Stc Research Foundation

"Vertical farming (VF) has the potential to revolutionise food production. The industry is experiencing enormous growth, propelled by the increased demand for pesticide-free foods, rising global populations, decreased availability of land and demand for year-round food production worldwide. It delivers numerous benefits versus traditional farming methods ...

"Graphene is a form of carbon consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged is a hexagonal lattice. It is the basic structural element of many other forms of carbon such as graphite, diamond and charcoal. Graphene has many unusual properties. It is the strongest material ever tested, conducts heat and electricity extremely efficiently and is nearl...

Tomato growers in the UK need to detect Botrytis cinerea/grey mould early in it's development to avoid economic loss. Botrytis impacts both productivity and profitability of the industry year long, with backgrounds of 1- 10% of plants infected throughout the year, reaching 30% at the year end. The aim of this project is to investigate the feasibility of e...

The Automato Robot project aims to address the seasonal labour constraints in the UK/European tomato industry and their increasing cost through the development of a cost-effective robotic system that performs on-crop quality and ripeness inspection and then automated harvesting. The project brings together state of the art knowledge of innovative robotic ...

Balancing the need to maintain a secure supply of safe nutritious food, whilst minimising environmental impacts caused during crop production, is a challenge requiring sophisticated solutions. Understanding variation in farmland soils is only part of the battle: precise management of that variation to stabilise crop yield, and reducing fertiliser inputs i...

Terraseed is a novel, seedmat technology that has been developed by Terraseed Ltd as a non-chemical approach to weed control in salad and vegetable production. Terraseed products are being manufactured under license by commercial growers especially where herbicides have been withdrawn. The project aims to develop and extend the technology for the control ...