Research areas

We will create a UQ-wide research network for advanced primary production, focusing on protected cropping. We will also invest in a research translation facility embedded within a commercial environment to undertake a multi-crop trial to deliver opportunities for research and development that supports the adoption of protected cropping in Australia.

We will partner with industry to develop and enhance primary production capability by research collaborations that use our plant growth infrastructure and plant propagation, with involvement from research staff and trainee researchers. A strong component will be skills and training imparted in growing crops under controlled environment conditions.

Academic leads

• Professor Victor Galea
• Professor Neena Mitter

We offer applied training and education courses in manufacturing technology, protected horticulture and agriculture.

These add capability to business and workers to create change and meet the modernised opportunities of the current and future industry market.

Academic leads

• Associate Professor Nidhi Bansal
• Mr Dane Ivicevic

We will pilot new technologies that allow agri-food enterprises to rapidly transition into high-value supply chains. 

We will build a series of agriculture and food supply chain digital twins to:

• study bottlenecks
• simulate conditions
• experiment yield optimisation, traceability and waste reduction
• test strategies for effective data collection (such as sensors, drones, IoT) and analytics (such as edge computing).

Academic leads

• Professor Ben Hayes
• Professor Ryan Ko
• Dr Adam Komarek

Industry representatives

• Ms Jana Cameron
• Dr Georgina Davis
• Mr Thomas Hall
• Dr Diana Saunders