UK Food Valley Brunch

Welcome to the UK Food Valley Brunch in the Greater Lincolnshire Councils Corporate Marquee at the Lincolnshire Show.

Food + Energy                Food + Defence                  Food + Automotion / Aerospace

Our UK Food Valley is a world leading collection of food and farming business clusters, centres of excellence, and specialised facilities which collectively accelerate growth and sustainability to help businesses in this sector continue to grow and flourish. 

Today’s venue is home to the Agricultural Society at the heart of an emerging agricultural technology and innovation cluster and every year we see a growing number of innovative exhibitors coming to this show, all promoting what is an incredible food legacy right here in Greater Lincolnshire, which is what we are showcasing today.

Our aim is to become a Top 10 Global Food Cluster, here in greater Lincolnshire, and we are well on course to do this.

Promoting what we are doing is critical to our success and we need everyone to join us as ambassadors to raise the profile and share the incredible story of the UK Food Valley. Please join us on our journey and share with your networks and contacts to continue to make those connections.

Ruth Carver, Chief Executive
Greater Lincolnshire LEP
E: ruth.carver@lincolnshire.go.uk / M: 07919 166416

Ruth is Chief Executive for the Greater Lincolnshire LEP and leads in the planning, development, direction, and management of the LEP’s operation as directed by the board and has led the evolution of the LEP since it’s inauguration in 2011. Ruth implements the business plan and acts as an ambassador for the LEP in relevant forums. She is an experienced economic development and regeneration practitioner, with a lengthy track record in international trade and economic development.

Neal Juster, Vice Chancellor / Chair
University of Lincoln / Greater Lincolnshire LEP
E: njuster@lincoln.ac.uk

Neal took over as Vice Chancellor of the University of Lincoln in October 2021. He holds a BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Computer-Aided Design, both from the University of Leeds. His research interests were around compueter-aided design including rapid prototyping and the use of virtual reality in the design and manufacturing process. He has an extensive experience in university management and has worked as the Senior Vice Principal and Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Glasgow, Dean of Faculty of Engineering at the University of Stathclyde and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Leeds.

Food & Defence

B-Hive Innovations Tuberscan Project

Use of military underground sensing is being used by B-Hive to detect potato yield and is developing the Tuberscan project in collaboration with Branston Potatoes.  This novel technology originating in the military combines above and below ground sensing to detect the whole crop yield and show crop variation.  B-hive with collaborators are developing this proof from concept in a 2^nd round of Innovate UK funding.

Speaker:

Dr Ben Murphy, Head of Engineering
B-Hive Innovations
E: bmurphy@b-hiveinnovations.co.uk

Dr Ben Murphy is an experienced product development engineer specialising in electro-magnetic devices, optics and electrical systems. He is now leading Innovate UK Project ‘Tuberscan Venture’  which is the development of a Ground Penetrating Radar System to non-invasively measure potato yield and size distribution before harvest. Ben gained his experience in the heavy machinery/automotive industry and then renewable energy industry. He has contributed to over £2.5M of EPSRC and Innovate UK projects in both academic and commercial settings.

Food & Automotive / Aerospace

Moy Park Project Butterfly

Project Butterfly (part of Made Smarter) consists of Moy Park in partnership with UoL who have linked with aerospace and automotive companies to exchange technologies and intelligent data tools towards energy reduction.  Funded through UK Research and Innovation’s Sustainable Smart Factory competition for reduced carbon emissions in manufacturing.

Speakers:

Dr Anne Richmond, Director of Research and Technology
Moy Park
E: anne.richmond@moypark.com

Anne has worked in Moy Park (now Pilgrims Europe), for almost 10 years with over 30 years’ experience working with poultry due to growing up on a poultry farm outside Ballymoney.  She has a BSc (Hons) in Biology from the University of Dundee and PhD in Sustainable Agriculture with her thesis on differing methane emissions from beef cattle grazing on upland and lowland vegetation types from Queen’s University Belfast. During the completion of her PhD she was successful in winning a fellowship based at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (Westminster) to complete a briefing note for peers and MP’s on the subject of Livestock Superfarms.  She has worked as a Scientific Officer at AFBI in both the non-ruminant and beef research teams before joining Moy Park.

Anne has led the R&D team since its formal creation in 2016 and has been involved in many projects including Campylobacter and antibiotic reduction, bird performance improvement, welfare, sustainability and meat quality. She currently supervises six PhD students.  She also sits on the Committee for the NI branch of the Institute of Food Science and Technology and is on the Advisory Board of the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) for the Animal Sector and Bridge AI. 

Aaron Gilbraith, New Tech Manager
GKN Aerospace
E: aaron.gilbraith@gknaerospace.com / M: 07970 963507

Aaron has worked for GKN Aerospace for 18 years joining as a Higher Engineering Apprentice at GKN Aerospace Filton site in Bristol. Working as a Manufacturing Engineer on A350 Wing from pre-production through to steady state before moving into the technology department first at Cowes IoW before relocating to the Global Technology Centre in Bristol along with a switch to program management Aaron has lead multi-million pound collaborative R&D projects for GKN Aerospace as well as being the lead for the Butterfly Project.

Janet Bellamy, Associate Professor of Digitalisation and Emerging Technology
The National Centre for Food Manufacturing / University of Lincoln
E: jbellamy@lincoln.ac.uk

Leading research into digital and emerging technologies, Janet specialises in plant-based protein and extraction, vertical farming, robotics, automation, digitalisation, food and beverage manufacturing and emerging technology. An experienced project manager, Janet has led teams and delivered projects from new machines to new packing and even new factories and has extensive manufacturing and supply chain experience.  Janet has led support programmes for SMEs across the university including Cotemaco, UEZ, and GLAFIP, and is a lead/co-investigator on Innovate, Horizon, and Community Fund Projects across the UK.

Food & Energy

Dyson Farming - Innovative Farming for the Future

Dyson are focused on the future of sustainable agriculture through innovation and people. Sustainable food production and food security are vital to the nation’s health and the nation’s economy, whilst there is also a real opportunity for agriculture to drive a revolution in technology and vice versa.  Dyson Farming produces high quality and nutritious food all year round through a regenerative approach and by working closely with Dyson Engineers, using new technologies and ingenuity to grow produce responsibly and at scale, while also nurturing the natural environment and biodiversity.   As part of a vision for circular farming, the anaerobic digesters use crops grown on the farm to generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 10,000 homes.  This is vitally important part of the business and presents a huge opportunity to do more with the resources available on the farm.  And by monitoring, protecting and enhancing the surrounding landscape, wildlife, pollinators and soils are benefitted to maintain an enriched environment, helping protect the land for farming into the future and helps deliver nutritious produce today.

Speaker:

Richard Meredith, Head of Farming Research
Dyson Farming

Richard joined Dyson Farming Research when he started in 2022. In this role, he is supporting the company’s strategic objective of being a ‘beacon of excellence’ within UK agriculture.  Richard grew up on the family farm in South Herefordshire and then graduated with a degree in Business Management from Bristol. He then managed contracting and hire services at 7Y Machinery Ring before joining the AHDB from 2012 – 2022, where he was Head of Knowledge Exchange. Richard is passionate about helping Dyson Farming Research members to be more resilient in the long term through the sharing of top-class knowledge.

For more information about the UK Food Valley or if you have any questions please contact Effie Warwick-John, UK Food Valley Programme Manager at
effie.warwick-john@lincolnshire.gov.uk or 07881006130.