From satellite to soil: connecting environmental observation to agri-tech innovations

Sir Martin has pioneered rapid-response, low-cost and highly-capable small satellites utilising modern consumer electronics to ‘change the economics of space’ and establish the UK at the forefront of this new field. SSTL has built and launched 47 small satellites and is currently building the 22 satellite navigation payloads for the European Galileo constellation. Sir Martin also leads researchers at the Surrey Space Centre investigating advanced small satellite concepts and techniques, which acts as the research laboratory for SSTL – an exemplar of real academic-commercial synergy. Sir Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and received the prestigious von Karman Wings Award from CalTech/NASA-JPL. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey, a member of the UK Space Agency Leadership Council and, in 2014, was identified by The Sunday Times as one of the UK’s 20 most influential engineers.

Barbara J. Ryan is Secretariat Director of the intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) located in Geneva, Switzerland. In this capacity, she leads the Secretariat in coordinating the activities of 101 Member States and the European Commission and 95 Participating Organizations that are integrating Earth observations so that informed decisions can be made across eight Societal Benefit Areas, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability, Disaster Resilience, Energy and Mineral Resources Management, Food Security, Infrastructure & Transportation Management, Public Health Surveillance, Sustainable Urban Development and Water Resources Management.

Before becoming GEO Director in July 2012, Ryan served as Director of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Space Programme with responsibility for coordinating space-based observations to meet the needs of WMO Members in the topical areas of weather, water, climate and related natural disasters.

Before joining WMO in October 2008, she was the Associate Director for Geography at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Virginia where she had responsibility for the Landsat, remote sensing, geography and civilian mapping programs of the agency. It was under her leadership that implementation of the Landsat data policy was reformed to release all data over the internet at no additional cost to the user -- an action that has resulted in the global release of more than 25 million Landsat scenes to date, and significant economic returns globally.

Ryan holds a Bachelor´s degree in Geology from the State University of New York at Cortland, a Master´s degree in Geography from the University of Denver, and a Master´s degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate of science degree from the State University of New York at Cortland.

Stuart was appointed CEO of the Satellite Applications Catapult in January 2013. Prior to this, he was a partner at Logica (now CGI), where he was responsible for the worldwide space business. He also held the position of Vice Chair of UK Space, was a member of the council of Eurospace, as well as being chair of UK judges for the annual European Satellite Navigation Competition.

In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Institute of Physics.

Keith Norman graduated from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne specialising in crop production and plant science. Since then, Keith followed a career in practical farm management for 6 years. Keith then changed to a more technically based role as Technical Director, supporting Velcourt's team of 45 farm managers in crop production technology and managing Velcourt’s in-house research and development activity in 1989.  Velcourt currently manage 53,000has in the UK.

Keith has worked on various overseas projects in Spain, France, Germany and Zambia and has been actively involved in Velcourt’s recent activities in Russia and the Ukraine. 

Velcourt’s R&D is primarily to provide its team of 46 farm managers with  independent technical information from which they can make cost effective decisions to optimise yield and profit. In addition Velcourt are partners in many, collaborative projects funded by the UK Government’s Innovate UK fund.  Velcourt R&D also work with all the major Agrochemical manufacturers, providing independent evaluation of new and existing active ingredients.

Andrew Richards has over 30 years’ experience in agronomy at Agrii, however, he spends roughly 40% of this time on business development and technical innovation within Agrii.

Mr Richards graduated from Queen Elizabeth College, University of London (now part of Kings College London) with a BSc in Biology, followed by a Postgraduate Diploma in Crop Protection from Harper Adams Agricultural College. 

Mr Richards has been a member of the Agrii technical team for 20 years and currently sits on the Agrii Research and Development Strategy Board. The board was established five years ago to provide a coherent approach to our own research and development programmes, and to create a vehicle to enable better links with Agrii and science in the UK and beyond. The board has recently overseen the rebuilding of Agrii’s research farm at Throws in Essex, and the establishment of regional research centres with a £6 million investment.  Mr. Richards was instrumental in the establishment of the Agrii demonstration farms (I farms), of which there are now more than 25 around the UK. In recent years he has created a partnership of companies working on the Best of British Wheat project looking to close the yield gap with the genetic potential (this harvest Agrii achieved a new world record of  16.52T/ha at one of their agronomised farms). Six years ago Mr Richards persuaded the board to make significant investment in precision farming. Agrii now has a Decision Support Division employing more than 30 people, with its parent company continuing to invest heavily in this area. Mr. Richards has been given the lead responsibility in Agrii engaging with the informatics hub and creating a lead with a potential crop hub. With University of Nottingham and RAGT he was the initiator of the team that secured one of the first Agrii tech catalyst projects.

Sergio graduated in 2012 with Master’s Degree from University of Cranfield in Geographical Information Management and from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), in Agronomic Engineering specialized in “Crop Protection and Improvement”. He had the opportunity to work as an intern in the ‘Centre for Biotechnology and Plant Genomics’ (CBGP) as a laboratory assistant. 

In 2013 finished his training at ESRI Spain deepening in the understanding and management of GIS software, SQL Server, Python and C# programming for geoprocessing workflows, web development or data publishing.

Recently finished working for Cranfield University within the ‘AgriFood Remote Sensing Systems’ project as KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) Associate, based at G’s Growers Ltd to develop and implement remote sensing technology using multi-spectral imagery and evaluating different systems on salad and vegetable crop farms. 

Currently working at G’s Growers as a Remote Sensing Technologist.

David is the CEO of Innovation for Agriculture and the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Innovation for Agriculture is a new initiative which brings together a group of Agricultural Societies to promote the emerging technologies that will shape agriculture over the coming decades. 

Previously David enjoyed a long career with The Co-operative Farms who he joined as a graduate after studying at Seale Hayne. During his time with The Co-operative farms David held a number of Senior positions including Head of Fruit Operations and Manager of Stoughton Estate in Leicestershire. He has considerable experience in the combinable, dairy and fruit sectors. 

In 2010 he completed a Nuffield study on ‘New Science and Pioneer Technologies to transform UK agriculture’ which took him to leading research facilities in the USA, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. The study developed a particular interest in genetics and automation.  

Vincent Gillingham is the founding director of AgSpace Agriculture Ltd. Prior to setting up AgSpace in 2013, he founded and developed the largest independent precision farming business in the UK (IPF UK). Accessing new satellite technologies and developing them into researched commercially beneficial products is central to his responsibility. Vincent developed a unique satellite processing technique for precision soil mapping - soil brightness imaging - this technology has reduced the cost to thousands of European, African and Chinese farmers making precision agriculture more affordable. Vincent is currently developing new products for the agricultural market using synthetic aperture radar (SAR). 

Roelof Kramer is an executive in agribusiness with specialization in arable crops. His experience spans over 20 years of building businesses and providing services to customers worldwide. His great passion is the transition of extensive to intensive crop production systems in developing countries and the sustainable intensification of agriculture in the developed world.

In March 2015 he joined Rezatec Ltd a company specialized in analyzing earth data. As Head of Agriculture he is responsible for developing new products and services that optimize the efficiency of crop production systems.

From 2007 to 2015 he ran the consulting firm Rectory Farmhouse providing business consulting services. Based on extensive knowledge of crop value chains, he created in 2013 a UK based consortium with British Sugar and Rezatec to develop a crop growth measurement system for the optimization of sugar beet yields. The consortium received a TSB grant to do a feasibility study. 

Roelof previously worked for Advanta Seeds, Novartis Agro and Syngenta Crop Protection in strategic and commercial roles where he gained a deep understanding of agricultural input markets.

Roelof speaks English, German, Russian and Dutch. He holds a masters degree from the Agricultural University Wageningen and received an MBA from Nijenrode University, both in the Netherlands.

Simon Griffin is Technical Manager at SOYL. During his time over the last 20 years SOYL have become market leaders in UK precision farming. They pioneered use of GPS and spatial data in crop management in the 1990s, initially providing soil nutrient mapping and GPS controlled fertiliser application services. SOYL then developed the SOYLSense Nitrogen service using satellite imagery to help manage crops and improve yields. Further innovations include the mapping of soil physical properties using electrical conductivity and its use in a number of applications such as SOYLSeed variable rate drilling. More recent developments include GPS controlled variable depth cultivation, variable rate growth regulators and the use of drones. SOYL are currently focusing on the Big Data area of farming. Bringing together information on soil, crop growth and weather and linking them to yields and crop quality will add value to existing information and help improve management decisions and yields by understanding more complex relationships in the soil-root-plant-weather environment.

Dr Iain Cameron is a Senior Remote Sensing and GIS Consultant for Environment Systems Limited, with over ten years of working with EO (earth observation) data for agricultural and environmental applications. He received a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, on using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for wind resource assessment, followed by post-doctoral research using EO for mapping ecosystems.

Iain is an experienced EO scientist with a deep understanding in all aspects of calibration, processing and analysis of spatial and remotely sensed data. In his role with Environment Systems, he leads a team delivering expertise in processing and analysing optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data, as well as drone data.

Iain has been the Project Manager for Project URSULA, a recently successfully completed 5 year research and development programme which explored the potential for developing agricultural solutions from drone data.

Iain has been involved in several projects for the UK Space Agency including one to develop an operational service, using SAR data, for routine monitoring of land management in the upland areas of the UK, and recently, one with the Satellite Applications Catapult to “Improve Food Security and Agriculture Competitiveness in Peru” a project to show the potential use of satellite technology to aid improved management of agricultural land, particularly in applications such as crop yield, disease and pest control, nutrient and input management, soil management, and reduced environmental impacts. 

Simon Blackmore is a key figure in the development of Precision Farming and agricultural robotics, with a world-wide reputation. He worked for 12 years in Africa and Europe before starting his academic career. Simon is currently Professor and Head of Engineering at Harper Adams University, Director of the National Centre for Precision Farming and running the European FutureFarm project. Simon has extensive experience of multidisciplinary collaboration across universities, commercial partnerships and research projects, including design, building and running of laboratories and workshops. He holds seven Chairs around the world and lectures on topics including Precision Farming, biosystems instrumentation, mechatronics and Systems Analysis. Simon leads the research in the UK on agricultural robotics. His personal research focuses on improving Precision Farming by developing more intelligent machines and processes, and making crop production more efficient and sustainable.

Jim Godfrey is a director of the family arable and pig farming business in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. He is Chairman of: the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Commercial Farmers’ Group and the Technology Strategy Board’s Innovate UK Sustainable Agriculture and Food Innovation Platform.  He is a member of the UK Government’s Agri-Food Technology Council, and a steering group member of Farming Futures, a Trustee of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), a director of the Lincolnshire Rural Support Network (LRSN) and a Vice President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE).  His awards include: OBE for services to agricultural research, the World Potato Congress Industry Award, Honorary Doctor of Science from Reading University, a special British Potato Council Award and the RASE National Agricultural Award.  He is a Fellow of both the Institute of Directors and the Royal Agricultural Societies.

Dr Iain Cameron is a Senior Remote Sensing and GIS Consultant for Environment Systems Limited, with over ten years of working with EO (earth observation) data for agricultural and environmental applications. He received a doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, on using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for wind resource assessment, followed by post-doctoral research using EO for mapping ecosystems.

Iain is an experienced EO scientist with a deep understanding in all aspects of calibration, processing and analysis of spatial and remotely sensed data. In his role with Environment Systems, he leads a team delivering expertise in processing and analysing optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data, as well as drone data.
Iain has been the Project Manager for Project URSULA, a recently successfully completed 5 year research and development programme which explored the potential for developing agricultural solutions from drone data.

Iain has been involved in several projects for the UK Space Agency including one to develop an operational service, using SAR data, for routine monitoring of land management in the upland areas of the UK, and recently, one with the Satellite Applications Catapult to “Improve Food Security and Agriculture Competitiveness in Peru” a project to show the potential use of satellite technology to aid improved management of agricultural land, particularly in applications such as crop yield, disease and pest control, nutrient and input management, soil management, and reduced environmental impacts.

Andy has 20 years’ experience in the satellite Earth observation business operating at the interface between government, academia and industry. Much of Andy’s current work is focused on the AgriTech sector. He is currently advising Defra’s newly formed EO Centre of Excellence on EO applications and leading on external liaison activities. He is also supporting the £24m STFC UK-China AgriTech programme focusing on strategic programme development. Andy acted as advisor to two AgriTech Centres of Excellence (AgriMetrics and CHaP) and was previously a Director at the NERC National Centre for Earth Observation. This experience is complemented by 10 years’ satellite industry consulting work and places Andy in a unique position to comment on the challenges of connecting technology to end users.

Sir Martin has pioneered rapid-response, low-cost and highly-capable small satellites utilising modern consumer electronics to ‘change the economics of space’ and establish the UK at the forefront of this new field. SSTL has built and launched 47 small satellites and is currently building the 22 satellite navigation payloads for the European Galileo constellation. Sir Martin also leads researchers at the Surrey Space Centre investigating advanced small satellite concepts and techniques, which acts as the research laboratory for SSTL – an exemplar of real academic-commercial synergy. Sir Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and received the prestigious von Karman Wings Award from CalTech/NASA-JPL. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Surrey, a member of the UK Space Agency Leadership Council and, in 2014, was identified by The Sunday Times as one of the UK’s 20 most influential engineers.