Agrimetrics launched by BIS and Defra Ministers

Agrimetrics, a big data centre for the whole agri-food industry, has been launched by George Eustice MP, Minister for Farming, Food and the Marine Environment, and George Freeman MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Life Sciences.

Agrimetrics has been awarded £11.8 million by the UK government through Innovate UK. Its founding partners are Rothamsted Research, the University of Reading, the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC). The Centre, which will work with all business and universities, will engage with partners throughout the food system to enable detailed and collective understanding of the needs of farmers, food manufacturers, food retailers, consumers and the environment through the use of big data and analytical tools. This high-value collective information, will allow the identification of opportunities for innovation projects among the partners.

At the core of Agrimetrics is a big data science platform. The platform will include all of the necessary software tools that make possible the integration of data according to users’ needs. Datasets from around the world will be used for this purpose. By working with and up-skilling the industry on data and data analyses, Agrimetrics will be helping to de-risk the investment required by the supply-chain.

Agrimetrics is based at the Lawes Open Innovation Hub, at the Rothamsted research site in Harpenden. Reading University will host the data science infrastructure, and NIAB and SRUC will provide knowledge exchange and outreach services to the farming community at the national level.

For more information, https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-agrimetrics-centre-will-boost-food-and-farming-industries