Innovate UK (the new name for The Technology Strategy Board) is the UK’s innovation agency. Taking our 2011–15 strategy, Concept to Commercialisation, as the start point, our role is to help accelerate economic growth through the stimulation and support of business-led innovation. We are business-focused and business-led; our governing board and our staff have strong experience of R&D and innovation and the commercialisation of technology. We work across business, academia and government, helping companies take concepts through to commercialisation. This means supporting business innovation through:

• tackling the barriers to innovation
• reducing financial and technical risk
• promoting collaboration
• helping knowledge exchange
• encouraging open innovation
• creating a more effective innovation environment, using our convening power and connections to bring different partners together

We aim to act as an ‘innovation architect’, shaping and tilting the innovation ecosystem toward those opportunities where particular challenge exists and where the UK, either through its supply chains or know-how, is well placed to ‘make good’ on the opportunity. Our work to identify the market and technology areas with the greatest potential for growth has been complemented by new strategic thinking in central government on growth drivers. In 2012 the Government, led by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, began to develop a new long term approach to industrial strategy, this included a UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, which was published in July 2013.

The reason for this support from government is clear. Nearly four million people in the UK are employed in the food, feed and drink industry. These supply chains connect researchers, agro-chemical providers, machinery manufacturers, farmers, producers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers – providing the food and drink that sustains us. The sector contributes around £96bn to the UK economy or 7% of GVA. And with exports of £18bn per year, we are already one of the top global exporters of food, feed and drink. The UK already has recognised centres of excellence across the agri-food supply chain, and we plan to further support the sector, to help it grow further. Providing a sustainable food supply chain is a societal challenge. In the UK the population is expected to grow by 10–15% by 2030. On top of this there is competing demand for land – whether from a growing built environment or competition from energy-based fuel crops such as for biomass or transport fuels. And, as we have seen, the changing climate can wreak havoc on crops and livestock. In a global context, the world population is expected to hit nine billion by 2050; around a quarter more people on the planet. Diets are changing too, towards a greater intake of meat and dairy foods, and developing nations are expecting similar levels of choice and nutrition as developed countries. It is estimated by The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) that at current consumption levels, 60% more food will need to be produced globally by 2050. Simply put, there are huge pressures to increase the amount of food produced owing to growing populations, whilst resources are dwindling, and the climate is changing. We need to find new ways of providing food to our societies, and the need is pressing. The barriers to innovation include: – a fragmented supply chain with many small players with low capacity for innovation, and the slow spread of ideas – skills shortages – conservatism, particularly among many small and medium-sized primary food producers – insufficient applied research on the key challenges identified in the strategic research and innovation agenda – slow uptake of ideas from other areas of industry and from the knowledge base.

Focusing our investment, our programme seeks to increase the productivity of crops and animals and, simultaneously, decrease the environmental impact of the industry. It has focussed on four interlinked areas:

• Crop productivity: we are looking at two areas of crop productivity: crop protection, and crop nutrition and management
• Sustainable livestock production (including aquaculture): development of livestock production solutions that are environmentally and commercially sustainable and meet regulatory requirements
• Waste reduction and management: farm storage and food processing:
• a whole-chain approach to waste reduction, and post-gate food processing and packaging for retail and food distribution.
• Greenhouse gas reduction: technologies and methodologies to tackle by far the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture – nitrous oxide from fertilisers in soil and methane from livestock.

This strategy is currently being reviewed and the priorities will see some fine tuning, but for now this gives a flavour of the current drivers. As part of the UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies, the Government has set up the Agri-Tech Catalyst to further support science and innovation in the sector, with the vision to make the UK a world leader in agricultural technology, innovation and sustainability. Through the Catalyst £70m will be made available to businesses and academia over the next five years. The Technology Strategy Board is running the Catalyst, with support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The Catalyst will fund proposals relating to: – primary crop and livestock production, including aquaculture – non-food uses of arable crops (for example, for biomass) – food security and nutrition challenges in international development – challenges in downstream food processing provided the solution lies in primary production. In the financial year 2014/2015 the agriculture and food action plan will have included:

From the core funding available to the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform:

• Crop and livestock disease challenges: A Collaborative R&D competition with up to £16.5m available (incl £6.5m co-funding) to support the development of effective solutions to control agricultural diseases to realise the yield potential of crop and livestock production systems.
• Resource efficiency in the food supply chain: A Collaborative R&D competition with up to £5m available to support projects that aim to improve the use of resources and minimising post-farm-gate waste generation in food production supply chains.
• Agriculture and food supply chain: knowledge transfer to improve the competitiveness, resilience and responsiveness of the agriculture and food supply chain.

In addition, on behalf of Government and as part of the UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies we will continue to deliver the following:

• Agri-Tech Catalyst: Further rounds of this catalyst competition to advance the sustainable intensification of agriculture and deliver economic impact for the UK agri-tech industry.
• Centres for agricultural innovation: Working with BIS, Defra and BBSRC and by engaging with key sectors across the agricultural community we will support the delivery of a mechanism to establish these centres as part of the implementation of the industrial strategy. The first centre planned is the Centre for Agricultural Informatics and Sustainability. Other potential Centres, as defined by the needs of the industry will be identified in due course and established over the coming months.

These are exciting times; we are moving into a new era where the importance of the agriculture sector has been recognised by government and appropriate support mechanisms have been established to help drive innovation forward. The livestock sector has a crucial part to play in this process. It is vital that the beef and dairy sector take this opportunity to accelerate improvements cross the national herd. Together, we have made a start to this process with the adoption of successful new technologies and in my presentation to the conference I have highlighted some examples of the type of applied research projects that have been supported by Innovate UK and our co-funders. It will, however, be important for both cattle breeders and the wider agricultural community to make the most of the opportunities currently available, and demonstrate the potential for real impact to the national economy if the industry is to continue to receive ongoing support from the public purse.