High Growth AI Accelerator Programme (United Kingdom)

Focus Areas

• The opportunity focuses on addressing critical challenges in the agriculture sector with AI solutions that can drive meaningful transformation across the entire value chain. They are seeking proposals that demonstrate technological innovation and practical impact in areas such as precision agriculture, crop and livestock management, sustainable food production, supply chain optimisation, food safety, and climate resilience.

Challenges

• They invite innovators to tackle specific commercial challenges, developed in collaboration with industry leaders. Applicants are encouraged to choose a challenge aligned with their expertise.
  • Biomass condition management challenges
  • Dairy forecasting and optimisation challenges
  • Biodiversity and methane monitoring challenges
  • Livestock management and identification challenges
  • Open industry challenges

Benefits

• Participants will benefit from computational power, strategic guidance, holistic diagnostics, tailored support, and a showcase platform to accelerate the readiness of their AI/ML solutions.
  • Collaborate with Industry Challenge Owners to address prominent challenges in the agriculture sector and benefit from their networks and expertise.
  • Subject to availability and third-party terms, access to computational power provided by the Technology Partners.
  • Diagnostic sessions with experts from the Digital Catapult Team and Industry Challenge Owners to address current AI/ML technological, commercial and strategic needs.
  • Hands-on support to accelerate data and product readiness; and to develop and improve product, technical, business and ethical roadmaps.
  • Group sessions covering diverse topics, including data readiness and maturity, regulatory compliance, and ethical best practices.
  • Exclusive demo day to present your progress to industry representatives and potential customers.

Eligibility Criteria

• The programme is inviting applications from UK-registered startups, scaleups and SMEs that:
  • Have existing or new AI-enabled services or AI-integrated infrastructure solutions that can demonstrate to solve one of the challenges of the call
  • Have strong technical teams
  • Have available data and an immediate need for computation

Selection Criteria 

• Applications will be assessed and scored equally against five criteria. All applications must have an AI/ML use case to take part in the programme but they encourage applications that wish to integrate any other advanced digital technology.
  • Relevance and feasibility – The applicant should demonstrate their solution can tackle the challenge selected and the company has the appropriate technical expertise to deliver the solution.
  • Business strategy – The applicant should be able to articulate the company’s business model that drives their AI/ML solution implementation and commercialisation.
  • Data and code readiness – The applicant should demonstrate that their company has the necessary data ready and has an implementation plan that requires immediate access to computational power.
  • Ethical impact – The applicant should exemplify a responsible use and understanding of the impact of their AI/ML solution, and a strong commitment to ethical AI practices.
  • Growth potential – The applicant should be capable of identifying clear goals and demonstrating their solution has the potential to scale after the programme.

For more information, visit Digital Catapult.