Top names to judge Farm491 Innovation Competition
A top-level judging panel, including Henry Dimbleby and Baroness Young of Old Scone, has been announced for the Royal Agricultural University’s innovative Farm491 Challenge Prize competition.
The Challenge Prize, a partnership between the Royal Agricultural University’s (RAU) Farm491 innovation hub which is focused on the future of farming and food systems, and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, launched last month and aims to incentivise companies working on products or services which support nature friendly, multi-functional land use.
This year’s Challenge Prize has a theme of Mixed Land Use and is the first of a three-year series which will have a different theme each year. Entries closed at the end of last month and a shortlist of just six have now been selected to go forward to an online pitching workshop which will take place next month.
The judging panel of Henry Dimbleby, Baroness Young, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Funding Manager Will Steadman, and the RAU’s own Professor Tom MacMillan will then decide the overall winner and runner up for this year’s competition at a final pitching day at the Farm491 headquarters in Cirencester on Friday 6 December.
Organiser Verity Payne, Operations and Events Manager at Farm491, said: “We are delighted to have secured such a strong panel to decide the winner of the 2024 Challenge Prize. The calibre of the judges really exemplifies the importance of developing synergies in land use.”
With a £50k prize for the winner and £25k for the runner-up, kindly funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the three-year series of the Farm491 Challenge Prize will enable companies which are developing innovative ways to solve challenges in the natural world to invest in their business and develop their product.
Verity explained: “The back drop to this challenge is the unprecedented pressure in the UK and globally on our land and for it to deliver more than ever before. By incentivising those companies developing products and services which aid multifunctional land uses we hope to help mitigate this resource competition.
“The quality of this years’ entries was extremely high and shortlisting just six to take forward to the final judging was no easy feat!’’
Judge Professor Tom MacMillan, Elizabeth Creak Chair in Rural Policy and Strategy at the RAU, said: “We ask ever more of the land, so making the most of it is crucial. The shortlist spans a huge range of creative and ambitious responses to this challenge, so I’m really excited to meet the entrants and hear their pitches.
“With the Government expected to publish its proposals for a land use framework very soon, this could hardly be more timely.”
Professor Peter McCaffery, Vice-Chancellor of the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), added: ‘“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to help identify and support innovators in developing nature-friendly solutions to multi-functional land use.
“I am sure that our newly appointed Honorary Fellow Henry Dimbleby, and the other distinguished panel members, will look forward to making a difference for tomorrow’s path-breakers.”
Further details, eligibility criteria, terms and conditions and application form can be found here – https://farm491.com/mixed-land-use/