Successful Collaborations Explored

Best practice in Knowledge Exchange

Many successful partnerships already exist. What sort of work is being undertaken? What are the ingredients for success and pitfalls to be avoided? Short presentations from a number of current industry and research collaborations where Knowledge Exchange has been developed, leading to successful outcomes.

Kit Franklin (Harper Adams University) and Clive Blacker (Precision Decisions)                                                               

The Harper Adams University/Precision Decisions “Hands-free Hectare” project has drawn much interest from many people and is a great example of a successful partnership. Kit and Clive will explore the partnership and how this has made the project a success as well as drawing much interest across the Globe.

Prof Simon Pearson (Director of LIAT, Lincoln University)           

Lincoln University has built up a reputation for its work with a range of partners from the food industry – particularly post-harvest and the intensive crop production and vegetable growing sector, much of this driven by work on digital technology and robotics. Simon will showcase some of his work and explain how partnership have been used to develop best practice which is already having a positive impact across in terms of food production.  Professor Pearson has recently been appointed as Principal Investigator of the new EPSCR Internet of Food Things DE Network, that aims to drive collaboration and partnerships in the agri food, academic and industry sectors.

Iain Dummett (PhD Research Student, School of Energy, Environment and Agrifood, Cranfield University) & James Moldon, Frontier Agriculture     

Iain has recently completed his PhD in soil science at Cranfield University.  His research focussed on evaluating options for achieving strip tillage, including a specialist strip tillage implement and use of subsoilers.  This research required a range of research methods, from investigating the soil disturbance generated by tillage implements in a controlled “soil bin” environment, to investigating the agronomic performance of implements via large field plot experiments, to small scale experiments investigating the effect of tillage on soil microbial communities.  The common thread through this research was a desire to understand how tillage intensity and the associated crop performance benefits can be maintained, whilst the surface area of soil disturbed is decreased.

"My PhD research, in which I evaluated strip tillage implements, was sponsored by Frontier Agriculture Ltd. and Douglas Bomford Trust.  This focussed my research, ensuring that I never lost sight of the applied context.  Academic and non-academic partners have different priorities and designing research which satisfies both can be difficult.  However, where this can be achieved, the reward of drawing on the knowledge bases on both the commercial sector and academia can be extremely valuable."

There will be a “round table” discussion and Q&A session following these presentations