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The Agri-EPI Centre has been established using part of a £17.7m UK government investment from the UK’s Strategy for Agricultural Technologies to help provide engineering and precision agriculture solutions for the Agri-Food industry.

By bringing together leading organisations in all sections of the supply chain it will become a world-leading centre for excellence in engineering and precision agriculture to benefit the livestock, arable, aquaculture and horticulture sectors. The core partners in the Centre are ÎÞÂ붯»­, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) , Cranfield University, Harbro Ltd, Ag Space Agriculture Ltd and  Kingshay  Farming.  A further 130 companies are now supporting the Centre through ‘in kind’ and cash contributions (to match the original £17.7m), including large  supermarkets, food producers, farmers, processors and engineering and technology businesses.

Government funding for Agri-EPI has been focused on creating facilities for research and development. Future activity within the Centre will be funded through grant applications or direct industry sponsorship.

The new Agri-EPI building at Harper is designed to accommodate research and development projects for consortia that will, in most cases, include both industry and academic partners. The building has been designed to cope with a range of activities from traditional engineering to robotics, automation, laser technology, sensor development, and software development.