to attract projects from business-led consortia covering, but not limited to, the following areas:

• Explore engineering and precision agriculture solutions across the agrifood supply chain
• Encourage an integrated approach to ensure greater system compatibility and secondary market potential
• Enhance resource use efficiency in arable and horticultural food crops, livestock (including aquaculture) and food processing environments.
• Improve soil and water management
• Optimise land and labour management across the supply chain – Farm to Fork.
• Minimise any potentially negative environmental impacts
• Maximise marketable yield and profit potential.

The proposed competition will therefore involve applications from primary production through to the storage, food processing and the retail environment.

The budget for the competition is predicted to be up to £13m, with co-funding from TSB, Defra, BBSRC and Scottish Government.

Programme:

Chairman: Christine Tacon

9.00 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE

9.30 Welcome and outline of the day. Mary Bosley, HIP and Dr Anne Miller, ESKTN

9.35 CHAIR’S INTRODUCTION Chairman: Christine Tacon

9.45 Keynote presentation: The challenges to be addressed in the horticulture and potato supply

chain. Dr Ed Moorhouse, G’s growers

10.10 Keynote presentation: The engineering opportunities that might apply to the horticulture

and potato supply chain. Professor Simon Blackmore, Harper Adams University

10.35 COFFEE

10.55 Matching user needs with research opportunities – Theme 1. Producer perspective

Short presentations of examples of horticulture and potato challenges to be solved

Dr Steve Tones, Business Development Manager HDC

Speakers representing the producer supply chain for vegetables and fruit:

John Sedgwick, Stewarts of Tayside

Philip Pearson, APS Salads

Sam Rowe, Berryworld

Tony Harding, Worldwide Fruit

Dr Mike Storey, Head of R & D Potato Council

Representative of potato supply chain: Vidyanath Gururajan, Branston Ltd

Opportunity for other producers to provide short presentation (2 min each)

Discussion with Q&As

11.35 Matching user needs with research opportunities – Theme 2.

Short presentations: solution providers (2 min each)

12.15 LUNCH AND NETWORKING

13.30 The TSB SAFIP funding opportunity “Engineering for primary production and

processing”. Calum Murray, TSB

13.50 Putting together a successful horticulture and potatoes bid for TSB SAFIP funding: an

industry perspective and a research perspective. Prof Jerry Cross, EMR.

14.15 Q&A session

14.30 Summing up and next steps

TEA AND FINAL NETWORKING

15. 00 CLOSE