Kit Franklin

Kit Franklin is a Senior Lecturer of Agricultural Engineering at Harper Adams University. His role includes developing undergraduate course structure and content, student recruitment, international business development and innovative agricultural engineering research. Kit’s research focusses on “future farming systems” with the most notable project to date being the award winning Hands Free Hectare. As co-creator and co-Investigator he successfully managed the day-to-day running of the collaborative, Innovate UK backed, project which set out to achieve a world’s first; using automated machines to grow the first arable crop remotely, without operators in the driving seats or agronomists on the ground. From planting to harvesting the barley crop, no person entered the Hands Free Hectare. The Hands Free Hectare has now grown to a Farm for which Kit is Principal investigator. Kit was awarded a “Rising Star” of UK agriculture by the Farmers Weekly in 2017 and was awarded the IAgrE Presidents Award in 2021 for outstanding progress as a mid-career engineer and engineering outreach.  Kit attained his CEng with IAgrE in early 2022.