CASE STUDY: Harper Adams - Gateway for agri-tech innovation

29th September 2022

The future of farming is being shaped in Telford & Wrekin thanks to strong links between the borough’s world-leading university and a fast-growing agri-tech sector.

It’s not hard to see why Harper Adams University is regarded as one of Telford and Wrekin borough’s greatest assets.

Aside from being ranked the UK’s top modern university six years in a row in The Times Good University Guide, it was recently crowned the best in the world for its reputation among employers in the agriculture and forestry industries.

Harper Adams prides itself on giving students real-world experience and an opportunity to innovate. In its own words, it’s ‘part laboratory, part invention hub and part farm’ – reference to the fact that it is set on a 494-hectare working farm near Newport.

Some 98% of students go into degree-level employment after graduating.

One of its fastest growing areas is agri-tech and a rising number of graduates are taking advantage of the opportunities found locally to carve out a career in developing innovative, sustainable approaches to farming and food production.

It’s an example of how the university’s success is very much tied to its symbiotic relationship with the local area and wider region, explains Parmjit Chima, head of the engineering department.

‘What we have here is a kind of business escalator. Many of the students we produce can go on to innovate in local businesses or as entrepreneurs.

‘As a country, we are good at innovating but not so much a commercialisation. We can capture all that human knowledge and talent by being a one stop shop developing new products for the agri-food sector – of which agri-tech and engineering are a part.

‘Companies want to be able to recruit some of the best people and be part of a network of knowledge and expertise. That’s what we can offer in Telford & Wrekin.’

The borough now has well-established pathways that include the Agri-EPI Centre within the university, which helps to bridge the gap between innovation and business, and nearby Newport Innovation Park (NiPark) – a collaboration between the university, council and local enterprise partnership where businesses can grow.

It’s benefitted firms like HCI Systems, which is taking the expertise it has built up around vehicle electrical systems within motorsports and applying it to agri-tech. Based at NiPark, it’s working with Harper Adams’ students on a number of research projects.

‘NiPark has helped to create a co-designed, co-operative environment that’s part of a growing network that brings academics and business development experts together,’ says Parmjit.

‘This is an area of great heritage. For me it couldn’t be any better – it’s the birthplace of the industrial revolution. We are now in a great position as a region to spearhead the new Agriculture 4.0 revolution in terms of developing and implementing emerging technologies like autonomous machines and agricultural spray drones coupled with the application of artificial intelligence to the agri-food sector.’