CHAP’s Advanced Glasshouse Facility, at Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC), can host testing for a range of products including small harvest robots, innovative heating and greenhouse operating systems, LED lighting, and furniture solutions for the next generation of energy efficient glasshouses. It also enables testing of the latest plant protection products and biopesticides.
What makes the Advanced Glasshouse Facility valuable to product innovators is that it is a fully flexible controlled environment glasshouse that can provide reliable trial conditions that can be accurately replicated. With no permanent furniture or fixings, its open span design is customisable: ideal for exploring new technologies such as harvesting solutions or disease detection systems.
Imitating real-life commercial facilities currently being used across the UK, the site provides growers with the reassurance that innovators are developing relevant solutions that will meet their needs, now and in the future.
The Advanced Glasshouse is part CHAP’s suite of state-of-the-art facilities. CHAP Commercial Director, Linsey Cresswell, said: “STC has a long-term history of developing innovation in horticulture and protected cultivation, making it the ideal place to showcase UK entrepreneurship.
“This facility isn’t just for the testing of plant protection products or novel biopesticides, it’s also ideal for hosting technology developers such as robotics. The glasshouse is flexible, which means we can offer a solution for all parties.
“For those who do want to test plant protection products, we can also offer a suite of 60 custom-designed deep-water hydroponic units. This enables product development and evaluation through to ecotoxicology and other registration studies.
“And because this is on a commercial-scale, it’s ideally positioned to provide robust supporting evidence for product registration applications.”
For information about CHAP’s wider work within protected cropping, go to our CEA page.
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