Agri-TechE vents 2017

Agri-TechE hosts events throughout the year to inspire and facilitate discussions between participants with new ideas and fresh thinking. People from all sectors and disciplines welcome—whether you’re a grower, a researcher, technologists or an entrepreneur, come along and join in!

Pollinators are our regular network meetings, which are FREE for members to attend, while Special Interest Groups (SIGs) delve a little deeper into the bigger topics.

The below information is only a teaser – look out for more details on the Agri-TechE vents page throughout the year, and don’t forget that members can view and download event reports from our Publications page.

Pollinator: A New Agriculture – What Will The Future Hold

12 January, Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association

What does the industry want to see in 2017 for agri-tech? Given a genie in the bottle many farmers and growers would uses their 3 wishes to help make them more profitable, productive and sustainable. We are asking our experts from the worlds of plant breeding, agronomy and agri-engineering look into the crystal ball and visualise the developments that they would like to see in their sector.

Pollinator: Show Me The Money! Focus on Funding

23 January, Cambridge

“I’ve heard about crowd-funding – what is it and how can I get involved?” Two years on from our popular “Focus on Funding” Pollinator, we are looking at alternative sources of finance for innovative ideas which could be game-changers for agriculture and horticulture. There are five types of crowd funding; financial return equity, debt, royalty, non-financial reward, and donation. The Pollinator is for entrepreneurs and researchers with ideas or projects seeking funding; individuals or representatives of organisations looking for projects to support as crowd-funding; anyone who wants to learn about the principles of Crowd-Funding to support research or development of a new innovation for the agri-food industry.

Nutritious and Delicious – Breeding Innovations for Value-Added Crops

22 February, Norwich

The quest to improve nutrition and flavour through crop breeding is a long-standing challenge being accelerated due to novel breeding techniques and a better understanding of plant genetics and human and animal metabolism. From “Golden Rice” to purple tomatoes and better broccoli, this event will explore the potential for improvement of fruit, vegetables and grains, ranging from products already hitting the supermarket shelves, to those a bit further from market.

SIG: “Bring Out Your Data”

21 March, Rothamsted

We often hear of farmers who have such huge data sets that would give them real insights into the business, crop and management practice, if only they had time or opportunity to interrogate and manage the data simply and easily. This workshop will explore the various options available to those who are looking for partners to help them make sense of their data.

Here we will hope to help farmers and growers understand the options available for larger data sets that may require more work to derive better value. A number of providers will be featured who can, via confidential projects, offer bespoke solutions to manage and curate “big data” challenges. This event will be a brokerage opportunity for those with challenges and possible solutions to meet.

Member Give-and-Get Exchange

28 March, Cambridge

With a growing membership base representing the agri-food value chain from discovery research to on-farm technologies, Agri-TechE warmly welcomes its members to an invitation-only event to meet other members for an exclusive partnering event. This is a chance for the network to come together to really maximise the benefits of being part of the cluster – you may be looking for partners, collaborators, customers, industry insights, investments or just want to see who else is doing what across the membership. You’ll have the chance to show-and-tell what you do, what you’d like and how others can help you achieve it. With brief presentations, pitches and partnering opportunities, this exclusive event is only open to members of Agri-Tech and is FREE to attend.

Agri-TechE Week 2017

6-10 November, various locations

To celebrate innovation across the region we have a week of agri-tech events from 6-10th November 2017, with something to interest everyone.

Agri-TechE Week is a partnership initiative to showcase excellence in innovation across the agri-tech value chain, brokering links and fostering new relationships between businesses, researchers and government. It was founded in 2014 by Agri-Tech, the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association and the Suffolk Agricultural Association.

Agri-TechE Week also provides an opportunity to welcome new collaborators, customers and partners to the east of England’s agri-tech ecosystem, and features events, visits, workshops and discussions across the east of England, as well as Agri-Tech’s annual REAP Conference in Cambridge.

More details will be revealed for each event throughout the year so keep checking back to the website to stay up-to-date on the latest news!