AgriScale: Accelerating agri-tech manufacturing showcase and consortia building

Overview

During this AgriScale showcase event, we will share how the upcoming AgriScale funding competition will support businesses to scale up agri-tech manufacturing in the UK to strengthen the country’s advanced manufacturing capabilities and driving growth in the agri-tech sector. Agri-tech is identified as a frontier industry in the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, aligning closely with national goals around innovation, sustainability, and economic growth.

The funding available in this competition is in two separate strands, both closing 3 June 2026:

• Industrial Research – projects with costs of £250k-£750k and duration 6-12 months; projects should aim to close technology gaps that prevent products being proven, demonstrated and accepted in end user conditions.
• Experimental Development – projects with costs of £1m-£3m and duration 6-18 months; projects should target getting products to market to accelerate end user adoption.

We will use the event to enable businesses who are considering applying for these competitions to understand the AgriScale programme and find essential manufacturing partners through facilitated networking and consortium building discussions.

We will also reflect on the initial impact that the pilot AgriScale programme has had on accelerating product manufacturing by bringing promising technologies move from concept to market more quickly and reliably.

Showcase speakers

During the showcase, we will be joined by the five businesses that participated in the pilot AgriScale competition who will share how the tailored support from this programme helped them advance their business achievements through working with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult partners, Manufacturing Technology Centre and Warwick Manufacturing Group. These companies include:

• S&A Produce: Developing an autonomous husbandry modular robot platform to meet the needs of its own farms and partner growers.
• UPP: Building opportunities for novel broccoli products and essential to this is a field harvester.
• Dogtooth Technologies: Developing commercial robotic harvesting solutions.
• Dynium: Developing robust and capable autonomous vehicles, with their first vehicle focused on logistics for the berry industry
• Earth Rover: Develops autonomous robots for chemical-free, zero-emission, tillage-free weeding.