UK Agri-Tech Centre launched on 1 April 2024. Following the merger of Agri-EPI, CIEL and CHAP to create the UK’s largest dedicated agri-tech organisation and driving agri-innovation at unprecedented levels.
UK Agri-Tech Centre is an independent organisation with core funding from Innovate UK and will retain its expert staff and world-leading facilities. Led by CEO Phil Bicknell and a newly-appointed executive leadership team.
Dr. Peter Quinn, chair of the UK Agri-Tech Centre board, said:
“One of the major benefits of the new UK Agri-Tech Centre is that we have some of the best people from across the sectors working here and in our networks. Our specialists can use their expertise collaboratively to focus on a solution, creating real-world usable products.
“Within ten to 15 years we will have to change our food production and supply chains significantly. The hardest bit is implementing commercial agri-innovation, which can often take five to ten years. It takes endurance and resilience to trial biological work, to work with nature and the seasons which vary from one to the next. We have to focus on the prize. Becoming UK Agri-Tech Centre increases the scope and speed at which we can work.”
Phil Bicknell, UK Agri-Tech Centre CEO said:
“We are launching UK Agri-Tech Centre at a pivotal time. Agri-food is the bedrock of the UK’s largest manufacturing sector. A sector that is facing ongoing challenges around volatility, policy upheaval, input costs and environmental sustainability.
UK Agri-Tech Centre will make the most of the phenomenal opportunity to use science and innovation to lead and guide transformational change for the sector, for the benefit of humanity and the planet.”