The UK N8 AgriFood Programme
- 1. 1 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all N8 AgriFood Resilience Programme Academic Director: Prof. Katherine Denby
- 2. #ThePowerof8 The N8 10 years of Collaboration between major Northern England research- intensive universities
- 3. #ThePowerof8 Why Work Together? • Common goals – to drive investment and growth • Regional-wide collaborations – at large scale and where strengths synergise • A strong voice – for the sector and the region • Efficiency – Central facilities and region-wide facilities database • Engagement – single portal for businesses
- 4. 4 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all N8 AgriFood combines the technical expertise and facilities across eight universities with £16m HEFCE catalyst funding to facilitate inter-disciplinary, stakeholder-led, agri-food research. It includes: • 5 Research farms, >1000 Ha • 10 new Professorial appointments & 16 KE Fellows • Series of Industry Innovation Forums • Pump-priming & Business Development Support
- 5. 5 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all N8 AgriFood influencing changes in agri-food and environmental policy and practice A sustained N8 AgriFood model based on collaborative practices which have created sustainable and influential partnerships in the agri-food community N8 AgriFood activities lead to a more sustainable food system beyond 2020; improving food security and sustaining natural resources.
- 6. 6 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all A unique single entry point to excellence in agri-food research N8 AgriFood: Joined up thinking across organisations, disciplines and the food system £16 million programme funded by HEFCE, led by University of York
- 7. 7 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Combining soil health, resilient and productive crops and livestock, novel diagnostics and predictive modelling to promote resilient, sustainable food production
- 8. 8 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Adapting food supply systems to deliver better resilience while improving nutrition, reducing environmental impacts and sustaining economies fairly
- 9. 9 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Improving public health while lowering the burden of food production and distribution on the natural environment: through changes in behaviour, diet and other socio-economic factors
- 10. 10 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all • breadth of programme • degree of collaboration between universities • involvement of external stakeholders • Focus on multidisciplinary research • Focus on problem solving
- 11. 11 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Challenges • Eight universities, up to 230 km apart • Different structures, operating & financial processes • Competition between universities • Stakeholder relationships • Competition and conflict • >850 research groups – plus support staff • How to ‘connect’ and communicate – different systems • Ensuring added value – not duplication • Catalysing multi-disciplinary activity
- 12. 12 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Strategy for Success • Enthusiastic and engaged staff • External hires into lead positions • Professorial visiting roles • Knowledge Exchange Fellow (KEF) cohort • Communication • External Advisory Board – trusted “friends” of the Programme • Governance input from University partners • Carrots (£)
- 13. 13 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Together, the N8 universities have: • more than 800 researchers working in agri-food resilience • significant research facilities including six research farms, extensive glass-houses, workshops, laboratories, GM handling, organic / conventional, genome editing etc. Combining expertise in: • Soil health • Plant biology • Crop improvement • Biofuels and bioenergy • Weed, pest and disease management • Livestock health and well-being • Human and animal nutrition • Big data acquisition and analytics • Consumer behaviour and diet choice • Health and nutrition • Food processing and product innovation • Globalisation and resilient food supply chains • Fair trade and food economics • Modelling and simulation of food supply networks • Waste and resource management
- 14. 14 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Knowledge Exchange Fellow Team Lancaster Agricultural Systems Leeds Behavioural change Liverpool Livestock Health Manchester Soil Health / Sensor TechnologyNewcastle Socio- technology interface Sheffield Sustainable production systems York Social enterprise & marketing/ Sustainable Crop Production Durham New Crop Varieties
- 15. 15 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Translational Crop Biology – Durham Soil Nutrients – Lancaster Improved Crops for Livestock and Human Consumption – Liverpool Livestock Nutrition and Gut Health – Leeds Soil Health, Structure and Function – Sheffield Soil Health - Manchester Sensor Technology – Manchester Resistance to Stress in Plants and Livestock – Newcastle Environmental Systems Modelling – Sheffield Justice and the Global Food System – Sheffield Global Food Justice – Sheffield Soil Health and Plant Stress – York Sustainable Food systems – York Sociology and political economy of agro-food systems - Lancaster 14 Knowledge Exchange Fellows working as 1 team
- 16. 16 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Developing an innovation cluster in urban controlled environment agriculture: •Growstack, V-Farm, Cool Farm, •University of Sheffield •University of Lancaster •Universities of Sheffield •University of Durham •University of Liverpool •University of Manchester •Liberty Produce, G’s group, Airponix, Harper Adams University… •V-Farm, City Farm Systems, Farm Urban, Regather, Feed Leeds Green Lab… •Les Firbank (Leeds) •Harry Langford (Sheffield) •Iain Young (Liverpool) •Elisa Lopez-Capel (Newcastle) •Stockbridge Technology Centre, FERA, Vertical Farming Association •Bruce Grieve (Manchester) •Ian Dodd (Lancaster) System efficiency and costs Urban society & localised supply chain Artificial intelligence and data analytics Yield, resilience & trait optimisation
- 17. 17 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all • Resilient Supply Chains April 2016 • Turning Ideas into Sustainable and Profitable Solutions Oct 2016 • Increasing Crop Productivity Through Understanding and Improving Soil Health March 2017 • Managing the AMU/AMR Complex in Food Animals May 2017 • Digital Innovation in Dairy Sept 2017 • Improving Traceability and Transparency in Global Supply Chains April 2018 Industry Innovation Forums focused workshops to build projects addressing problems faced by industry >130 participants from Industry, NGOs, Policy & Regulatory Bodies
- 18. 18 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Our aim is to produce • new datasets • information resources • appropriate technology tools for farmers • decision making tools for business • consumer mobile technologies all to enhance overall food system resilience. We aim to • explore innovative ways of making dairy systems better for the natural environment • and for farmers’ livelihoods • while maintaining long term supplies for consumers at reasonable prices • at a time of unpredictable challenges like climate change. Resilience in the Dairy Industry
- 19. 19 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Integrating Knowledge for Food Systems Resilience https://iknowfood.org/ www.iknowfood.org
- 20. 20 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all WP1: Identifying transformative social and technological on- farm innovations Problem space: New technologies exist with potential to increase on-farm resilience, but ‘end-of-pipe’ approach to implementation does not guarantee uptake as it undermines farmer knowledge. Approach: Employ novel social learning processes to shift the model of technology ‘provision’ to one of co-designed technology. Progress: • Farmer-learning groups established, farmer led with engineers, scientists present (6* meetings): • Key ‘issues’ undermining farm resilience identified; • Attributes for technology solutions being elicited with wider group of engineers; Next steps: • Prototyping solutions this via process of co-design with learning groups & engineers; • Testing insights and understanding barriers at national level. www.iknowfood.org
- 21. 21 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all WP2: Developing tools to promote resilient food supply chains Problem space: Food supply chains are complex and opaque, which masks locations or risks, and hides opportunities for leverage to more sustainable sourcing models. Approach: Combine state-of-the-art supply chain modelling with knowledge of political economy and governance to inform supply chain decision-making. Progress: • Models that link sub-national production systems to UK food consumption; • Critique of global value chain theory as a model for promoting sustainable sourcing (applied to soy supply chains). • Two papers: Journal of Cleaner Production (in print) and Global Policy (accepted). Next steps: • Analysis of UK dependencies on international food supply; • Stakeholder interviews and prototyping decision support tools. www.iknowfood.org
- 22. 22 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all WP3: Influencing consumer & household food choice for resilience Problem space: To date, we have failed to promote sustainable and resilient diets across consumer groups. Approach: Understand the influence of behaviour and income status as drivers of food choice and consumption, and develop novel app-based technologies to promote more resilient diets across all consumer groups. Progress: • On-line experimental studies (n-900) and eye tracking studies on behavioural responses to marketing approaches; • Focus groups (*3) on food sustainability with low SES groups • Mobile apps prototyped; • Evaluation of the role of food aid providers and lived realities of the food insecure Next steps: • Review and evaluation of other mechanisms for tackling food insecurity; • Food diaries, labelling and dietary surveys; • Development of working apps; www.iknowfood.org
- 23. 23 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all • Local pump priming Catalyse new multidisciplinary collaborations across N8 and with external agri-food stakeholders Funded 140 projects Pump priming funds • Strategic pump priming Multidisciplinary projects bringing together new consortia of N8 researchers and industry/agri- food stakeholders to address key challenges in global food security and address issues spanning themes of N8 AgriFood programme 10 flagship projects have been awarded a total of £266k We have allocated £2m to funding new projects
- 24. 24 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all
- 25. 25 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all • Promote strategic long-term partnerships • Dedicated international engagement manager • Working closely with FCO’s Science and Innovation Network • Building on complementary expertise and approach International Engagement China - CRTDC Argentina and USA – Research and Innovation Sub-Saharan Africa
- 26. 26 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all
- 27. 27 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all N8agrifood.ac.uk
- 28. 28 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all People, Health and Food Systems Challenges and solutions for 2030 13th – 14th June 2018 Hilton Liverpool City Centre LIVERPOOL, UK INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 2018
- 29. 29 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all Lessons Learned • Collaboration v. competition • Bringing in new people and formalising networking • Single portal for stakeholders • Diversity of research interests and activities • Critical mass to engage with key stakeholders • Knowledge exchange not transfer – co-design • Find the enthusiastic and altruistic champions • Communicate added value of multidisciplinary work clearly • Develop international partnerships not possible as single university
- 30. 30 www.N8AgriFood.ac.uk Securing sustainable, resilient & healthy food supplies for all N8 AgriFood: Joined up thinking across organisations, disciplines and the whole supply chain www.N8agrifood.ac.uk