This project aims to help turn around the struggling UK tomato industry by creating a brand-new way to grow tomatoes that is more efficient, uses less labour, and is better for the environment. Since 2000, UK tomato production has nearly halved, with rising costs and labour shortages forcing growers to move production overseas. Today, 80% of the tomatoes eaten in the UK are imported. To tackle this, a team of experts from Phytoform Labs, CambridgeHOK, APS Group, British Tomato Growers Association and the University of Lincoln, is working together on an innovative solution called AUTOTOM. The idea is to combine new plant breeding techniques with automated growing systems. The first step is developing a new kind of tomato plant. Using a modern method called precision breeding (a faster, more targeted form of plant breeding), Phytoform Labs has created small, compact tomato plants that grow one set of fruit at a time. These plants are easier to handle and perfect for automation. At the same time, CambridgeHOK will adapt a high-tech growing system that moves plants through the greenhouse on conveyor belts. This allows the tomatoes to be picked automatically, in one place, without the need for people to walk through rows of plants. This setup is expected to cut labour costs by over 70% and increase tomato yields to 45--50 kg/m²/year, better than today's average. The University of Lincoln will test the system in their new research greenhouse and use digital tools to fine-tune the glasshouse layout. APS Group, the UK's largest tomato grower, and the British Tomato Growers Association will help make sure the new system meets real-world farming and supermarket needs. If successful, this project could lead to tomatoes being grown more locally, reducing imports and cutting carbon emissions from transport. It also creates opportunities for new, skilled jobs in science, engineering, and farming, and supports UK food security. By making tomato farming more productive and less reliant on manual labour, AUTOTOM offers a smarter, more sustainable future for British horticulture---and a fresh competitive edge for UK growers in a £1.8 billion market.

**Lupin is currently an under-utilised crop in the UK with a huge potential of transforming the UK protein market for both food and feed.** We are investigating the opportunity that lupin has to become a **sustainably produced farm-based protein crop in the UK**, to replace and overcome the need for importing soya for livestock feed due to lupins provide high quality/quantity of protein, equivalent to soya and outstripping peas/beans. This project would **transform the traditional farm-based lupin protein production by 2 parallel strategies for decarbonisation and improved sustainability** via regenerative agriculture and improved lupin traits, each with underpinning metrics and measurements. **Lupin production in the UK** is currently low due to the lack of food/feed market and **needs** evidence-based and informed **encouragement**. The project aims to achieve this via the knowledge-exchange/stakeholder-relations/dissemination activities. This should stimulate the market and give growers confidence in taking on lupin as a viable crop in their rotations and/or on-farm feed production. This should be enhanced by **the involvement of farmers in the field trials** enabling peer to peer learning. The project is delivered by a highly competent consortium, led by CHAP, partnered with SoyaUK and Phytoform Labs.

"It is widely recognised that by 2050 we will need to produce 70% more food than is consumed today and this needs to be achieved more sustainably than ever. To do this we need to drastically change the way we currently produce food. Fresh herbs are important vegetables and provide essential vitamins, oils and other nutrients as part of our daily diet whilst improving the flavour of what we eat. At Phytoform Labs, we use revolutionary biological tools to increase herb production by improving the genetics of commercial varieties and introducing new plant breeding techniques to agriculture and horticulture. Phytoform Labs products will be produced faster, made bigger, have less of an impact on the environment and will be non-GM. The improvements in breeding mean consumers will have access to healthier and bigger herbs at a more affordable price."