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Digital Innovation Farm Tech Box Park

For business

Free Business Support for Innovative SMEs.

Your field station to grow

Providing a path into, and growth within the agricultural industry for innovative SMEs.

LOOK AT YOUR BUSINESS IN A DIFFERENT WAY

Have you ever thought about developing your products or extending your operations for the land-based sector? Place your business in the heart of Gloucestershire, 5th largest county in the South West, rich in agricultural heritage, and with 74% of the region's land area used for primary food production, where better to take a deep dive into the world of agriculture and grow your business?

Funding from GFirst LEP’s Getting Building Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust, firmly establishes the next phase of our Digital Innovation Farm 'accelerator' initiative through Hartpury's Tech Box Park, which includes our recently launched Agri-Tech Centre.

To find out more about our FREE Tech Box Park programme and how we can support you, or book a tour of our facilities, please click the Book a Tour button.

Our funders

Funding for Hartpury’s Digital Innovation Farm Tech Box Park has been provided by the GFirst LEP ‘Getting Building Fund’, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Elizabeth Creak Charitable Trust.

Farm Tablet

Driving productivity and competitiveness in the agricultural and land-based industries.

Our new Tech Box Park offers dedicated, practical working space and support packages, access to Hartpury's commercial farm, Home Farm and an extended farming network for practical trials and feasibility testing across the county where businesses can explore, test, research and develop new products, or enhance existing ones.
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Free innovative workspace

Each of our five Tech Box units provide an innovative, self-contained working space for desk-based product development and testing.

Our flexible high-tech work and demonstration space offers SME’s a unique environment to launch and demonstrate products to clients both physically and virtually.

The 16ft x 40ft Tech Box Park units have been created using environmentally friendly, repurposed shipping containers clad in cedar wood and compliment the local environment at Hartpury's Home Farm. Limited spaces available.

Digital Innovation Farm Hartpury

Tech Box Park benefits

Based within a well-connected agricultural heartland, Tech Box Park benefits include:

  • Advice and guidance from a network of people who understand the business and technologies of the agri-tech and food-tech sectors.
  • Use of Hartpury's commercial farm, Home Farm and an extended farming network for practical farm trials and feasibility testing.
  • Hartpury’s enviable support and world-class knowledge network that includes farmers, entrepreneurs, technologists, investors and academics.
  • Access to farming data, research, equipment and resources to test, refine and grow propositions.
  • Space for collaboration, idea generation, expertise, advice, and physical facilities, providing a forum for all stakeholders in agricultural technology.

Business Support Packages

The Hartpury Tech Box Park Programme provides FREE support to businesses in Gloucestershire looking to develop new or existing Agri-Tech products or services and help them accelerate to market. Support packages include:

Helping your business to understand sustainability good practice, meet environmental standards and reach accreditation.

Supporting your business to analyse, test and demonstrate new and existing products to clients physically and virtually.

Providing your business with access to agricultural trial and test beds to improve productivity and efficiency.

Offering your business a platform to promote products to Hartpury’s academics, students, peers, and potential customers.

  • Access to our Agri-Tech Centre
  • Digital Farming Network
  • Invites to specialist events, workshops and networking opportunities
  • Expert advice and guidance
  • Support with marketing and promotion
  • Access to applied research and student engagement

Innovation for Environmental Sustainability

Helping your business to understand sustainability good practice, meet environmental standards and reach accreditation.

Product Development and Testing Facilities

Supporting your business to analyse, test and demonstrate new and existing products to clients physically and virtually.

Field Validation and Market Testing

Providing your business with access to agricultural trial and test beds to improve productivity and efficiency.

Showcase Marketing and Promotion

Offering your business a platform to promote products to Hartpury’s academics, students, peers, and potential customers.

Added value services

  • Access to our Agri-Tech Centre
  • Digital Farming Network
  • Invites to specialist events, workshops and networking opportunities
  • Expert advice and guidance
  • Support with marketing and promotion
  • Access to applied research and student engagement
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Apply for an Innovation Voucher to help your business grow

Spend £10K and get £5K back!

Once you’ve completed a minimum of 12 hours of engagement on the programme i.e. through our business support packages, events and specialist support activities - you can apply for an Innovation Voucher.

Successful applications will be given a reimbursed grant of £5K.

You can use your Innovation Voucher to develop your business including product / service development or enhancement, process improvement or market research. If it enables the growth and development of your business - you can apply.

Tech Box Park members

AmyB Ltd

Innovative cybersecurity expert

“I’ve had a great career so far with the opportunity to learn and practice different aspects of cybersecurity consulting. Going forward, I want to make a positive impact by leveraging my hardware and cybersecurity expertise to contribute to the land-based sector's growth and safety.” Amy Brooks, AmyB Ltd

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Hills Design

Design to stand out

Hills Design has lived and breathed branding for over two decades. Renowned for their innovative perspectives and limitless creativity, Hills Design empowers small start-ups and SMEs within the food and drink industry to compete alongside well-established products on supermarket shelves.

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Dexdyne

Specialist in design, manufacture & installation of remote monitoring equipment

“Our company received its initial order for this technology long before the concept of the cloud had even entered mainstream consciousness. Our innovation was recognised with a prestigious Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) SMART award, and since then, we have successfully established a customer base spanning Canada, the USA, and Africa. Our work is varied, ranging from developing intelligent systems to gauge pollution levels in urban areas to implementing smart monitoring solutions for profiling energy consumption on a large site.” Bharat Gupta, Managing Director

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CambridgeIQ

Delivering business results through innovation, development, strategy and IP commercialisation

“I look for innovation in everything I do! It’s the cross-fertilisation of ideas that really excites me. I’ve worked in a range of sectors and use my technology toolbox to bring nuggets of clever stuff from one business to another. I want to help solve real-world problems around the technology, business, and people working in agri-tech - a sector that I see as absolutely critical for the future of mankind.” Steve Watts, MD and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Haydn Green Institute

Cambridgeiq

Nero Blanco / Declaration Software

IT migration specialists

“We are expert IT consultants with over 50 years of complex, large-scale migration experience between us. We have never met a problem we could not solve, so we decided to develop smart software that helps businesses conquer the hurdles that waste time and money, day in, and day out." Anna Stokes, Nero Blanco

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Chronos Technology Ltd

Offering deep specialist skills and expertise across a range of technologies

"Being employee-owned, we all have a strong say in what happens which has created a fantastic energy in the company. I’m also personally excited to don a pair of wellies and have a chat, better understand farmer perspectives (particularly those working in vertical farming or with automated farm machinery which has sparked my interest), and talk with young, tech-savvy farmers of the future – Hartpury students.” Lewis Owen, Sales Analysis & Development Executive

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Mainstream Digital

Digital solutions to streamline your business

"Having access to the Hartpury network will help us open a new conversation door and discovery workshops with Gloucestershire farmers about future communications needs for the agriculture sector." Iryna Okhrymenko, Product Manager

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FHR Technology

Helping businesses with their IT requirements

“I take great satisfaction in helping businesses source what they need at the best value. My business is me and I aim to give a high-quality service and supply the right solution and equipment first time, every time, even if it means getting a bespoke unit built - and I’ll literally spend as long as it takes to do that.” Robin Cook, Founder

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Bridl

Digitalising the showjumping industry

“During the last few years and especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, show jumping has been digitised in ways that people could not have imagined ten years ago. Riders from all over the world are involving more and more technology in their day-to-day operations. Whether it is to close sales or to manage their horses’ operations – the growth of digitisation in show jumping has become inevitable.” Marie Marks, Founder and CEO, Bridl

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Creating Business Growth (CBG) Ltd

Thinking differently about tomorrow's business

“Helping the future growth of field-to-fork businesses at Hartpury has lit my excitement – it has immense potential. The agricultural technology sector is such an exciting horizon to work with moving forward and the opportunity to unleash tech value in the food industries is enormous.” Paul Drabble, Founder, CBG Ltd

Agri Growth

Concept Dairy

Empowering dairy farmers to take control of their milk price

Working with every part of the dairy supply chain, Concept Dairy brings pricing transparency to the global dairy industry. Its mission is to transform the industry to create a fair platform where farmers choose what price they will get for their milk, processors are able to understand, quantify and manage their price risk with confidence, and dairy buyers receive efficiency and value.

Concept Dairy

Mindset4Success

Equipping people with the confidence, presentation & interpersonal skills to succeed in life

"I'm passionate about farming and want to help the agricultural community get the best out of themselves and the people that work for them." Kim Harvey, Director and Transformational Coach

M4s

BioStart Security

Delivering the world's most innovative anti-theft driver identification solution

Using Hartpury’s commercial farm and machinery as a test bed, BioStart Security intend to use the Tech Box Park membership to showcase its artificial intelligence biometric technologies in a ‘real world’ agricultural setting.

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ProTrack Solutions Ltd

The UK's most innovative vehicle tracking & fleet management system

We are massively excited to install our technology on Hartpury’s working farm and invite the movers and shakers in the agricultural and insurance industries to come and see the potential in our products.” Kevin Pope, Founder and Group Managing Director

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EcoversityUK

Cultivating future through hemp innovation

"Sharing the hemp story, establishing the future market, and playing a part in the education of future agriculturalists – Hartpury students, is a ground-breaking initiative that I am proud to be championing here at Hartpury.” Marcus Morley-Jones, EcoversityUK Chairman

Ecoversity Chairman Marcus Morely Jones

Real Life Coaching

Empowering farmers

“I want to better understand the challenges faced by farmers and agricultural communities – including anxiety, stress, depression, and loss (e.g. including the grieving process associated with the loss of crops) and equip individuals with the tools to recognise and arrest these negative behaviours.”

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Catenna

"I'm looking to drive more effective connections between academia and business so that we can address societal challenges, but also support more commercial opportunities".

Catenna

Bridging the gap between industry and academia

YAGRO

Helping farmers make better business decisions

"We are in a huge time of change as the UK moves into a new era of agriculture. Farmers are the most important people in this industry, and we want to support them to make more informed and better business decisions. Driving these improvements will ultimately help us all strive toward a stronger agricultural industry."

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DronePrep

Preparing the world for a future with drones

“The DronePrep team have been working closely with the Hartpury Agritech team to explore how farmers can use drones to create diversified income for farm estates. It has been an amazing adventure thus far and we are incredibly excited to join the Tech Box Park community to strengthen ties with Hartpury and the farming community.”

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Sustainable Business Design Ltd

Helping SMEs grow sustainably

"By placing the tools for driving sustainable growth into the hands of every business leader, we can build a community determined to make sustainability business as usual.”

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Novazera

Making life safer

The University’s academic and agri-tech staff and students provide a perfect opportunity for partnership for both organisations, and we look forward to developing more learning opportunities as well as innovative products and solutions.”

Novazera

Emerald Research

Delivering sustainable optimised crop performance

"Emerald Research is a market leader in researching and developing our <strong>OptiYield&nbsp;</strong>'Next Generation' plant nutrient, bio stimulant, and biological products. We're very excited to be working with Hartpury to develop, communicate, and inform the agricultural community and wider public about the importance of these technologies towards sustainable, net-zero, and regenerative farming."

Emerald Research Ltd

First Base Solutions / Live Farmer

Helping farmers increase crop yield and farm profitability

“As a company we are highly innovative. Whether it’s using drone technology to scare pigeons or detect pests in crops, killing pathogens using UV Lighting, or developing sand heat storage energy solutions to take farms towards zero carbon. We hope that all our technologies will have a significant impact on the industry."

First Base Solutions

AJW Solutions / Samboards

Creating a novel range of green products designed to reduce anxiety, manage stress & keep focus

“I am enthusiastic about our products and the mental health and well-being benefits using our ‘touch and feel’ products bring to our users. The testing and trialing using fellow Tech Box member, Novazera’s new Biopolymer products is a brand-new innovation for us and something that, we are extremely excited about.”

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Awaretag

Applying innovative 'tech' to create the right environment for people & plants

“We want to now apply our technology to something that has always been at the back of our minds – indoor agriculture. The Tech Box not only gives us a place to better understand environmental factors affecting plant growth and yield, but also provides a space to collaborate, share ideas and find solutions to problems."

Awaretag

BioViron

Leading experts in compostable materials since 2005

"The potential to develop something ground-breaking here is real. Whether it’s testing dissolvable tree tubes that disappear or trailing compostable film as a workable alternative to plastic hay bale wrap, we’re excited to work with Hartpury’s agricultural experts to test samples on the fields in real life where it should be, rather than in a laboratory.”

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Robert Bilsland

Software consultant

"Like most other sectors, Agriculture is producing more and more data by the day, and not being realistic about what's achievable can lead to frustration as things don't materialise as envisioned. It's my desire to provide a service that will help turn other people's ideas into reality."

Robert Bilsland

Cavago

A booking platform for the horse world

A technology company aiming to connect riders of all levels to equestrian adventures, disciplines, horse breeds, schools, and facilities around the world.

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Map of Ag

Connecting agriculture

A leading provider of insight and knowledge to the agri-food industry, Map of Ag works with agriculture clients across the world delivering pioneering analytics, modelling, and research.

Map Of Ag

MyOxygen

Bespoke mobile app & web development

We can see an amazing amount of opportunity around IoT in agriculture. Joining the Tech Box Park community offers us a unique chance to work in partnership with farmers, learn from them, and create business-changing solutions.”

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Samboards

Engaging the sense of touch

Manufacturers of a range of sensory products which help with Sensory Activated Motor-skills (SAM) designed to reduce anxiety, manage stress, and enhance the mental health and well-being of users.

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Service providers

The Ideas Agency

"The Ideas Agency are the people behind the ideas of some of the most ambitious brands on the planet. We work to create ideas for new products, services, and marketing strategies that keep our clients relevant to their customers and ahead of the curve"

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Contact us...

If you would like to find out more about the opportunities available for your business, we’d love to hear from you