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

M-PACE：建立城市 PACE，为所有社区培养健康饮食

• 批准号: BB/Z514408/1
• 负责人: Bruce Grieve
• 金额: $ 96.74万
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FZ514408%2F1
• 关键词: PACE; Establishing; Urban; towards; Cultivating

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.

背景与挑战：作物传感和机器学习（ML）将与社会科学研究相结合。提供一种新的生产规模的PACE工艺开发和作物表型技术，同时与社区合作，了解未来PACE产品的需求范围，帮助制定技术以满足这些要求，并减轻出现的任何问题。该项目将以两个免费场地为基础。perfect Fresh在Alderley Edge建立了1000平方米的PACE生产单元，以及位于ID-Manchester （IDM）重建中心的Renold大楼，该地块毗邻主要城市车站，面积为73,000平方米。生物科学和工程研究将解决商业级PACE农业如何利用作物上和地下同步成像、传感和自动化，以商业上可行的方式交付农产品，同时也产生表型数据，以优化作物配方，并最终进行遗传改良育种。通过对输入施加微小扰动，并通过多变量闭环传感系统监测“涟漪效应”，该研究将展示未来PACE生产如何快速感知、选择和促进作物育种品系，以获得新的营养、成熟、处理或风味特征，从而满足供应链需求。凭借城市中心的位置，靠近大量低收入社区和邻近富裕的城市家庭和通勤者，Renold大楼战略性地定位于种族和社会多样化的汇水区，具有广泛的营养需求和挑战。这项研究将试图了解社区对PACE产品的需求，以及该部门可以服务的供应商范围，从零售商到餐馆。识别那些健康的特产或外来作物，这些作物目前在当地采购成本过高，或者目前英国供应的感官特征不吸引人。与当地的CICs、Cracking Good Food & Community Concern、中小企业、Farm-Urban & Plantaigo合作，这一研究链将不仅寻求定义这些作物是什么，而且指导由此产生的PACE流程和供应链，以一系列方式提供这些作物，以满足社区群体的不同需求。该项目以IDM中的一个迷你PACE单元为基础，类似于“完美新鲜”中的全尺寸演示器，将创建一个共享烹饪知识的中心，调查采用PACE农业的社会驱动因素和障碍，并促进新的研究。潜在应用和受益者：预计衍生效益将围绕当地就业和基础设施内的技能提升机会，以及为PACE种植设计的新型作物品种管道，并具有已证实的潜在市场。该项目是及时的，在IDM重建的黎明到来，形成一个引人注目的中心，与同一地点的餐饮设施一起，吸引未来的应用研究和商业。特别是与邻近的国家先进材料中心，例如智能土壤和保形LED聚合物，图灵中心，用于孵化区域生物技术，数字，材料和健康相关公司，以及章鱼能源邻近的智能电网示范。该项目已与PhenomUK和UKUAT保持一致，他们将作为独立咨询和特定部门的外展合作伙伴。突出的IDM PACE展示也将为社区参与概念的扩展铺平道路，特别是与IDM在英国的战略城市合作伙伴。