ARISE: Launching a Trilateral Agri-Tech Collaboration for Climate-Resilient Agriculture

AgriTIERRA is proud to announce the recent launch of ARISE – Agri-Tech for Resilience, Innovation and Sustainable Ecosystems, a six-month international collaboration designed to accelerate the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Engineering Biology in regenerative and climate-resilient agriculture. The programme moved quickly from launch to action, with its first Knowledge Exchange Week recently taking place in São Paulo and Campinas, Brazil, bringing partners together on the ground for the first time.

Funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), ARISE connects three global centres of agricultural innovation, São Paulo, St Louis, and Cambridge, to build a new platform for research, innovation, investment and testbeds collaboration.

For AgriTIERRA, it was particularly rewarding to see the original ambition behind ARISE realised during the Brazil exchange. With the support of our partners, the programme has begun connecting Latin America with the UK and the United States to build a trilateral ecosystem focused on resilient, healthy food systems and frontier technologies such as AI and Engineering Biology.

AgriTIERRA’s role in a Trilateral Partnership for Agri-Tech

ARISE brings together a strategically selected group of partners, each contributing world-leading expertise:

• Agri-TechE (United Kingdom) – Project owner, strategic lead, and host of the final Innovation Forum

• AgriTierra Ltd (United Kingdom / LATAM) – Project manager, regional coordinator, and convening lead

• Earthbase Ltd (UK) – Innovation analysis and start-up ecosystem specialist

• Yield Lab Institute (United States) – US partner and host of the St Louis exchange visit

• Embrapa (Brazil) – LATAM partner and host of the São Paulo/Campinas exchange

This partnership model allows ARISE to combine strong regional expertise with a shared project structure and strategic direction across all territories. Within this framework, Agri-TechE leads delivery in the UK, with AgriTIERRA supporting international coordination and cross-consortium alignment.

Positioned between operational delivery and strategic oversight, AgriTIERRA helps align activities, engagement, and logistics across the trilateral collaboration to ensure the effective delivery of exchange visits, capability mapping, and overall programme coherence.

This role reflects AgriTIERRA’s experience in facilitating international collaboration and convening diverse stakeholders, contributing to the development of more connected and resilient agricultural innovation ecosystems in Brazil and internationally.

Why ARISE  Matters

Food systems across the world are undergoing unprecedented stress. Climate instability, supply chain disruption, new pathogens and shifting production systems require technologies that are:

• Resilient
• Sustainable
• Scalable
• Equitable

ARISE addresses this challenge by focusing on 3 frontier technologies with transformative potential:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

From predictive modelling to autonomous farming systems, AI offers new ways to improve productivity, resilience and environmental performance.

Engineering Biology (EB)

Bioinputs, biomanufacturing, precision fermentation and genome-enabled breeding offer game-changing opportunities for sustainable agriculture.

By bringing the UK, US and LATAM together around these themes, ARISE positions all three regions to jointly create collaborations that foster responsible agricultural innovation.

What ARISE Will Deliver

The ARISE programme brings together the UK, US and Latin America through three international knowledge exchange visits: Brazil (São Paulo and Campinas, December 2025) hosted by Embrapa, the United States (St Louis, February 2026) hosted by the Yield Lab Institute, and the United Kingdom (Cambridge, March 2026) hosted by Agri-TechE.

Each exchange includes workshops, site visits, bilateral meetings and investment-focused matchmaking to support collaboration building. Across these visits, partners are mapping key research and innovation centres, start-ups, investors, accelerators and testbeds to identify priority opportunities across the three ecosystems.

The programme will conclude with a strategic trilateral roadmap setting out priority collaborations, sustainability and opportunities. In the coming month, partners will consolidate insights from the Brazil knowledge exchange to inform the next phases of ARISE.

First activity Knowledge Exchange Week in Brazil

What a week in Brazil! The ARISE Knowledge Exchange Week in Brazil brought together representatives from 7 countries; UK, US, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, to explore opportunities for collaboration, research partnerships, testbeds and investment.

The energy in the room was amazing- seven countries identifying common ground from their organisations but also from a country level, complementary strengths and a clear appetite to work together.

The visit reinforced Brazil’s role as a global partner for regenerative, climate-smart agriculture and opportunities as commodity producer.

Through visits and discussions with Embrapa, CNPEM and leading innovation platforms, the delegation saw how Brazil integrates world-class science, digital agriculture, engineering biology, bioenergy and real-world testbeds to address productivity, sustainability and climate resilience at scale.

Embrapa demonstrated how decades of public research continue to evolve into advanced capabilities in data, bioinputs, soil health and environmental systems, while sites such as AgNest and CNPEM highlighted Brazil’s strength in translating frontier science into applied agricultural and climate solutions.

As the first activity of the ARISE trilateral programme, the Brazil visit set strong foundations for collaboration, mutual learning and future partnerships. It set a clear tone for the next exchanges in St Louis and Cambridge.