2020 Awarded Scoping Projects 

We were delighted to receive 28 applications to our 2020 Collaborative Scoping Call. You can find out more about the successful 2020 projects below. Click on the + icon to find out more information.

In addition to the 17 scoping projects below, three further projects were funded through our Virtual Sandpit.
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Insect pollinators are an essential part of Earth’s ecosystems.  Recent, catastrophic reductions in pollinator abundance have raised concerns across the world, resulting in national government pollinator strategies[1]. Honey bees are largely managed in apiaries and, as such, are effectively livestock. Human monitoring is necessary to ensure the health and abundance of colonies, including ensuring adequate nourishment, treatment for disease and parasites and no-destructive harvesting of honey. This management can be costly in terms of time, with physical inspection still the predominant approach. This project seeks to harness the power of modern technology (i.e. Internet of things, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, earth observation remote sensing, satellite navigation and communication, 4G and 5G) to allow beekeepers, whether commercial or hobbyist, to monitor their colonies remotely.  This will allow action to be taken in a timely way and avoid disturbing the insect communities unnecessarily.
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Food fraud costs the UK food economy £11 billion a year but this is only the tip of the iceberg as fraud is massively underreported. By preventing fraud in the food supply chain, it is possible to reduce these estimated costs. In fact, by tackling fraud, this could boost the UK food industry profits by £4.5 billion. However, building a safe and resilient global food system requires the ability to identify the metrics or indicators of fraud. This project brings together STFC data science experts, a commercial partner (Fera Science) and academics to explore the applications of data analytics in food fraud and its indicators. The ability to link such indicators to fraudulent activities, in particular during shock events, will benefit border controls and inspections – by reducing delays at the UK border, helping to strategise resources and  minimising the flow of unsafe and fraudulent food products nationally.
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Our food system has experienced a ‘shock’ as a result of COVID-19. This has exposed a number of vulnerabilities and the crucial role of consumer behaviour in system-resilience (Benton, 2020). In order to protect the food system in the event of a future ‘shock’, it is vital that we learn from COVID-19 and increase our understanding of consumer practice under circumstances of uncertainty. We will capitalize on the abundance of online discussions of all aspects of consumer practice around food (e.g., Singh, Shukla & Mishra, 2018). We will evaluate the value of using intelligent data analytics across 5 platforms (e.g., Twitter, deliveroo reviews). Included in our approach is a feasibility assessment of using citizen science to categorise data (comments/ photos) and apply deep learning to automate this process. In so doing, a preliminary model of the common drivers of consumer behaviour under uncertainty in the food system will be developed.
Novel process for extracting nutrient in food waste for sustainable and resilient urban farming and food packaging

Dr Ifeyinwa Rita Kanu
IntelliDigest Ltd
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Vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat produced using organic and sustainable techniques are healthier, due to the lack of pesticides and other chemicals. It is also safer for farmers with far less impact on environment. Globally, a third of food grown for human consumption is wasted.

Leveraging advances in molecular biology-enzyme evolution, we are developing an enzymatic hydrolysis process to convert macerated inedible food waste into nutrients/sustainable chemicals that could be used for advanced farming as well as producing circular food packaging. However, food waste volume and composition are highly variable across households, hospitality and food service sector organisations, while also varying regionally and seasonally. Our technical and commercial challenge is to convert these highly variable input into circular chemicals with consistent quality and yield, meeting the needs of circular farmers and packaging manufacturers.

PI – Dr Ifeyinwa Rita Kanu
Food Side Co-Investigators - Dr Devendra Saroj, Dr Elisa Lopez-Capel, Dr Harry Langford, Dr Lydia MJ Smith, Jen Thomas, Dr Ruben Sakrabani
STFC Side Co-Investigators - Jens Jensen, Dave Clarke, Sarah Rogers, Claire Pizzey
Predicting corn yield with UAV-based remote sensing


Vivatong Vichat-Vadakan
SkyVIV
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Vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat produced using organic and sustainable techniques are healthier, due to the lack of pesticides and other chemicals. It is also safer for farmers with far less impact on environment. Globally, a third of food grown for human consumption is wasted.

Leveraging advances in molecular biology-enzyme evolution, we are developing an enzymatic hydrolysis process to convert macerated inedible food waste into nutrients/sustainable chemicals that could be used for advanced farming as well as producing circular food packaging. However, food waste volume and composition are highly variable across households, hospitality and food service sector organisations, while also varying regionally and seasonally. Our technical and commercial challenge is to convert these highly variable input into circular chemicals with consistent quality and yield, meeting the needs of circular farmers and packaging manufacturers.

PI – Dr Ifeyinwa Rita Kanu
Food Side Co-Investigators - Dr Devendra Saroj, Dr Elisa Lopez-Capel, Dr Harry Langford, Dr Lydia MJ Smith, Jen Thomas, Dr Ruben Sakrabani
STFC Side Co-Investigators - Jens Jensen, Dave Clarke, Sarah Rogers, Claire Pizzey
Feasibility studies on using neutron and Raman spectroscopy to evaluate physical and chemical characteristics of novel green fertilisers
Dr Ruben Sakrabani
Cranfield University
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Carbon capture technology deployed by trapping carbon dioxide into organic waste material and converting it into a fertiliser provides an excellent opportunity to tackle climate change and soil fertility. In this project, pelletised fertilisers will be produced using such technology.

Fertilisers produced using organic waste material will vary widely due to feedstock characteristics. Hence, it is important to know how variable these fertilisers are, as an equivalent chemical fertiliser is more consistent due to its stoichiometry. In this project we will use neutron computed tomography to assess the physical characterisation such as porosity and Raman spectroscopy to determine the arrangements of chemical bonds present within a pelletised fertiliser.
 
The outcome of this feasibility study will inform variability in physical and chemical characteristics of pelletised fertiliser. Ultimately the information gathered will be used to develop an algorithm to inform industry on how to minimise variations between batches.

STFC-side CoIs:
Dr Genoveva Burca
Dr Sara Mosca
Dr Hugh Dickinson
Dr Jens Jensen
Building Smart urban Farming data systems: A Case study


Lilik Sutiarso
Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia
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This project aims to assess the feasibility of a digital platform to manage urban farming at a city level and optimize the benefits of such activity. The platform will be developed in DAFNI, a STFC Data & Analytics Facility that already hosts a similar system from several British cities but hasn’t been used to host information on urban farming and other green spaces in cities. The platform will have environmental, geographical, governance, marketing, production, and socio-economic data. Once this information system is operational, agents can use it to identify vulnerabilities and opportunities to build resilience and food security of cities. Furthermore, its modular structure will enable future integration of other streams of information, namely data from remote sensors collecting environmental information (such as impact of farms on pollution and carbon capture) enabling all agents involved in the urban farming ecosystem to make better policies and strategies and monitor their impact.
Food Access: Distributed ledger technology (DLT) integration for optimising food supply chain communications and transport                  
Abiye Tob-Ogu
Sheffield University Management School
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Food access relates to the ability to acquire sufficient nutrients for consumption. Where people cannot do this, they suffer from malnutrition, disease and death. SubSaharan Africa is noted as heavily challenged in
this area with Nigeria in particular showing almost 32% of children suffering in this case. The literature links accessibility challenges to the speed of transport, with midstream delays accounting for a significant part of
the problem.

Whilst hydra-headed, transportation problems stem from communication between the farmers, transporters and buyers. This is due to the absence of coordinated communication structures that allow transparency and
planning with respect to food transport communications.

This project seeks to explore options for addressing this food transport communications challenge by creating a digital distributed ledger (DLT) archetype to promote accessibility; allowing farmers upload transport requirements and transporters to collate and allocate resources for distribution in advance. This simple implementation can significantly reduce wastage due to transport delays, thereby improving the opportunity for food access downstream. Additionally, the predictability of transport demand can help to
reduce pricing volatility and increase affordability value for consumers.

Food-side CoIs: Dr. Seyed M. Ebrahimi (University of Sheffield; Dr.
James Hanotu (Formava Limited)
STFC-side CoIs : Dr. Tom Kirkham
Food loss reduction under uncertain agricultural policy frameworks


Dr Martine Barons
University of Warwick
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Human populations are growing and on our finite planet, pressure on agricultural land is greater than ever and agricultural inputs protect crops and reduce waste. Under the EU Green Deal, targets have been set for growers to reduce pesticide use by 50% by 2030. There is no roadmap of how this might be achieved. Support for decision making under uncertainty is required; help to make evidence-informed decisions, transparent and explainable so growers have confidence in it. Probabilistic graphical models (PGMs) are a natural choice because they can be represented pictorially. Lettuce provides a good case study because it has a short growing season so many crops are grown and harvested in the same calendar year, so under similar conditions. Lettuce has no secondary market; it is too watery for bio digesters and cannot be frozen, for example. Working with lettuce growers we will design a PGM to help reduce waste.
A feasibility study of using blockchain technology to detect counterfeit seeds on market


Henry Hunga
University of Malawi
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The increasing scale, complexity of food supply networks and current disruptions due to Covid-19 and climate variability can lead to staples such as seeds becoming more vulnerable to fraud. Counterfeit seeds have affected smallholder farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa, including Malawi and weakens the regional food security and exacerbates poverty. This project will bring together local agri-food authorities and seed traders to identify the challenges of certifying seeds and potential areas where counterfeiting take place. This project draws on STFC CFL capabilities especially the use of blockchain technology  and DNA sequencing to track and validate genuine seeds on the market in Malawi. The ability to identify counterfeit seeds will improve the safety, sustainability and resilience of our food supply chain.

Food-side CoIs: Dr. Jayne Crozier, Trade & Commodities Coordinator UK, CABI, UK, Dr Manoj Dora, Brunel Business School, UK, Dr. Sachin Kumar, University of Plymouth, UK, Dr Jan Mei Soon
 
STFC-side CoIs: Dr. Tom Kirkham (STFC – DL, BID), Dr. Jens Jensen (STFC – RAL, SC)
Assessing the Feasibility of IoT Precision Data Solution for Vertical Farming



Prof Chungui Lu
Nottingham Trent University
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The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted what has been increasingly evident for years - the UK must develop more resilient and robust food production methods that meet food sustainability and productivity. Vertical Farming (VF) has been branded as the future of Food Production due to the environmental benefits and food security benefits.
 
The aim is therefore to assess the feasibility of an all-encompassing automated monitoring and control system that creates precise and timely propriety Big Data, generated against multiple inputs/ ingredients from the VF growing environment. We will utilise existing microgreen data from sensors and plant performance based computing to develop an IoT Precision Data Solution for the Vertical Farming environment. The data will then be utilised by data scientist/VF specialists from STFC Hartree Center to develop an algorithm to calculate optimum growing recipes for nutritionally dense crops and improve resource efficiency with reducing costs for development of an optimum growing system.

Food-side CoIs: Wantao Yu, University of Roehampton (UR); Steven Grundy, Nottingham Trent University (NTU)
 
STFC-side CoIs: Dr Tom Kirkham, STFC Hartree Centre
Developing Price Risk-Protected Warehouse Receipt System in Promoting Resilient Food Supply Chains in Africa


Dr Apurba Shee
University of Greenwich
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African agricultural markets are thin and isolated and usually characterized by high variation in commodity prices- a condition that sparks political unrest and triggers disabling policy interventions in output markets (Fafchamps 1992; Minten and Kyle 1999; Burke et al. 2019; Global Panel 2020). Warehouse Receipt Systems (WRS) has been promoted is several countries such as Tanzania and Uganda. However, their development has been stymied by high levels of price volatility which weaken incentives for intra-seasonal stockholding. Price volatility which has become more prominent due to the COVID pandemic has made the food supply chain unstable. To mitigate the downside price risk, we propose to develop an innovative financial instrument which embeds price-indemnified insurance with warehouse receipts. The product ensures that, for commodities stored under WRS, if market prices fall below a historical average for a specific month, the embedded insurance will be triggered, thereby protecting farmers against downside price risk.

Food-side CoIs: Dr Manoj Dora, Brunel University London; Dr Gideon Onumah, University of Greenwich, Calum G. Turvey, Cornell University
 
STFC-side CoIs: Dr Tom Kirkham, STFC Hartree Centre
Neutron Soil Moisture Probes for Regenerative Agriculture


Prof Lee Thompson
University of Sheffield

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Regenerative farming practices that support natural flood management can build resilience in water systems to extreme weather events. One difficulty faced by farmers seeking to adopt these practices is it is not always clear  what major problems affect their site and the best way to solve them. This project will investigate whether novel cosmic ray soil moisture probes are
capable of remotely sensing the ability of regenerative farming practices to reduce soil compaction.

We will construct two low-cost cosmic ray monitoring systems before installing them in agricultural plots with differing cultivation techniques (ploughing vs direct drill). Long term monitoring data will be used to understand how each sites volumetric water content changes with rainfall. These responses will be used to estimate the degree of water infiltration at each site to demonstrate the viability of using cosmic ray probes to remotely monitor the effects of soil compaction.
Learning from each other to cope with crisis: Utilising insights from COVID-19 on health and sustainability

Dr Stacia Stetkiewicz
Lancaster University

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COVID-19 has impacted food behaviours in both positive and negative ways. Given the uncertainties around potential future UK food system shocks such as Brexit and a second wave of COVID-19, it is crucial to understand the drivers and mitigating factors of relevance to these food behaviour changes. This is of particular importance to prevent worsening health inequalities and increases in non-communicable diseases.

This project will draw on the team’s expertise to: (1) identify who has made positive or negative dietary changes due to COVID-19 through an online survey, (2) link these changes with participant demographic information, stress responses and emotional eating, and postcode data, (3) identify protective factors which may mitigate against the negative impacts of COVID-19 using geolocation data of relevance, such as green space provision, and (4) work with consumers to share their successful coping strategies and co-create interventions to combat negative effects in future crisis situations.

Food-side CoIs: Beth Armstrong, Sheffield University, UK; Gemma Bridge, Leeds Beckett University, UK; Julia Vogt, Reading University, UK; Ximena Schmidt, Brunel University
STFC-side CoIs: Tom Kirkham, Hartree Centre
Identification of umami taste markers in microalgae-based novel food ingredient


Dr Yixing Sui
University of Greenwich
Using STFC Technology to Create a Novel Digital Platform to  Integrate Fish Farmers and Customers in Ghana

Dr Fred A. Yamoah
Birkbeck - University of London
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Fish farming plays a key role as a major source of nutrition and livelihood for small scale fish farmers in Ghana. However, the sector’s supply chain has been hugely disrupted by Covid-19 pandemic. This has resulted in disconnections and instabilities between the aquaculture supply chain and fish food environment, where consumers can access fish products, consequently compromising transparency along the chain. Immediate effects include loss of income, fish losses and limited consumer access to fish. Thereby, this project seeks to use STFC technology to create a novel digital platform that will connect fish farmers and customers to address supply, market and transparency challenges facing the aquaculture food system Ghana to harness and sustain fish supply chains in Africa.
Preservation and Visualization of African Indigenous Knowledge for Resilient Food Systems

Dr Steven Sam
Brunel University London
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African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) is innovative and unique among local and subsistent smallholder farmers for sustainable food production and enhancing biodiversity and natural resources in many poor, rural societies. Yet, the documentation and dissemination of AIK remain a big challenge confronting librarians and other information professionals in Africa, with the risk of losing AIK. This project will draw on STFC’s citizen science and data science expertise, multiple data sources from local participants in Sierra Leone and proven Zooniverse methodology to analyse, identify and pilot documentation of the first interactive, digital, open AIK infrastructure (an integrated web and mobile platform) along with standards for ethically collecting, preserving and sharing the AIK and traditional practices. The infrastructure will be useful for local populations, research and policy-makers, and it could lead to transformative innovation in the food system, creating a fundamental shift in the way the UK supports sustainable, modern food production efforts in Africa.

Food-side CoIs: Dr Ximena Schmidt (XS)
STFC-side CoIs: Dr Jens Jensen (JJ) and Hugh Dickinson (HD)
Hyperspectral Infrared Imaging for Precision Soil Moisture Mapping


Dr Patrick Stowell
University of Durham
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Water scarcity is a significant challenge for the world’s population. With an ever increasing likelihood of extreme droughts, technologies to promote sustainable irrigation and improve resilience to water shortage are needed. Detailed
mapping of soil moisture in arid regions is a major problem as existing techniques have high associated costs per hectare, or low resolution.

We will investigate the advantages of new hyperspectral cameras to map surface soil moisture. Utilising precision optics originally developed for satellites, these high resolution cameras are extremely portable and are sensitive
to water absorption lines in the infrared spectrum. By mounting one to a drone we will look at mapping large areas of agricultural land with a single camera, significantly reducing associated cost per hectare. The data will be used to better understand how soil moisture varies across a site to optimise placement of ground based sensors, and understand the uncertainties associated
with their data.
Identifying and examining COVID-19 pandemic effect on consumers’ concerns and behaviours in the food supply chains

Dr Mohammad Soltani Delgosha
UWE Bristol
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As consumers’ concern in the food industry is the key driver for planning and designing the supply chain, in this research we aim to study how COVID-19 pandemic has affected the food consumers’ concerns. We empirically explore the pandemic effect using a quasi-natural experiment in the social media and computational linguistics algorithms. We first collect large dataset from the Twitter four months before and after the start of COVID-19 pandemic and then investigate the changes in communication patterns. We then conduct a difference-in-differences analysis inspired by cognitive-emotional frames using automated text-analysis techniques. 
We expect that the result of this data-driven study could provide deep insights for practitioners specially with respect to how this pandemic has influenced the consumers’ thoughts. 
Virtual marketplace for urban micro enterprises & small farmers growing fresh fruits & vegetables in India

Sarang Vaidya
Go4fresh - Mumbai
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The nationwide lockdown in India since March due to Covid19 has adversely affected the on-site market dynamics for fresh produce supply chains resulting in higher farm-side wastage, uncertainty & price volatility. The marginal communities (micro enterprises and small farmers) have been the hardest hit due to the halting of longstanding operations in trade hubs and bazars that facilitate buyer-seller connections and transactions. This project aims to provide alternate market access for marginal communities in & around Mumbai by developing virtual marketplace to circumvent potential market access challenges of similar future shocks. The project would identify, map and replicate the key interactions and data requirements of on-site market interactions onto a virtual space to enable faster adoption and smooth buyer-seller virtual interactions. It would utilise STFC capabilities in data digitisation, data architecture & system design to develop a virtual market prototype that is adaptable to mobile applications and connected devices.



​Page Header Image: An example of simulated data modelled for the CMS detector on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN -  Source: Lucas Taylor for CERN http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/628469
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