The University of Lincoln has received £6.4million to create a new global centre of excellence in agri-robotics.
Research at the centre, dubbed Lincoln Agri-Robotics, will focus on autonomous agri-robots that can efficiently tend, harvest and quality control high-value crops with reduced human intervention, improving agriculture productivity to meet the demands of a growing population.
The grant is a slice of the government’s £76m Expanding Excellence in England Fund, part of its wider industrial strategy to raise public and private sector R&D spend to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027.
First announced in February, Lincoln Agri-Robotics will expand two of the University’s specialist research groups – the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology, and the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems, by bringing together the groups’ scientists into one specialist organisation.
Professor Andrew Hunter, Lincoln's deputy vice chancellor for research and innovation, said: 'Agri-food is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK – twice the scale of automotive and aerospace combined – supporting a food chain which generates a Gross Value Added (GVA) of £113bn, with 3.9m employees in a truly international industry.
'It is widely agreed that robotics will transform the food and farming industries in the coming years, as producers adapt to meet significantly increased global demand, but there is still so much research and development to be done.
'The creation of Lincoln Agri-Robotics is therefore extremely timely and positions Lincolnshire, and the UK, at the leading edge of research innovations in this truly global industry. RAAI technologies will facilitate a step change in agricultural productivity while reducing environmental impact, and this new centre of excellence will be at the forefront of that change.'
The £6.4m grant will enable the headquarters for the research centre, develop a state of the art digital infrastructure, create specialist RAAI facilities and strengthen its pool of world-leading robotics researchers by bringing in a number of new academic experts to the institute.
Universities and Science Minister Chris Skidmore said: 'Pushing the boundaries of knowledge and conquering new innovations are what our universities are known for the world over. This programme led by the University of Lincoln will give the UK another world first in Lincoln's centre for research into farming robotics.”
