Open innovation workshops
Half-day sessions where short technical presentations lead to structured discussion about shared problems such as soil health, water use and crop protection.
Events
Workshops, site visits and partner meetings that bring UK and Chinese agricultural innovators into the same room.
Formats we use
Each event is built around a practical question that growers, researchers and companies on both sides want answered.
Farm and facility visits
Guided visits to trial sites and research facilities, allowing delegates to see how a technology performs under local field conditions.
Partner roundtables
Small, closed meetings for universities, businesses and public bodies that are exploring a joint project and need to define its scope.
Briefings for new members
Introductory sessions that explain how the network works, how projects are proposed and how new organisations can take part.
Built around the field
Most events take place where the work happens. A workshop may begin with a presentation from a research team and end with a walk through the plots it describes. We believe that agreement between UK and Chinese partners is easier to reach when everyone has seen the same crop, the same soil and the same results.
From first meeting to project
An event is the start of a process, not the end of one. Ideas raised in discussion are recorded, checked against existing research and, where there is a clear partner, taken forward as a proposal. Our team keeps participants informed at each stage.
How an event is run
Before the event
Agree the question
Organisers confirm the problem to be discussed and invite speakers whose work bears directly on it.
During the event
Present, visit, discuss
Presentations are kept short so that most of the time is given to questions, site visits and exchange.
After the event
Record and follow up
A summary is shared with everyone who attended, and any proposals that emerge are reviewed with the partners involved.
Who attends
Participants include agronomists, plant breeders, engineers, agri-food businesses, university researchers and officials responsible for agricultural policy. Events are open to members of the network and, where places allow, to invited guests from related organisations.
Events are planned in partnership with universities, research institutes and businesses in the UK and China, and every session is designed to lead to practical collaboration on agriculture.