Agri-Tech in China Newton Network+ Prelaunch Event

Why come along?

This new £2.5M programme funded by The Science & Technology Funding Council (STFC) will support UK organisations looking to apply their capabilities on satellite imaging, remote sensing, smart sensors and modelling to address challenges faced by the agricultural sector in China.

Join us at this pre-launch event to hear about the funding that will be made available to the following types of activities, and to help us map the opportunities and needs of stakeholders in the UK and CN, informing the development of the scope for the calls for proposals to be launched later in the year.

The Agri-Tech in China Newton Network+ will provide funding to support:

Fact-finding and networking missions to China
Feasibility studies
Proof of concept studies
R&D projects
Bi-directional exchange visits
Knowledge exchange and capacity building workshops

The Network+ will have a China-based office that can help facilitate networking on the ground with the academic, policy and business communities related to developing opportunities in this space. This inaugural UK workshop will aim to gauge the level and foci of interest from the UK community and to produce a capability audit in preparation for a follow-up workshop in China where the priority needs will be identified. If you are a UK business or academic organisation with activities in CN, or are looking to develop opportunities there, we expect you will benefit from attending the meeting.

Network+ consortium

Background

The great majority of China’s farms are smallholder properties with insufficient productivity to support farmers in rural communities on their own. A number of forces including soil degradation, pollution of soils and chemical residues in crop plants, unsustainable water use and polluted water, and inefficient use of inputs threaten agriculture on these properties.

Back in 2015 The Science & Technology Funding Council (STFC) identified the need to use UK capabilities on satellite imaging, remote sensing, smart sensors and modelling to support the development of new solutions for the Chinese farming community. Under the auspices of the Newton Fund, the STFC are supporting a number of Sino-UK partnerships to support Chinese agriculture. Recognising the potential of adding value to this investment through greater coordination and support of projects that build on the achievements gained, the STFC ran a competition to establish the £2.5M Agri-Tech in China Newton Network+. The purpose of this Network is to support the academic and business community to network with, and build on, existing activity. Therefore, we can support exchange visits, travel, workshops, and projects.

Rothamsted Research, the University of Reading, University of Edinburgh, the University of East Anglia and SRUC were successful in the application to STFC and have collectively set up the Agri-Tech in China Network+ to coordinate the networking, capacity building and innovation activities to support farming in China. The UK Agri-Tech Centre for Agricultural Innovation in data science and modelling, Agrimetrics, is associated with the Network+ to provide a means of coordinating and integrating data across the programme, and offering support in analytics. In addition, the Network+ and Agrimetrics offer a means to support business engagement in China.

The Agri-Tech in China Network+ will help China progress to smarter and more sustainable agricultural systems, ensuring its food security and opening up opportunities for economic growth.

Who will be attending?

This is an open event, but we anticipate participation from business and academic consortia already actively engaged in STFC-funded Agri-Tech activity in China. In addition, invitations will go out to all relevant business and academic groups including large multinationals, SMEs and UK Centres of academic excellence engaged with the UK Agri-Tech Strategy. There will be opportunities to hear from the participants about their interests and capabilities and to start building consortia as appropriate.

Programme

09.00 Networking Breakfast - Tea, coffee & breakfast pastries/fruit available on arrival
09.45 Welcome
10.00 Introduction to the STFC Newton Agri-Tech in China Network (Professor John Crawford, PI Network+)
10.30 Introduction to the China Agriculture University (Fusuo Zhang)
11.00 Coffee/Tea break
11.30 Case Studies: presentations from current STFC funded projects
13.00 Lunch
13.45 Flash Talks: Academic, policy and business delegates present a 10minute pitch on: “What I’d like to do with the Network+ and what I can bring”
15.00 Coffee
15.30 Discussion of emerging themes and issues
15.50 Summary, actions and next steps
16.00 Finish

Registrations are closed

Agri-Tech In China Network+ Prelaunch Event