SugaROx is a spin-out from Oxford University and Rothamsted Research launched in Feb 2021 to develop biostimulants to improve the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of crop production. The venture develops single-molecule formulations based on Active Ingredients (AI) inspired by natural plant molecules. The AI in its first product, a biostimulant to boost wheat yields, is inspired by trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), a sugar critical for carbon use and allocation in plants. The bulk of biostimulants available today, extracts from plants and algae and acid-based formulations produced from organic wastes, deliver 2-5% yield gains for farmers. SugaROx's approach is game changing with field trials completed in the UK, US, CA and DE showing potential to boost wheat yields by up to 4-14% under water deficit stress and 5-22% under good growing conditions. This Large R&D Partnership enables SugaROx to employ additional staff and access complementary knowledge, skills, facilities, and equipment required to upscale synthesis of its T6P AI to pilot stage, enabling a more ambitious programme of field trials to be launched accelerating product development and commercialisation. It also enables, for the first time, UK farmer participation in field trials, and consultation with companies in the agri-food supply chain to promote biostimulant adoption. To find out more about opportunities to get involved in the project, contact SugaROx Business Development Director, Bianca Forte, at bianca.forte@sugarox.co.uk.

As a result of global warming, heatwaves and record-breaking high temperatures are becoming more frequent, longer lasting, and intense in the UK. The summer of 2022 marked a new milestone in UK climate history, with 40°C recorded for the first time in the country. Today, 20% of fresh tomatoes consumed in the UK are produced domestically. In its Food Strategy, the UK government pledged to help UK growers become more competitive. In a warming climate, this requires access to tools to improve the resilience of glasshouse crops to heat stress. This feasibility study will identify the strengths and weaknesses of a new type of biostimulant technology in improving the productivity, heat resilience, profitability and sustainability of tomato production in the UK. The biostimulant is a single-molecule formulation whose active ingredient is inspired by trehalose-6-phosphate, a natural sugar that plays a key role on carbon use and allocation in plants. Our consortium is led by SugaROx, the technology developer, and includes Fera, the British Tomato Growers' Association and ADAS. Our work plan includes a range of knowledge exchange activities with UK tomato growers. If you want to engage with us to learn more about our study, please contact Bianca Forte, SugaROx Business Development Director, via LinkedIn.

SugaROx is a spin-out from Oxford University and Rothamsted Research launched in Feb 2021 to develop biostimulants to improve the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of crop production. The venture develops single-molecule formulations based on Active Ingredients (AI) inspired by natural plant molecules. The AI in its first product, a biostimulant to boost wheat yields, is inspired by trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P). T6P is critical for sugar use and allocation in plants. Through a FIP Feasibility Study, SugaROx successfully designed and tested prototype formulations for its wheat biostimulant and validated important assumptions in its R&D, registration and commercialisation strategies. Yield boosts of up to 22% were registered for spring and winter wheat. As a next step, SugaROx needs to test to what extent that astonishing result can be replicated across a range of end-user environments and commercial wheat varieties. This Small R&D Partnership enables SugaROx to access the knowledge, skills, facilities, and equipment required to accelerate product development. Amongst other objectives, SugaROx and partners will evaluate and optimise a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the wheat biostimulant through extensive field trials and then validate the MVP performance across a range of end-user scenarios. To find out more about our project, contact our Business Development Director Bianca Forte at [bianca.forte@sugarox.co.uk][0]. [0]: mailto:bianca.forte@sugarox.co.uk

An experimental development project that will allow our UK-based venture to develop an innovative biostimulant to improve the productivity, resilience and sustainability of crop production on the international stage. We are leveraging over 20 years of British-backed research on plant carbon use and allocation, centred around the signalling sugar trehalose-6-phosphate. With a focus on helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the livestock sector, we have chosen to target maize and soybean production in the United States, Brazil and India, which are amongst the main producing countries in the world. Our venture will adopt a B2B model and target customers with established routes to markets to reach farmers in these and other countries. To develop a clear route to market for project outcomes we will be engaging potential customers during our project. If you are a seed, crop nutrition, crop protection or crop biostimulant company, or an independent ag input supplier or large coop of producers, please contact our Business Development Director Bianca Forte ([bianca.forte@sugarox.co.uk][0]) to discuss opportunities to work with us. [0]: mailto:bianca.forte@sugarox.co.uk

SugaROx was launched in Feb 2021 to develop and commercialise biostimulant formulations with an Active Ingredient invented through a collaboration between Rothamsted Research and the University of Oxford. We will further validate and develop a state-of-the-art technology in one of the fastest-growing segments of agricultural inputs. This Feasibility Study will allow us to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our technical approach and test our assumptions around the needs of end-users (UK wheat farmers) and potential commercial partners (distributors with established routes to market).