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Business case study

Vertical Future

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Vertical Future

Business context

Vertical Future (“VF”) is a Controlled-Environment-Agriculture (“CEA”) technology and data company that designs, manufactures, and deploys autonomous vertical farms globally. 

These farms serve multiple use cases, from food production to pharmaceuticals, reforestation, and even space exploration.

VF is recognised as a market leader driving positive change and innovation within the food sustainability and climate technology sectors. Its fully integrated model is unique worldwide, with a goal of contributing to healthier people and planet by enabling more efficient crop production. 


Vertical farming is a recent advancement where crops are grown in a controlled indoor environment, altering conditions such as lighting, which in turn, reduces the need for fertiliser and pest control.

 

VF wanted to explore and research the perfect lighting “recipes” which would optimise light conditions and ultimately save money and time, shorten growing cycles, and reduce energy outputs.

Research solution

VF has partnered with Senior Specialist Technician Dr Phillip Davey and Professor Tracy Lawson from the University of Essex’s School of Life Sciences - an expert in plant physiology and Infrared gas exchange - for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by Innovate UK.

As vertical farming is still an emerging industry, there is limited information on it compared to traditional open-field and greenhouse cultivation. While VF has an in-house research team that includes plant scientists, their experimental resources in plant physiology are primarily focused on commercial applications rather than fundamental research.

This collaborative project allows VF to test their hardware and technology developments accessing Essex's Sciences Labs and academic expertise. A KTP Associate has been hired to drive the project, with guidance from the business and academics. They will be analysing data to support the research and development team, implementing results into trials on a range of species for the vertical farm.


Business value

The KTP has the potential to significantly advance lighting technologies within vertical farming.

Within the lifetime of the project itself, Vertical Future has already reaped the rewards of working with the University, achieving tangible outcomes from their collaborative research with Professor Lawson’s groundbreaking STEPS laboratory. These results have been effectively translated into materials for sales and demonstrations. The next step will be packaging these lighting recipes in a commercially viable way, using their proprietary “DIANA” software package.

Currently, there is a very limited in-depth number of systematic studies optimising LED lighting systems for economically relevant crops in vertical farms, so this project offers an innovative contribution to improving operational sustainability and economic feasibility, not only for Vertical Future but for the entire industry.

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