Sunderland is leading by example. Recently recognised with the Digital Leaders People’s Choice Award and shortlisted in the Social Transformation category, Sunderland’s Smart City programme is demonstrating how technology and innovation can create meaningful change in communities and improve lives.

Tackling inequality through digital inclusion

At the heart of Sunderland’s transformation is a mission to tackle digital exclusion, ensuring that every resident – regardless of age, background or income – can benefit from the opportunities the digital world offers.

Through the city’s award-winning Digital Inclusion Programme, thousands of people have been empowered with the tools, skills and connectivity needed to thrive. 

From building 30 Digital Health Hubs across the city delivering over 10,000m² of free public Wi-Fi – used over 60,000 times a month – this programme is bridging the digital divide and creating access for all.

Many residents who were previously excluded from online services – whether through lack of devices, connectivity or confidence – are now connected, supported and empowered. Over 1,500 people have been upskilled through training and community-led digital sessions, raising confidence and opening opportunities for residents in a digital era. 

“Digital Hubs have been a massive part of our smart city strategy – to absolutely bring that connectivity and those digital services out to local communities.”
Liz St Louis, director of smart cities at Sunderland City Council. 

Over 1,000 donated devices have been refurbished and redistributed to those who need them most, directly addressing the issue of access to digital equipment, alongside reducing e-waste and its related emissions.

Smart, sustainable and inclusive

Connectivity underscores Sunderland’s smart city journey, it’s the bedrock for social, economic and environmental good. Our ambition is to create inclusive communities – using technology as a catalyst for sustainable change.

Sunderland has introduced technology-enabled care across the city, from sensors supporting safe and effective hospital discharge, to monitoring hydration and falls, supporting over 5,500 people to live safely and independently at home to date. 

Meanwhile, innovative programmes like the 5G Innovation Region’s (5GIR) funded projects have driven sustainability and economic growth, while improving safety and operational efficiency.

By prioritising inclusivity, sustainability and innovation, Sunderland’s smart city achievements have fostered stronger communities, improved quality of life and inspired other cities to follow their lead.

Sunderland’s Digital Health Hubs have been instrumental in bringing the opportunity to go online into the heart of local communities. The Hubs have addressed health and digital inequalities, supporting over 11,000 vulnerable people to date. 

Over 284 volunteers have been recruited to foster community participation and boost digital confidence. This has created valuable volunteering opportunities and a pathway into education and employment. 

The city’s launch of a ‘Links for Life’ platform has provided a digital platform for residents and professionals to ‘join the dots’ between communities and services, with over 300 local organisations registered across all sectors. 

The digital transformation across Sunderland is a model that integrates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) values at every level, by:

• Reducing e-waste and using data to drive sustainable urban planning
• Empowering underserved communities and building digital confidence
• Building partnerships across health, housing, education and the voluntary sector to ensure joined-up, community-led solutions thrive

And it’s not just the city council leading this change – Tech Mates and corporate supporters are helping neighbours and communities gain confidence online. A true citywide movement for digital empowerment is underway.

A model for others to follow

Sunderland’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. The city has become a beacon of best practice for other towns and cities looking to tackle digital exclusion and build smarter, more resilient communities, and was named the UK’s smartest city earlier this year by The Times. 

“Technology evolves all the time and I think it is important that people keep up with that, and are supported to do that in a safe way that works for them. 

To be able to use technology, to be able to improve people’s lives and to have the community space like we have with the Hubs is super important.”
Claire Venners, director delivery UK & Ireland at Boldyn Networks,

By using data and analytics to identify areas of need, and collaborating across sectors, Sunderland is delivering smarter solutions where they matter most. Its work with the North East Combined Authority on Minimum Digital Living Standards could soon set the bar for digital inclusion efforts across the UK.

The future is resident-centred and tech-enabled

Sunderland’s story shows that true smart city success isn’t just about the tech itself – it’s about the people it helps, the lives it changes and the communities it brings together.

Through bold leadership, strong partnerships and a commitment to leaving no one and nowhere behind, Sunderland is proving that digital transformation, when done right, is a powerful force for good.

As the recent Digital Leaders Awards celebrate those embedding positive impact into everything they do, Sunderland continues to lead from the front – putting people at the heart of innovation. Follow Sunderland’s smart city journey here. 

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Data-informed decision making

With CPOs working towards profitability, and consolidation likely on the horizon, today’s decisions will shape long-term competitiveness. Against this backdrop, utilisation data provides a dynamic picture of charge point usage across locations and customer segments. For CPOs, this data reveals more than just frequency or duration; it illuminates customer behaviour patterns. 

In a recent conversation with Fastned, the European ultra-rapid charging network, we heard about two sites with identical energy throughput but very different stories. A London site with an improbable sounding 60% utilisation reflected steady, round-the-clock demand from urban taxi fleets. In contrast, a Dutch site reporting a more moderate 25% utilisation operated with twice as many chargers and served users at a consistent but lower intensity through daytime hours. A site with eight chargers reporting 25% utilisation might signal  that two of those chargers are in almost constant use, or that all are full during peak hours, leading to queues and customer drop-off, requiring radically different operational responses. Without such insights, operators risk misallocating resources, either by overbuilding in low-demand areas or missing critical opportunities in high-demand zones.

Building strategic resilience through robust data 

With millions of charges taking place each month, the industry must ensure its data is accurate, complete, and consistent. Robust data collection hinges on comprehensive aggregation across multiple CPOs and data providers, ensuring a holistic and unbiased view. Transparency and collaboration within the industry help everyone progress; sharing metrics while respecting commercial sensitivities can seem threatening in fledgling markets but is the norm elsewhere. Data granularity is equally essential; going beyond simple percentages to analyse session-level details such as simultaneous usage, state of charge on arrival and departure, and charging speed distribution. 

At Zapmap Insights we’re advancing live data aggregation by collating, cleansing, standardising and segmenting these data feeds from diverse operators on our platform. Constant feedback loops and input from end-users ensure continuous quality improvement cycles, resulting in current and historical performance insights, delivered in standardised formats with flexible delivery, creating the foundation for more robust, real-time intelligence.

The right chargers in the right locations

Location types such as urban hubs, motorway service areas, retail locations, and residential streets serve distinct use cases with varied utilisation profiles. Slow, on-street charge points may be in use for longer but see a low number of sessions, while motorway sites see more transient, time-limited use. Understanding these patterns ensures network growth is not only technically sound but commercially viable and user-led.

Combining utilisation data with additional sources such as demographics, housing stock, traffic flows, and grid capacity maps yields even richer planning insights. These datasets help identify true demand centres, avoiding overbuild in underused areas while recognising the latent potential of emerging corridors. This approach also supports collaboration with Local Authorities, crucial to effective infrastructure planning and equitable access by balancing ultra-rapid hubs with on-street and destination chargers. 

From performance metric to strategic asset

When combined with predictive analytics, utilisation data becomes a powerful, forward-looking tool. Grid capacity and constraints data enable CPOs to forecast site expansion feasibility, while traffic flow data helps predict demand. Customer behaviour analytics inform design improvements and targeted service offerings. Utilisation combined with pricing data enables intelligent demand shaping and dynamic pricing strategies. Integrating real-time data from sources like charger telemetry and customer feedback improves the accuracy of demand forecasts. This data-driven approach supports dynamic strategies such as load balancing and pricing incentives, which reduce grid stress, guide investment, and protect profitability.

Conclusion: Investing in Intelligence

The EV charging industry already generates vast amounts of data. Those who leverage it fully to optimise their networks in a smart and capital-efficient way will shape the future of EV infrastructure. In a market where capital is finite and expectations are rising, investing in data is a critical investment in resilience.

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In April, the Government Digital Service (GDS) added sustainability to the Government Design Principles, this marked public acknowledgment of the large amount of energy, water and materials required to run digital services. GDS advises practitioners to consider both short- and long-term environmental impacts when designing and delivering services.

However, barriers for organisations to measure and reduce the environmental impact of their use of AI remain. In this article, our focus now turns from the “why” to the “how” – how we can do something about these environmental impacts to ensure the sustainability of AI and the implementation of AI for sustainability outcomes.

What’s the definition of Sustainable AI?

Sustainable AI contains two related topics:

1. Sustainability of AI: The practice of reducing the negative environmental impact of the use of any form of AI.
2. AI for sustainability: The use of AI technologies to address environmental, ecological, and social challenges and promote sustainable development.

Measuring, reducing and prioritising impact using the STAR Framework

We’ve looked at the landscape surrounding the development of AI – the large and growing issues around AI’s environmental impact – but organisations are struggling to measure and act to reduce it. Alongside this, AI has the potential to be used for sustainability outcomes, but businesses need help to prioritise and implement them.

To solve these problems, we have developed the STAR Framework (shown above). The Framework guides organisations through a four-step process to identify the scale of risk and opportunity around Sustainable AI, supporting the achievement of business objectives with this at the forefront.

Here, we break down the stages of the process and provide some examples of what can be done in each to create a holistic approach to Sustainability in the context of AI:

Strategy

Firstly, it is crucial to understand what the organisation in question is trying to achieve or what the business objectives are that AI may be able to solve? What, if any, AI strategy is in place on AI currently?

As part of this, we engage stakeholders to align with the overall business strategy and goals to ensure AI use cases are identified and validated against a business need. We would identify what business and environmental factors are important to the organisation in question – is AI’s impact on water usage, carbon, hardware or others the most relevant.

For example, we can help understand the energy requirements, associated emissions and sustainability of the infrastructure used for AI development and deployment, considering whether the system is optimised for energy efficiency. We can also set a strategy to realise sustainability benefits (direct and indirect) considering AI’s potential to address environmental issues. We also get clarity around the operating environment, associated regulation (present and future), government commitments where relevant and provide confidence that our plan aligns to these influencing factors.

Tally

The next phase is all about quantifying and measuring the impact of AI in the particular context of the organisation. We understand the macro numbers from our previous piece but it’s critical to get a view on the individual business in question to be able to produce a targeted action plan in the later steps. What are the impacts on the ground and how can we reduce them? Also, considering the correct tooling and solution to make a tangible impact on the situation, helping the organisation track progress moving forward.

We’ve created a measurement approach aligned to the organisation’s current and future use of AI by leveraging a tailored combination of 30 open-source tools developed by Sopra Steria. There are a number of open-source calculators out there to help with measurement activity, with AI Energy Score, EcoLogits and ML CO2 Impact notable as particularly useful. Implementing Sustainable AI measurement tooling allows us to quantify current risks and opportunities of using AI, setting a solid foundation for future implementations. Implementing Sustainable AI measurement tooling allows us to quantify current risks and opportunities of using AI, setting a solid foundation for future implementations.

Action

Once we have a baseline on our actual usage from Steps 1 and 2, and a view on the measured impact of current and predicted future AI programmes, what are the best practice methods we can employ to put a plan in place to define a tangible reduction in environmental impact of AI?

We tailor action from 31 different best practices that have been developed alongside government, industry and academia. These best practices have been ranked and categorised based on the reduction in environmental impact achieved, the implementation effort and the lifecycle stages they are relevant to. Best practice spans improvements to the design, data collection, training, governance and user awareness.

Review

In the final step of the STAR Framework, we re-baseline and re-measure to analyse the benefits of the work that’s been done in the previous steps. Out of this, a roadmap and options for continual improvement continue the journey. This may be a simulated, scenario-based step depending on the scale/profile of the organisation or if it is too soon to see a tangible difference. We re-measure the impact of the action taken and review against strategy to identify and reprioritise further use cases for development.

What’s next? Let’s explore it together

If the above has resonated with you or sounds like we can help with your challenges around implementing AI sustainably, please do reach out directly to us. We’d love to discuss your thoughts on the topic, different perspectives from your own experience on what we have discussed, or problems we might be able to help you with.

Look out for more content from the Sustainable AI team within Sopra Steria Next over the coming months!

In Summary

• AI can harm or help the planet, depending on how it’s used.
• Organisations sometimes struggle to measure AI’s impact, but awareness and expectations are growing.
• The STAR Framework offers a clear process to make AI more sustainable.
• Using the right tools and actions, companies can reduce AI’s environmental footprint.

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That question is what originally led to our partnership with CGI to create the Net Zero 50 List, and it’s why I’m excited to be part of the project again this year as we and our new media partner, the Green Business Journal, launch it for the third time.

The Net Zero 50 is more than just a list. It’s a celebration of the people across the UK—often unsung—who are driving the transition to net zero. It’s not about awards for big budgets or flashy campaigns. It’s about recognising individuals who are making a real, measurable difference. From entrepreneurs developing cutting-edge green technologies, to local government leaders embedding sustainability into policy, to passionate campaigners pushing for urgent change—these are the people who are leading rather than sitting back and hoping.

Looking back, the process of putting together the first to lists together has been great fun and very engaging for our community. There’s always this moment, once the nominations start rolling in, when the sheer range of work being done across the UK hits you. Sustainability isn’t a single track. Some people are cutting carbon in supply chains, others are transforming local transport systems, creating regenerative agriculture models, developing AI for energy optimisation, or launching zero-waste startups. 

The Net Zero 50 brings them together in one place—not to compare, but to celebrate the diversity of their contributions and amplify their impact. That one place becomes a literal place when we invite them to the House of Lords for Afternoon Tea to say thank you and to allow them to network face to face and build new networks.

To make the list, each nominee is reviewed against a few simple but important criteria: their demonstrable impact on reducing emissions or supporting the net zero transition, their leadership—whether formal or informal—and their potential to inspire others. We’re not looking for perfection. In fact, what often stands out most are the stories of persistence, collaboration, and creative problem-solving in the face of real-world challenges.

As we call once again for nominations for this year’s list, I want to extend an open invitation. If you know someone doing brilliant work in this space—someone who’s solving problems, building solutions, or even just quietly making their organisation more sustainable—nominate them. Or if that person is you, don’t hesitate to put your name forward. There’s no room for modesty when it comes to climate action. We need bold examples and visible leadership more than ever.

Being included on the list isn’t just a badge of honour; it’s an opportunity to connect with a network of peers who are equally committed, equally curious, and just as determined to make a difference. Past recipients have told us how valuable that recognition was—not just for them, but for their projects and the visibility it brought to their work. And for those of us helping to curate the list, our judges, it’s a window into where innovation is happening, where challenges remain, and where the next breakthroughs might come from.

In the UK,  where the path to net zero can sometimes feel difficult and competing with many other priorities, this list reminds me that people really are the most powerful agents of change. It’s their ideas and their drive that move us forward. So as we begin our search for the 2025 Net Zero 50, I hope you’ll help us find them.

Nominate someone. Tell us their story. Let’s celebrate the people making climate action real, one step—and one list—at a time.

Enter or Nominate

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At IPEC, we’ve long recognised this potential. That’s why we commissioned IPEC Research, a collaboration of leading experts from the University of Birmingham and the University of Manchester, to build a robust evidence base on how innovation procurement can enhance public service delivery while supporting regional development.

As part of this expanding research portfolio, we’re pleased to highlight one particularly timely research brief: “Place-based collaborative opportunities and challenges for public procurement of innovation,” authored by Dr. Fumi Kitagawa of City-REDI, University of Birmingham.

This brief explores how local authorities can use procurement as a strategic lever to address the unique challenges of their communities, especially in times of tight public budgets. Through the lens of the West Midlands Innovation Programme (WMIP) and the Digital Innovation in Public Services (DIPS) initiative, it offers actionable insights on how public procurement can fuel regional transformation.

Key insights from the research include:

• SME empowerment: Innovative procurement models are opening up access for small and medium-sized enterprises, helping them compete for and win public contracts.
• Strategic partnerships: The innovation procurement partnership model shows how public bodies can co-develop solutions with businesses to deliver tangible local benefits.
• Sustainability in action: Green goals are increasingly built into procurement, making public spending a driver of decarbonisation and net-zero progress.
• Inclusive local growth: Procurement aligned with industrial strategies ensures that investment reaches communities that need it most.

This research brief is essential reading for public sector leaders, policymakers, and public sector innovators who want to move beyond cost-driven procurement and toward a model that delivers long-term social and economic value.

Download the full brief to discover how place-based procurement can help unlock innovation and inclusive growth in your region. https://www.ipec.org.uk/publication/place-based-collaborative-opportunities-and-challenges-for-public-procurement-of-innovation/

Unlocking smarter spending: How text mining is transforming public procurement
By Olga Kuzmich, Community Manager at IPEC

Public procurement holds untapped power, not just as a means to deliver services, but as a strategic force for economic resilience, innovation, and climate action. At IPEC, we’re committed to helping public sector leaders harness this potential through hands-on programmes like the IPEC Cohort, knowledge resources, leadership webinars and events, and practical, evidence-based insights.

A core part of this work is helping local authorities build the capabilities and confidence to use data as a tool for better decision-making.

That’s where this timely research brief comes in.

“Extracting Insights from Procurement Data: A Text Mining Approach for Social Housing Retrofits in the West Midlands”
By Annum Rafique (City-REDI, University of Birmingham) and Pei-Yu Yuan (Alliance Manchester Business School) 

This brief is part of our broader mission to build an evidence base through IPEC Research, a collaboration of academic experts from the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester. The aim of this collaboration is to empower public bodies with the tools and knowledge they need to make procurement a catalyst for better public services and sustainable regional growth.

Why this research matters:

Public sector leaders need visibility into how procurement contracts are awarded, who benefits, and whether spending aligns with strategic goals, especially in complex policy areas like housing retrofits and net-zero commitments.

Using 2022 data from the Tussell platform, Annum Rafique and Pei-Yu Yuan deploy a clear, replicable text mining approach to uncover powerful trends:

• Short-Termism in Contracts: Most retrofitting contracts were under one year, undermining the long-term nature of climate-oriented projects.
• Regional Gaps in Supply Chains: A majority of contracts were awarded to suppliers outside the West Midlands, highlighting the need to boost local capacity.
• SME Engagement: Encouragingly, 65% of suppliers were SMEs, suggesting growing opportunities for smaller firms to drive change.
• Underutilised Collaboration: The dominance of single-supplier contracts points to missed chances for multi-partner innovation.

This methodology, designed to be accessible without advanced tech expertise, provides a powerful model for policymakers, housing authorities, and sustainability teams looking to extract actionable insights from procurement data.

What’s next?

The authors lay out exciting directions for future research, from applying AI tools for deeper analysis to mapping supply chains and assessing workforce skills gaps. This sets a clear agenda for local governments aiming to modernise procurement and meet climate goals.

Download the research brief and see how smarter procurement data analysis can help you build greener, fairer, and more effective public services.

https://www.ipec.org.uk/publication/extracting-insights-from-procurement-data/ 

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Tackling climate change creates both threats and opportunities for global economies. As a result, it needs to sit at the heart of the Government’s proposed national upskilling programme to inform a just transition to a net zero economy, so no one is left behind. This means making provisions so people working in sectors that will be negatively affected by a transition to net zero are able to adapt.

To optimise the business opportunities of climate change, organisations need to embrace technological innovation. They must also support their various stakeholders by providing Green Skills and knowledge, empowering them to deliver sustainable outcomes for their business and the planet. This call to action is being championed at COP29 this year by IEMA’s international #GreenSkillsAtCOP campaign, which is urging leaders to prioritise the development of Green Skills across workforces globally to fight the impacts of climate change.

Green Skills are the knowledge and abilities that support sustainable practices, such as energy management, waste reduction, and environmental compliance. They are essential for helping industries meet environmental goals, drive innovation, and adapt to the increasing focus on sustainability. With the growing global emphasis on reducing environmental impact, Green Skills are crucial for both workforce adaptability and future competitiveness.

Before you can fight the impacts of climate change, it’s necessary first to understand why it is happening, what has caused it, and how it impacts each of us in our everyday lives – that connection to each of us individually must be made and understood. Initially, developing a basic level of green knowledge and skills does this. Secondly, you need to carry out a mapping process to establish how this relates to your business, its functions, and the services provided. Your workforce then needs to be empowered and mobilised, so employees understand they are agents of change and can play an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change.

As a recognised leader for climate action, we have proposed five key elements to effectively embed Green Skills and knowledge within your organisation, and to realise the added value they bring to your business and stakeholder communities.

1-Leadership

To fight climate change at an enterprise level, it’s first necessary to build a culture of Climate Leadership which must be led by the C-suite. It must also be underpinned by the building of core Environmental Sustainability / Green skills and knowledge throughout an organisation.

2- Map out the process

Start by mapping specific environmental knowledge and skills (or identifying the skills gap) required to enable the delivery of sustainable outcomes through relevant roles across your organisation. This will make it clear how adopting environmental and sustainability thinking delivers benefits in day-to-day tasks across all functions. Through the scale-up of Green Skills your organisation can realise commercial benefits in the form of improved brand reputation, attracting the best talent, and cost savings as well by winning new business.

3- Tailoring Green skills learning to high environmental impact functions

The mapping process will provide a clear indication of which functions within your organisation generate the greatest environmental impact and where improved skills will lead to meaningful changes. Across all sectors, Scope 3.1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, generated through the purchase of goods and services, typically account for the largest portion of an organisation’s carbon footprint. To meet science-based emission reduction targets, it is imperative that organisations work in collaboration with their supply chain partners to propagate the Green Skills that are essential to make progress in their sustainability journeys. This is achieved through empowering and upskilling Procurement and Supplier Management teams and providing more tailored, specialist guidance to individual suppliers, particularly SMEs.

4- Embedding Green skills and knowledge in business-as-usual

By embedding environmental sustainability knowledge in the regular activities of a business, employees are empowered to add value by making environmentally positive choices in the solutions they design and deliver. Be that through embedding circularity principles throughout a product or service’s life cycle, or by minimising GHG emissions resulting from energy and water hungry digital technologies such as AI. This knowledge will help organisations to reduce the environmental footprint of the services they deliver at an individual contract level. This aligns with the UK Government’s Procurement Policy Note 01/24, which is increasingly being used to place the delivery of sustainable outcomes at the heart of how the government procures contracts.

5- Learning styles

It is important to acknowledge that all individuals do not learn in the same way. Developing Green Skills via different training methods is therefore key. This could include everything from traditional in person workshops, to gamified e-learning options based on nudge theory. Other issues to consider include the length of learning sessions and whether training meets WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility requirements.

The power of Green skills for a sustainable future

In order for a just transition to a net zero economy to take place, it is first necessary to build widespread environmental sustainability knowledge. This key requirement has finally been legitimised by IEMA’s campaign to prioritise the development of Green Skills across workforces globally. Most, if not all, jobs in the future will require some level of environmental awareness and knowledge if organisations are to successfully realise the opportunities that will be created from the transition to a net zero economy.

Developing Green Skills and following the steps outlined in this post will help your business get ahead in its own sustainability journey. The skills will not just help the planet and the economy, but also the organisation as well as on an individual level. Green Skills are not just good for the planet, they are good for business too.

Originally posted here

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Over the past 30 years, digital technology has reshaped industries like logistics, insurance, healthcare, and retail. Instant and unrestricted access to data from diverse sources enables businesses to respond to — and even predict — demand, efficiently guiding the allocation of resources. This dynamic capability, known as decision intelligence, has become essential in a world 

where unpredictability is the new norm. So why has our crucial food supply sector struggled to capitalise on this transformation? Agricultural yields have plateaued since the 1990s, and more farms are going out of business than ever before. In this piece, I will explore both the opportunities for digital adoption in modern agriculture and the barriers that have slowed its progress. 

Lean startup meets lean margins 

Digital Agriculture, Precision Agriculture, or AgTech is often highlighted as a key area where AI can make a positive impact. Yet, despite the excitement, there are few success stories; in fact, there’s a “graveyard” of innovative brands like Hummingbird, Small Robot Company, and MineralAI that, despite clear applications, struggled to secure necessary traction in the sector. The farming sector’s “inertia to change” is often blamed, with farms painted as isolated landscapes, resistant to innovation or fresh ideas. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Consider the challenges farming has weathered: acute labour shortages, soaring input costs, stifling regulation, diminishing subsidies—all while receiving a shrinking share of the retail price of their produce. Farmers are sharp, resourceful businesswomen who must focus on return on investment for any new expense. The real issue is that the sector lacks a fertile ecosystem that would allow new entrants to meet strict cost-benefit targets. Poor rural connectivity forces sensor providers to waste resources on solving communication issues. Additionally, siloed machinery protocols prevent retrofitting and add-on solutions, leading to duplicated costs. If the government truly recognised the lost potential here, prioritising nationalised connectivity and standardised interoperability would be top of the agenda. 

Open agriculture 

Agriculture is one of the few areas where trickle-down economics truly works in practice. Technologies initially developed for plant breeding research transition into horticultural applications and eventually scale into broader arable farming solutions. With each stage, the price point decreases by an order of magnitude, while the market size grows exponentially. This pathway is enabled by the UK’s world-leading research-to-commercialisation framework, supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Innovate UK sector collaborations. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) renewed focus on advancing technology readiness has raised expectations, bringing funded pilots closer to farmers and nearer to commercial viability. This model is envied by many export markets. Recognising the need for specialisation, open innovation has become the dominant approach—particularly for SMEs—allowing competitive scale-ups to partner strategically to tackle larger challenges, minimising the resource duplication that has hampered so many efforts in the past. 

What lies ahead 

Significant distractions persist in the future landscape of our food supply, such as a narrow focus on carbon emissions. A more comprehensive approach would frame this as a broader sustainability challenge, one that integrates ethical, economic, and even nutritional considerations to create a truly improved model. Encouragingly, there is a renewed focus on practical Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments and food sovereignty, creating an active environment to reconnect the public with their food system. The new generation of farmers and agricultural engineers brings a revitalised commitment to sustainable innovation. Combined with the resource-saving precision of advanced artificial intelligence, this focus promises to drive meaningful progress in Digital Agriculture, reshaping the future of our food supply.

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