Crop IQ Secures Major Innovate UK & Defra Grant to Pioneer the Next Generation of Sustainable Crop Protection

Crop IQ Secures Major Innovate UK & Defra Grant to Pioneer the Next Generation of Sustainable Crop Protection

Crop IQ Technology Ltd — Press Announcement

Port Talbot, UK — Crop IQ Technology Ltd is proud to announce that it has been awarded funding through the Farming Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK in partnership with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). This award marks a major milestone in Crop IQ's mission to close the performance gap between conventional chemical pesticides and sustainable, environmentally responsible alternatives.

A Vote of Confidence in UK Agri-Innovation

Being selected for this competitive, nationally significant programme is a powerful endorsement of the vision Crop IQ has been building towards for years: a future where growers no longer have to choose between protecting their crops and protecting the environment.

The award will support the development of a groundbreaking biopesticide technology designed to deliver a step-change in sustainable pest management — one that is dramatically easier to deploy, far less labour-intensive than existing sustainable solutions on the market today, and engineered to match the reliability and convenience growers currently expect only from conventional chemical treatments.

Why This Matters for UK and Global Farming

For decades, growers have faced a difficult trade-off. Conventional pesticides are effective and easy to apply, but face mounting regulatory restriction and growing pest resistance. Existing “sustainable” alternatives, meanwhile, have often been hampered by complex logistics, intensive manual labour, and inconsistent performance in the field — barriers that have kept adoption low despite clear environmental benefits.

Crop IQ's project is designed to remove that trade-off entirely. Our approach targets:

  • Drastically reduced labour requirements compared to existing sustainable pest-control methods

  • Practical, farm-ready deployment that fits seamlessly into growers' existing operations

  • Performance and reliability that rivals conventional chemical treatments — without the environmental cost

  • A meaningful step toward closing the efficacy gap that has long held back sustainable alternatives in commercial agriculture

This is precisely the kind of innovation the Farming Innovation Programme was created to support: practical, scalable technology that strengthens UK food security, protects biodiversity, and gives growers genuine, commercially viable tools to farm more sustainably.

Backed by a World-Class Consortium

Crop IQ is leading this project alongside a consortium of trusted partners bringing deep scientific, commercial, and agronomic expertise to the table — including leading UK academic research capability and seasoned industry specialists with decades of experience in bringing next-generation crop protection technologies to market. Together, this team is uniquely positioned to take this innovation from concept to commercial reality.

What This Means for Crop IQ's Future

This funding accelerates our roadmap significantly, allowing us to move faster and with greater confidence toward full-scale commercialisation. It strengthens our position as a company at the forefront of sustainable agri-technology, and reinforces our ambition to become a leading global supplier of next-generation, grower-friendly pest management solutions — building on Crop IQ's existing international footprint and distribution relationships.

“This award is a huge validation of what our team has been working to build,” said Dr. Hatem Elmahy, Executive director, Crop IQ Technology Ltd. “It gives us the resources and the runway to bring a genuinely transformative product to UK growers — one that we believe can redefine what sustainable crop protection looks like in practice, not just in principle.”

Watch This Space

We're not ready to share the full technical detail of this project just yet — but we can say this: what we're building has the potential to meaningfully shift the economics and practicality of sustainable farming, for growers in the UK and, ultimately, around the world.

Crop IQ is entering an exciting new chapter. Stay tuned for updates as this project progresses, and follow us to be among the first to hear what's next.

 

Crop IQ Technology Ltd is a UK-based agri-technology company developing next-generation, sustainable crop protection solutions for commercial growers worldwide. To learn more or discuss investment and partnership opportunities, get in touch with our team.