When a delegation of organisations from the UK agri-tech ecosystem took part in a mission to meet producers, plant scientists and technologists from the St Louis AgCluster, the potential for partnership to deploy new technologies in different markets was clear.
Unfortunately, the reciprocal visit needs to be virtual, but this does have the benefit of allowing more organisations to participate. The event on 29th April is part of series of missions being organised by Agri-TechE.
Watch the video for a reminder of what the delegates got up to last year.
Watch our 1 minute teaser to hear what previous visitors to Missouri had to say
The St Louis cluster-tech “shopping list” of innovation priorities (as compiled by BioSTL) for the St Louis cluster included:
- Precision and digital ag – including robotics and automation, remote sensing and measurements
- Reduction in chemistry application, including biologicals and pheromones
- Acceleration of seed breeding, including computational approaches to better understand genomes
- Better traceability, efficiency and food safety (helping increase farmgate value for growers)
- Diagnostics kits as indicators of health
- Alternative proteins
- Packaging sciences
There is now an opportunity to build on the opportunities created by last year’s mission, in a virtual networking event (29th April 2021) which offers the chance to meet with producers, tech developers, researchers and representatives from St Louis and across the state of Missouri,
Watch the video for a reminder of what the delegates got up to last year
Who do you need to know in the St Louis AgCluster?
St Louis is known as the home of plant science and agri-tech in the US and a number of world leading research institutes are based in the region with supporting innovation incubators, including: –
- 39 North, a 600-acre innovation district, including the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
- The largest plant research facility in North America at Bayer Crop Science’s Global Seeds and Traits HQ
- The University of Missouri Columbia with field trials dating back to 1888
- Early Adopter Grower Innovation Community (EAGIC) at the BioSTL accelerator in St Louis identifies early adopter growers committing to host pilot technologies on their farm. Talking to the farmers also identifies innovation needs with a plan to match up supply and demand around innovation.
Virtual networking event 29th April 2021
The event will include four themed breakout sessions, with open discussions on themes from net zero to robotics, livestock to plant science. So come and join the discussion and let the facilitators connect you to others in the sector.
This discussion is to be held in collaboration with the UK’s Department for International Trade, the Missouri Partnership along with colleagues at the Great St Louis Partnership.
