In the month that “new balls” were called for at both Wimbledon and Number 10, more than 10,000 of us headed to Lannock Farm to celebrate the 10th Groundswell (and an England win on the big screen), Fruit Focus marked its 40th birthday, and Defra delivered a hat-trick: publishing the Farming Roadmap, issuing its formal response to Minette Batters’ 2025 Farming Profitability Review, and announcing a further £53m for the Farming Innovation Programme.
On the money, Window 1 of the new Sustainable Farming Incentive opened at pace, with around 75% of the £60M budget allocated by mid-month (with no further updates from Defra since 13 July, we assume the initial scramble has tailed off). Meanwhile, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published its new five-year strategic plan showing a commitment to agri-tech and an emphasis on opportunities for precision technologies and engineering biology.
The department sponsoring the UKRI is also on the move. DSIT is being absorbed into the Department for Business and Trade, once again making the department responsible for science, innovation and technology funding. This was the case ten years ago, so it’s familiar territory, but we should prepare for some administrative disruption. Thoughts and prayers.
And while the much-anticipated UK-EU summit was postponed, questions around trade, dynamic alignment and agri-food market access remain firmly on the agenda.
But before that... read on for the latest agri-tech news, events and opportunities from across the Agri-TechE ecosystem. | 
