A ‘Space-Tech Meets Agri-Tech’ event was held at Easton College on Thursday 26th January.
The event focused on the opportunities created at the intersection between agri-tech and space-tech which can be explored by Space East and Agri-TechE. Agri-TechE’s video report on the event can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRrtKn0fER0&t=714s
Speakers included Sonia Pietosi of Satellite Applications Catapult, Jodi Bardin of Citicourt and Emmanuel Mondon of Space Cooperative Europe. This was followed up by a ‘Space Safari’ where delegates explored exciting demonstrations from across the Space East Cluster.
Julian Munson, Head of Enterprise Zones and Innovation at New Anglia LEP is Chair of the Space East steering group; he commented: “The vision is to grow the space sector and there are significant clusters of activity across the region in sustainable agriculture, crop science, climate change, marine science, offshore wind, transport and logistics that will benefit from this.
“The proposed activity includes developing a regional satellite application hub and regional micro-gravity launch and test facility to enable testing of products in a ‘space environment’. The meeting will be an opportunity to discuss the plans and explore the requirements for the agri-tech sector.”
Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-TechE, says that prediction, decision-support and automation technologies are among those that are building on space-tech. “Over recent years we have seen how innovation at the intersections of different disciplines creates new business opportunities. High-resolution satellite data augmented by drones is enabling early detection changes in crop health and prediction of yield; this type of information is invaluable for risk mitigation and is just one illustration of the practical applications of space-tech in agriculture.
“However, the success of precision agriculture depends on creating a robust infrastructure for in-field and earth-to-satellite communications and we would see this as a priority for the new Space Cluster.”
This event was organised by Agri-TechE in partnership with New Anglia LEP’s Connected Innovation Programme.
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