Sector leading 5G Smart innovation launches in Plumpton College’s centenary year.
Plumpton College are delighted to have been awarded a £300,000 grant from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to lead a ground-breaking 5G Smart project as part of the Growing Sussex 5G Innovation Region initiative led by West Sussex County Council.
The revolutionary project will change practices in sustainable food and drink productivity and will see new technology installed on Plumpton’s South Downs campus across their productive horticulture glasshouses and newly planted 10-hectare Plumpton Estate Centenary Smart Vineyard.
Principal & CEO Jeremy Kerswell commented: “We are delighted to be leading this pioneering 5G project, made possible through the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology’s investment. As we enter our Centenary Year, it’s a privilege to use cutting-edge technology to inform the future of sustainable food and drink production, both here at Plumpton and across the wider land-based industries we serve. This project is not only about transforming viticulture and horticulture education and practice through data-driven insight, but also about developing a highly qualified, digitally skilled workforce. By embedding advanced technologies like 5G into our curriculum and operations, we are ensuring our students gain the future-proofed skills that industry needs, and helping to drive demand for innovative connectivity solutions in real-world settings.”
Home to the UK’s centre of excellence in wine education, training and research, this revolutionary agri-tech solution will transform the production and yield of the new Plumpton Estate Centenary Smart Vineyard, due to be planted through 2025 – 2027 by VineWorks. During this time, pioneering data into environmental and plant monitoring will be recorded proving beneficial for educators, learners and the industry at large.
As a key collaborator within the UK wine industry and horticulture sector, Plumpton College is well positioned to fully realise the experimental value of this new Smart technology across their viticulture and wine making practices. All findings will be published and available to the industry as a whole, ensuring growth, sustainability and profitability for all stakeholders in UK food and drink production.
Sam Linter, Director of Wine at Plumpton College commented: “By putting education at the centre of our approach we are ensuring that our growers’ workforce is digitally skilled and equipped to use modern technology in their workplace – be it field, farm or vineyard – and generating a cyclical demand within the sectors to invest in it. By training digitally skilled analysts and data managers, we expect to support local job creation in our food and drink sectors and open up employment opportunities to students and workers who might otherwise not consider horticulture, agriculture or viticulture as a career choice for them.
Cool-climate wines are still not as productive as other wine growing regions, and we hope that our research and data insights out of the Centenary Smart Vineyard will help find real solutions and growth for the industry.”
The benefits of this revolutionary project look fruitful for all; research gained will ensure that Plumpton’s wine experts and students can act upon and learn from real-time data – helping to optimise the teaching, management and yield of the Centenary Smart Vineyard whilst staying at the cutting-edge of viticulture education and wine production.
As Steve Waight, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member with responsibility for Digital Infrastructure highlighted – by fully embracing this 5G Smart tech, Plumpton College position themselves at the forefront of innovation in the UK wine industry and as a key player in delivering the government’s Food Strategy objectives: “Our wider county of Sussex presents fertile ground for growers and education centres to adopt foundational technologies in the sustainable intensification of food and drink products, helping to deliver the government’s Food Strategy objectives.”
For information about studying viticulture and wine-making at Plumpton College, book on to one of their upcoming open mornings
or find out more about their courses visit www.plumpton.ac.uk or email wine@plumpton.ac.uk
