M-PACE: Establishing an Urban PACE towards Cultivating Healthy Diets for All Communities

Context & Challenge:

Crop sensing and machine learning (ML) will be merged with social science research. Delivering a new class of production-scale PACE process development and crop phenotyping technology, whilst engaging with communities to understand the range of future PACE produce needs, helping shape the technologies to meet those requirements and alleviate any concerns arising. The project will be based around two complimentary venues. Perfectly Fresh's established 1,000m2 production PACE unit, at Alderley Edge, and the Renold Building, at the heart of ID-Manchester's (IDM) redevelopment of the 73,000m2 brownfield site adjacent to the main city station.

Technology Aims & Objectives (centred at Perfectly Fresh)

The bioscience and engineering research will address how commercial grade PACE farming can utilise synchronous above crop and below ground imaging, sensing and automation to enable produce to be delivered, in a commercially viable manner, whilst also yielding phenotypic data to optimising crop recipes and, ultimately, breeding for genetic improvement. Through applying minor perturbations to the inputs and monitoring the 'ripple-effects' via multivariate closed-loop sensing systems, the research will show how future PACE production could rapidly sense, select and promote crop breeding lines for novel nutritional, ripening, handling or flavour traits, and so meet supply-chain demands.

Social Science Aims & Objectives (centred at IDM)

By virtue of the city centre location, in close proximity to a large number of low-income communities and neighbouring affluent urban households & commuters, the Renold Building is strategically positioned within an ethnically & socially diverse catchment zone, with a broad range of nutritional needs & challenges. The research will seek to understand what communities would want from PACE produce and the breadth of suppliers that the sector could service, from retailers through to restaurants. Identifying those healthy specialty or exotic crops, which are currently prohibitively expensive to source locally or where the organoleptic traits of the current UK supply are unappealing. Working with local CICs, Cracking Good Food & Community Concern, and the SMEs, Farm-Urban & Plantaigo, this research strand will seek not only to define what those crops may be but to guide the resulting PACE processes and supply-chains to deliver them in a range of ways that service the varying needs of community groups. Based around a mini-PACE unit in IDM, akin to the full-scale demonstrator in Perfectly Fresh, the project will create a hub for sharing culinary knowledge, investigating societal drivers & barriers for adopting PACE farming and catalysing new research.

Potential Applications and Beneficiaries:

Spin-out benefits are anticipated around local employment and upskilling opportunities within the infrastructure as well as a pipeline of novel crop varieties designed for PACE growing and with a proven potential market. The project is timely, coming at the dawn of the IDM redevelopment and, forming a high-profile centrepiece, alongside co-located catering facilities, to draw in future applied research & business. Especially with the neighbouring National Centre for Advanced Material, e.g., for smart soils and conformal LED polymers, the Turing Hub, for incubating regional biotech, digital, materials and health related companies, and Octopus Energy's adjacent smart-grid demonstrator.

The project has been aligned to PhenomUK and UKUAT and they will act as independent consulting and sector-specific outreach partners. The prominent IDM PACE showcase will also pave the way for extension of the community engagement concepts, especially with IDM's strategic city partners across the UK.