Urban Crop Solutions has built the indoor climate precision growth chambers within the Vertical Farming Research Centre at a Singapore University, as part of Singapore’s large-scale investment in controlled indoor farming.
This new installation in a country that prioritises indoor vertical farming as a strategic solution for enhanced food security, has further cemented Urban Crop Solutions’ position as a trusted end-to-end supplier of research centres and plant factories.
Jean-Pierre Coene, CEO at Urban Crop Solutions said, "This installation was a challenge for us because of the many different irrigation options the customer wanted. Both in terms of timing and the way they wanted to do their dosing. But I am proud of the result! We managed to integrate 8 different irrigation possibilities into one module. Both of these FarmLabs are gems within this industry. We can really label these as high technology labs."
New research program
The University has embarked on an extensive research programme to facilitate this aim. After participating in a public tender issued by the university, Urban Crop Solutions (UCS) was selected to build the centre, together with a local general contractor, Alfa Tech.
Equipped with over 5 years of experience from designing and operating their own research centre at their HQ in Belgium, UCS custom designed and commissioned the indoor climate precision growth chambers at the university, where researchers have now started their research programme on leafy greens.
Other ongoing projects
As well as its know-how in indoor biology and plant factory engineering, UCS was chosen for its track record of delivering indoor farming research chambers to institutions like Inagro. Inagro is a renowned horticultural research institute, which will investigate the growth optimisation of lettuce cultivars by applying variable light spectra and nutrient recipes in their research system.
Other parties are PCS, who have chosen a tailor-made UCS plant factory for fine-tuning the growth of ornamental plants, the University of Liège, who are using fully controlled environments to optimise the production of pharmaceutical molecules, and the SpaceBakery research consortium, led by global group Puratos.
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