CHAP supports game-changing ideas to producing food

Society faces the dichotomy of needing safe, wholesome and affordable food whilst at the same time having to reduce green-house gas emissions, protect and increase biodiversity and regenerate agricultural cropping systems.

Whether you are an innovator, agri-tech SME or company, entrepreneur, university, institute or academic, transforming your new idea or innovation into a tangible reality can often be challenging. There can be regulatory barriers, negativity because your idea does not fit with the perceived wisdom or quite simply, you lack the time or the funds. Recognising these challenges, in 2016 Crop Health and Protection (CHAP) was established as a direct response to the then UK Government’s industrial strategy.

CHAP brings together leading scientists, farmers, advisors, innovators and businesses to understand industry challenges, drive research and innovation and develop and trial solutions that transform crop systems. It works with partners to translate and promote these solutions for market adoption and improved crop productivity. The company’s mandate is to increase crop productivity for future generations through the uptake of new technologies. A not-for-profit organisation which, since its inception, has grown and evolved to meet the changing needs of the agriculture sector. As a result of historic capital investment, CHAP now boasts 15 facilities in 10 centres of excellence across the UK, with ongoing expansion efforts.

Glasshouse trials at CHAP’s Advanced Glasshouse Facility, located at Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC)

Game-changing ideas and approaches to the ways in which we produce food, manage land and protect environments have never been so important or the need so urgent. Innovation requires that conventional wisdoms are challenged, novel technologies and digital tools are effectively deployed, and intelligent solutions to the most challenging aspects of agri-tech are developed. It is crucial that all sectors of the agri-tech industry come together to share ideas, foster collaboration and break down the walls of silo thinking. In addition, CHAP are now seeing numerous stakeholders outside of the traditional agricultural, horticultural and food sectors who are capable of providing significant value by contributing ideas, new innovations and forward-thinking approaches to help the industry tackle upcoming challenges. These may be companies with digital solutions, novel processes for materials or technologies that may be repurposed for new applications.

A great deal has changed since 2016 such that in 2022-23 the order book for CHAP exceeded £1.8 million, with over £6 million for the sector overall. This equated to 57 projects at the peak of business activities, funded both through government and commercial organisations with more recent successes on top. These projects generally involve project consortia made up of SMEs, academic and corporate organisations as well as R&D institutes. Projects tend to fall into one of five key areas of focus; soil and crop health systems, crop and protein diversification, advancing intelligent agronomy, innovative crop health strategies and controlled environment agriculture.

Slugbot robot out in the field

Linsey Cresswell, commercial director for CHAP said: “Given the extreme turbulence in the industry over the past year, it was very impressive to achieve such a significant level of success. I believe that this was a result of having an extremely high level of motivation by everyone across the agri-tech network with staff, members, partners and the industry as whole ready to tackle some of the complex challenges that we face today”. She added “we now have a very resilient model on which to work for the future to capitalise on the current successes and to build a high functioning agri-tech sector”.

CHAP’s key areas of focus

CHAP’s success since 2016 is attributable to a flexible and pragmatic approach to industry challenges and to be focused on the needs of the sector, members and partners, it has done this via four key pillars of activity:

• Networking – CHAP has a large and active membership of agri-tech specialists who collaborate and interact to work on either new or existing projects and business ideas. This helps to drive new and existing networks and enhances project consortia and business development.
• Access to funding – The CHAP team can provide expert advice and support to inform businesses and organisations about funding opportunities, guide them through the bidding process and help manage the project once funded.
• Capabilities – it is not always easy for SMEs to either fund equipment or lab space needed to test out new ideas or products, this was why the UK Government supported CHAP and its partners with capital investment at an early stage to develop new capabilities. These centres of excellence are distributed across the UK and can be utilised to support businesses depending on requirements.
• Dissemination – good ideas and agri-tech solutions need to be in the public domain to gain traction, as such, it is vital that the outcome of funded projects results in products, solutions or processes that are communicated and taken up within the industry. Dissemination and knowledge transfer across the CHAP network via social and hard media, through sponsored events and at stakeholder meetings ensures that feedback is achieved for as wide an audience as possible.

CHAP’s ongoing focus remains the transformation of agri-tech ideas into practical solutions, aiming to provide solutions which will transform UK and Global farming systems sustainably.

For more information about CHAP’s projects, contact enquiries@chap-solutions.co.uk.