The Vertical Farming Development Centre (VFDC) enables agri-tech businesses, growers and controlled-environment innovators to develop, validate and scale next-generation vertical farming technologies under commercially representative conditions.
Based at Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC), the VFDC combines two complementary facilities — the Vertical Farm Demonstrator and the Dynamic Vertical Farming Cabinet — providing a pathway from early-stage optimisation through to commercial-scale validation.
The Vertical Farm Demonstrator offers fully controlled, commercial-grade growing environments where innovators can trial crops, technologies and environmental strategies at scale. The facility supports development of energy-efficient, sustainable and commercially viable production systems for leafy greens and other high-value crops.
The Dynamic Vertical Farming Cabinet provides ultra-precise environmental and fertigation control, enabling rapid development and testing of crop growth recipes, lighting strategies and nutrient programmes before scale-up into the larger demonstrator facility.
Capabilities across the VFDC include:
- Commercial-scale vertical farming trials and technology validation
- Advanced climate, lighting and fertigation control
- Crop recipe optimisation for yield, quality and resource efficiency
- Testing of lighting spectra, nutrient strategies and CO₂ enrichment
- Prototype development and scale-up of controlled-environment technologies
- Clean-room infrastructure and precision environmental monitoring
The VFDC also enables innovators to compare environmental control strategies, optimise sustainability and energy use, and generate independent performance data to support commercial adoption.
Together with the Innovation Hub for Controlled Environment Agriculture at the James Hutton Institute, the VFDC provides a connected research and commercialisation ecosystem supporting agri-tech businesses from concept development through to scalable market-ready solutions.
In collaboration with:
This Capability is based at the Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC). STC is an independent agricultural and horticultural centre of excellence, supported by both growers and supply sectors of the industry.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)
Our unique CEA facilities range from pilot-to-commercial scale to foster the development, optimisation, validation, scale-up and demonstration of next generation technologies and innovative solutions that optimise the indoor production of crops (yield; costs) ,improving food quality whilst reducing our impact on resources.
We can test the effect of different strategies (environmental controls; IPM); growing systems (natural light; hydroponic; sunless); recipes (lights; nutrients); explore new crops and applications (seed breeding; high-value molecules; ingredients), as well as integrate circular economy opportunities (nutrients; energy; heat; CO2) to drive forward the novel practices and innovation that underpin this sector’s ambitions for sustainable and resilient food production.
