Lincoln’s Institute for Agri-food technology (LIAT) held a showcase to mark its official launch on Monday. The event, which was attended by special guest, BBC Countryfile presenter Tom Heap, looked at innovations that could revolutionise food production.
 
The Institute, part of the University of Lincoln, brings together expertise across a range of subjects to tackle current and future challenges facing the agricultural and food manufacturing industries. With expertise spanning agri-robotics to zoology, LIAT is working to support and enhance productivity, efficiency and sustainability in food and farming ‘from farm to fork’.

LIAT is based at the university’s Riseholme Campus and features woodland, grassland, working farm and agricultural field station
 
Heap joined guests representing from the region’s agri-food sectors, who were offered a showcase of some of the technological innovations and scientific studies LIAT’s staff and students are pursuing now in fields, factories and laboratories across Lincolnshire. These included a demonstration of LIAT's Thorvald agricultural robot, which is being put to work developing new techniques for autonomous navigation and sensing, as well as work on adapting to coastal flooding and genetics research aimed at improving food safety by tackling bugs that cause food poisoning.
 
He said, “Over the years covering rural affairs I became more convinced that human ingenuity, applied both in the lab and the field, holds the key to solving many of the problems facing food and farming.
 
“Being within a fine University in the heart of farming country gives the new Institute for Agri-Food Technology a head start in delivering state-of-the-art research to help farmers and consumers. It's always great to meet passionate scientists."
 
The event came the University’s pioneering agri-tech research – which aims to integrate advanced 3D imaging and robotic automation with industrial harvesting and weeding technologies – was featured in a special Lincolnshire edition of BBC Countryfile on Sunday.
 
Speaking on Monday, Professor Simon Pearson, Director of the Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology, said, "The food and farming industries are always under pressure to innovate and technology in agriculture is nothing new. Rising labour costs, changing consumer habits and the Brexit vote have, however, added extra urgency to the need for universities to deliver the higher-level skills, technologies and knowledge base our agri-food industries require to adapt to a rapidly changing economic landscape.

“It is fitting that Lincolnshire should be at the forefront of the UK's agri-tech and agri-food specialisms through the work of our Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology, which is supporting innovation and developing workforce skills alongside partners across our food and farming sectors facing up to these challenges every day.”