Lincoln Agri-Robotics Building the Future of Agriculture
Lincoln Agri-Robotics (LAR) was established in 2019 as a project funded by Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England (E3) development funding programme, with a remit to focus on accelerating the commercialisation of agricultural robotics to address labour supply and cost constraints.
A new report reviews how LAR has grown rapidly in the last five years and helped to drive forward a culture of collaborative R&D with industry and academic partners, with the explicit aim of tackling some of the most pressing and difficult challenges in agriculture.
LAR has focused on applied innovation, leading to technologies which have already been adopted on farms, the creation of new companies, and new jobs in the agri-tech industry in the region.
The E3 grant enabled LAR to invest in a world-leading staff team, as well as modernising the facilities at the Riseholme Campus of the University of Lincoln to launch new programmes and innovation support services targeting digitisation, automation, robotics and the application of AI to agritech.
LAR has helped the agri-tech cluster led by the Lincoln Institute for AgriFood Technology (LIAT) grow into the UK’s premier centre for automation and digitalisation in the agri-food sector. To date, the team have secured over £100m of delivery funding for 149 projects involving 250 unique partners.
The team has helped create startups including FruitCast - Forecasting made simple, whose innovative crop forecasting models using AI and vision systems were showcased at the Global Investment Summit in autumn 2023.
Course provision now includes:
- A suite of MSc programmes including: Agri-food Technology | MSc | University of Lincoln, Agri-food Technology with Professional Practice | MSc | University of Lincoln, Sustainability | MSc | University of Lincoln, Robotics and Autonomous Systems | MSc | University of Lincoln, Data Science and Applied Analytics | MSc | University of Lincoln, Agricultural Science and Technology | MSc by Research | University of Lincoln
- Two Centres for Doctoral Training led by Lincoln: AgriFoRwArdS focused on Doctoral Training in Agri-Food Robotics EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Agri-Food Robotics: AgriFoRwArdS (lincoln.ac.uk) which now has a full complement of students; and, the SUSTAIN CDT which launched in 2023 to support the application of AI to agritech Home | SUSTAIN (sustain-cdt.ai)
- An active programme of professional and industry courses, including being a leading national centre for BASIS and FACTS Short Courses | University of Lincoln
It has recently launched a brochure highlighting the history, identity and successes of Lincoln Agri-Robotics and the collaborations that exist between the Lincoln Institute of Agri-Food Technology and the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems, two leading research groups at the University of Lincoln.
Read the brochure here.
