Impact and Society

Our Research

Considering the end-to-end food and farming value chain, together with systems within our agricultural ecosystem, looking at the value technology can liberate and how can we engineer solutions that deliver global impact to some of our world challenges. The University of Lincoln is focusing research around the United Nations sustainable development goals; so considering ways in which technology can impact global systems for good is a natural part of our research.

Research Projects

LINCAM Ceres Agri-Tech Cluster

Vision for LINCAM is to catalyse and scale a world leading Agri-tech cluster in the Greater Lincolnshire and North Cambridgeshire Fens (LINCAM) Agri-tech region. We will accelerate the impact of Agri-tech emerging from UK HEI’s and work with civic partners to develop the supporting infrastructures, networks, and skills to secure a globally significant and sustainable cluster. LINCAM specifically focuses on impact that delivers sustainable growth, measures that enhance agri-food and technology businesses whilst driving community and social inclusion and reducing environmental impacts.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Co-Investigator: Louise Manning

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Agri-Tech Global

Our vision is to develop a truly global Agri-tech cluster centred upon the Greater Lincolnshire and East Anglian region. Agri-tech Global specifically focuses on developing international research translation and knowledge exchange methodologies that deliver food system impacts through sustainable growth and foreign direct investment.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Co-Investigator: Louise Manning

Funder: Research England

UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Network-Strategic Task Group in Agri-robotics

A strategic task group for Agri-Robotics (STAR); bringing together robotics, autonomous systems and AI research from around the UK focused on agriculture and the food production pipeline.

Project Lead: Professor Elizabeth Sklar

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Network

The economic consequences of saline groundwater flooding in Lincolnshire

This proposal will: (1) identify the type of salinisation process across the county and effect of climate change; (2) quantify the degree, length and severity of salinity and effect of climate change, (3) assess the types (and value) of crops grown; (4) estimate the loss of yield (and value) from salinisation for Lincolnshire crops and (5) assess farm level decisions/choices such as the use of salt tolerant crops and other adaptation mechanisms. Answering these questions will enable a comprehensive evaluation of the economic impact of salinity.

Project Lead: Dr Daniel Magnone

Co-Investigators: Eric Ruto, Iain Gould, Jay Emery, Mark Schuerch, Matthew Hannaford

Funder: Lincolnshire County Council

From Nitrogen Use Efficiency to Farm Profitability (NUE-Profits)

By using plants as sensors this project will provide farmers with a management tool to support better nitrogen utilisation, management input decisions, and use efficiency reporting. Our aim is to make nitrogen use efficiency measurements the new benchmark to which farmers utilise nitrogen providing more profit and environmental gains.

Project Lead: Professor Grzegorz Cielniak

Co-Investigators: Iain Gould, Louise Manning, Oorbessy Gaju, Simon Pearson

Funder: Innovate UK

Speculative Woolgathering: anticipatory evaluation of digital good

This project will examine possible futures of supply chains to consider sustainable digital scenarios in the textile and fashion industry, using the example of wool production in the UK. We will bring together stakeholders from across the industry (including farmers, fashion industry experts, technologists, and policymakers) to co-design and create ‘objects from the future’. This will help to evaluate how new forms of data sharing and collaboration could generate digital good for multiple actors in various future scenarios.

Project Lead: Professor Louise Manning

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

An industry-based approach to review Agricultural Engineering curriculum and develop capacity of undergraduates and early career academics of institutes of higher learning in South Africa

The employment landscape is changing because of the fourth industrial revolution and in the recent years it has become clear that the university-industry link is very important. Reforming and modernising the curriculum requires collaborative effort to ensure that there are sufficient progression routes and a suitable balance between the production of engineers, technologists, and technicians, with a current specific focus on developing the number and capacity of engineering technologists and technicians.

Project Lead: Dr Lilian Korir

Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering

UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Understandable agri-food Systems Transformed by Artificial INtelligence (SUSTAIN)

SUSTAIN imagines a system where data-driven AI transforms the production of crops (selective harvesting and weeding through precision agriculture) and raising of animals (livestock monitoring, reducing animal GHG emissions and improving animal welfare); enhances plant and animal breeding (AI informed genomics); stabilises supply chains (mechanism design and agent-based modelling); reduces food waste and loss (supply and demand matching) and enables fairer sharing of economic gains and understanding of environmental impacts (ethical and trustworthy AI). All the underlying methods need to be understandable by people so that decisions are trusted (explainable AI).

Project Lead: Professor Simon Parsons

Co-Director: Professor Elizabeth Sklar

Co-Investigator: Louise Manning

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Histories and futures of under-utilised crops ‘reimagined'

The purpose is to understand historical social-cultural changes in relation to why indigenous crops became under-utilised and to construct with farming and food communities the possibilities for new innovative approaches to sustainable food production and consumption. Our approach is to co-create knowledge that is grounded in local oral histories and extend these narratives and stories into the future. In doing so, we can facilitate the movement of new conversations, new assumptions, new evaluations, and new approaches into farming and food value chain practices.

Project Lead: Dr Lilian Korir

Co-Investigators: Matthew Hannaford, Ted Fuller

Funder: British Academy

Alleviating nutritional stress for wider environmental rewards in sustainable UK protein crop production

The project has one overall aim: to optimize nutrient management for faba bean improvement. Applying optimal nutrient doses is important for achieving higher crop yields while keeping farm production costs minimal and reducing environmental impacts.

Project Lead: Dr Ravi Valluru

Co-Investigator: Professor Simon Pearson

Funder: Innovate UK

Multi-purpose Physical-cyber Agri-forest Drones Ecosystem for Governance and Environmental Observation

The project will design, build, and test a digital platform for effective, accessible, and secured drone operations and services. The design is based on an innovative platform tried and validated in other European projects and other domains. The added value of this platform will be realised through demonstrated user benefits and reduced risks in drone operations, following EASA guidelines and practices, while it will also follow open-source principles.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Co-Investigator: Steve Brewer

Funder: Horizon Europe

Collaborative Fruit Retrieval Using Intelligent Transportation

The aim is to create an innovative approach for soft fruit producers that drives labour productivity, reduces waste, and increases marketable yield. It will help to de-link the sector from critical dependencies on seasonal labour and drives towards net-zero by reducing farm waste.

Project Lead: Professor Elizabeth Sklar

Co-Investigator: Marc Hanheide

Funder: Innovate UK

Butterfly

Project Butterfly brings together a consortium of UK High Value Manufacturing working across sectors, along with solution providers and research organisation to share best practice and demonstrate the power of I4.0 to deliver near-term impact on the road to net zero manufacturing.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Co-Investigators: Elizabeth Sklar, Janet Bellamy

Funder: Innovate UK

AgriFood4NetZero: Plausible Pathways, Practical and Open Science for Net Zero Agrifood

The AgriFood4NetZero Network+ brings together key research leaders and their organisations and networks in a mission-led collaboration. The Network adopts a co-development approach to engage scientists and stakeholders to progress and prioritise UKRI and other research to support the agri-food system’s contribution to transitioning to a net zero UK by 2050.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Funder: UK Research and Innovation

Lapwing Energy Reverse Coal GGR Phase 2

Reverse Coal is an engineered natural solution to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and bury it back into the geological reserve. This can be scaled and deliver significant social and environmental benefits.

Project Lead: Dr Amir Badiee

Co-Investigator: Simon Pearson

Funder: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Is cultured meat a threat or opportunity for UK farmers?

The project aims to help shape new policy, regulation, and investment, to mitigate against any serious risks, while also optimising any new opportunities that cultured meat offers to advance more sustainable and climate positive global farming and food systems.

Project Lead: Professor Louise Manning

Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Project Pythagoras

Project Pythagoras is a 24-month feasibility study which will develop understanding of how a protein crop can best be grown sustainably and profitably, while still providing a marketable, affordable, and nutritious product for the end consumer.

Project Lead: Janet Bellamy

Co-Investigators: Leonidas Rempelos, Ravi Valluru, Samson Oyeyinka

Funder: Innovate UK

Agaricus Robotic Harvester

Agaricus Robotics (AR) aims to develop the world's first commercial mushroom harvesting robot, offering end-users game-changing productivity, de-risked labour availability, increased yield, and reduced food waste.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Co-Investigator: Bashir Al-Diri

Funder: Innovate UK

Climate SAFE

Climate SAFE is a radical and transformative whole systems approach that transitions from traditional organic farming on degraded lowland peat, towards climate resilient, controlled environment agriculture with a broad array of interlinked societal, environmental, and economic benefits.

Project Lead: Professor Simon Pearson

Co-Investigator: Amir Badiee

Funder: Innovate UK