📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
What does the future of food production look like in the North? From lab-based breakthroughs to field level technologies, Greater Manchester is home to a growing wave of agricultural biotech and agtech pioneers redefining how we grow, manage and distribute food.
This event brings together 4 companies leading that transformation: Bright Biotech, Gennate, Mushroom+, and SporeSense. These innovators are harnessing biology, data, and engineering in a variety of different ways to tackle challenges around food security, sustainability, and productivity. Through short showcases and discussion, we will explore how cutting-edge science is translated into scalable ventures and how regional partnerships are accelerating progress.
Whether you are a researcher, entrepreneur, grower, agronomist or policymaker, join us to connect with the innovators shaping Northern agricultural biotech and discover how collaboration across the ecosystem can unlock a more resilient, sustainable food future .
Community Partners: Nucleate and Silicon Mingle
Sponsored by Innovator International
Powered by Advanced Research + Invention Agency
Step into a space where every conversation could spark something new. Enjoy music, refreshments, and a lively atmosphere designed to bring people together, whether you’re exchanging ideas, discovering collaborators, or simply sharing a laugh. This is the perfect moment to unwind, connect, and let serendipity guide your evening.
Running a business can be very lonely, and getting advice and support can feel like drawing blood from a stone. The hardest calls, like fundraising, hiring, and go-to-market, all tend to land on one desk.
Silicon Sessions Roundtable is a focused, supportive, problem-solving session where three founders get the opportunity to bring a real, live challenge to an audience of fellow founders, operators, and experts from across the AgTech ecosystem, and receive honest, actionable feedback.
Hosted by Lewis Sayes from Silicon Mingle Manchester, Silicon Sessions proves that, in Manchester, you don’t have to build a business on your own.
Introduction from Venture Café.
Nucleate is a leading ARIA activation partner for life sciences and health innovation. Focused on empowering founders and emerging companies, Nucleate provides access to resources, networks and expertise to accelerate early-stage growth. Their platform connects entrepreneurs with investors, corporates, and research institutions, supporting the translation of scientific breakthroughs into impactful solutions across health, longevity, and biotech sectors.
This fast-paced pitch showcase highlights pioneering startups transforming the future of agriculture, food production and biotechnology. From breakthrough innovations in plant science and precision agriculture to sustainable food systems and data-driven farming, presenters will share how they are tackling challenges around food security, productivity and environmental sustainability. Discover how these emerging ventures are translating cutting-edge research into scalable solutions and helping shape a more resilient future for agriculture.
🚜 SporeSense is developing AI biosensors that detect crop diseases early, enabling smarter fungicide timing, reducing inputs and supporting scalable, sustainable precision agriculture.
🍄 mushroom+ is a deep-tech platform transforming mushrooms into high-protein, climate-positive food, boosting protein content and nutritional density without changing the farm or food system.
🌱 Gennate “Generate Nature”, is an innovative nano-tech company founded to produce high-performance nanomaterials using a cost-effective proprietary process to enable a wider range of applications, particularly crop fertilization, farming sustainability and enhancement of agriculture.
🌿 Bright Biotech is a Manchester-based company developing a new generation of protein manufacturing using plant chloroplast engineering. The company produces high-value recombinant proteins, starting with growth factors for regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy, and tissue engineering applications.
Northern AgTech is home to world class research, pioneering startups and bold ideas, but what does it take to turn innovation into lasting impact? Following the Pitch Showcase, we'll be joined by the featured founders to deep dive into the opportunities and challenges shaping the ecosystem, from funding and commercialisation to university support and scaling. You'll leave with practical insights into the future of AgTech, the barriers to growth and the collaborations needed to accelerate the North's green bioeconomy.
This session is for start-ups, grassroots organisations, councillors, and anyone else working to get more plants into people's diets, fashion choices, and lives. The focus will be on the Greater Manchester conurbation but anyone is welcome!
What happens in the room?
Take part in a facilitated discussion exploring one simple but important question: How can we get more plants into people's lives?
Together, the group will work through a series of connected questions, considering not only the opportunities to increase the role of plants in everyday life, but also the barriers that need to be overcome. The conversation will build organically, drawing on the diverse perspectives and experiences around the table.
A facilitator will capture the key themes and reflections throughout the discussion, sharing them at the end of the session to identify common priorities, highlight emerging ideas, and uncover opportunities for future collaboration.
What will guests walk away with?
A new perspective and some new contacts to get things happening.
📍 Venue: SISTER – Renold Building, 32a Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JR
What does the future of food production look like in the North? From lab-based breakthroughs to field level technologies, Greater Manchester is home to a growing wave of agricultural biotech and agtech pioneers redefining how we grow, manage and distribute food.
This event brings together 4 companies leading that transformation: Bright Biotech, Gennate, Mushroom+, and SporeSense. These innovators are harnessing biology, data, and engineering in a variety of different ways to tackle challenges around food security, sustainability, and productivity. Through short showcases and discussion, we will explore how cutting-edge science is translated into scalable ventures and how regional partnerships are accelerating progress.
Whether you are a researcher, entrepreneur, grower, agronomist or policymaker, join us to connect with the innovators shaping Northern agricultural biotech and discover how collaboration across the ecosystem can unlock a more resilient, sustainable food future .
Community Partners: Nucleate and Silicon Mingle
Sponsored by Innovator International
Powered by Advanced Research + Invention Agency
Step into a space where every conversation could spark something new. Enjoy music, refreshments, and a lively atmosphere designed to bring people together, whether you’re exchanging ideas, discovering collaborators, or simply sharing a laugh. This is the perfect moment to unwind, connect, and let serendipity guide your evening.
Running a business can be very lonely, and getting advice and support can feel like drawing blood from a stone. The hardest calls, like fundraising, hiring, and go-to-market, all tend to land on one desk.
Silicon Sessions Roundtable is a focused, supportive, problem-solving session where three founders get the opportunity to bring a real, live challenge to an audience of fellow founders, operators, and experts from across the AgTech ecosystem, and receive honest, actionable feedback.
Hosted by Lewis Sayes from Silicon Mingle Manchester, Silicon Sessions proves that, in Manchester, you don’t have to build a business on your own.
Introduction from Venture Café.
Nucleate is a leading ARIA activation partner for life sciences and health innovation. Focused on empowering founders and emerging companies, Nucleate provides access to resources, networks and expertise to accelerate early-stage growth. Their platform connects entrepreneurs with investors, corporates, and research institutions, supporting the translation of scientific breakthroughs into impactful solutions across health, longevity, and biotech sectors.
This fast-paced pitch showcase highlights pioneering startups transforming the future of agriculture, food production and biotechnology. From breakthrough innovations in plant science and precision agriculture to sustainable food systems and data-driven farming, presenters will share how they are tackling challenges around food security, productivity and environmental sustainability. Discover how these emerging ventures are translating cutting-edge research into scalable solutions and helping shape a more resilient future for agriculture.
🚜 SporeSense is developing AI biosensors that detect crop diseases early, enabling smarter fungicide timing, reducing inputs and supporting scalable, sustainable precision agriculture.
🍄 mushroom+ is a deep-tech platform transforming mushrooms into high-protein, climate-positive food, boosting protein content and nutritional density without changing the farm or food system.
🌱 Gennate “Generate Nature”, is an innovative nano-tech company founded to produce high-performance nanomaterials using a cost-effective proprietary process to enable a wider range of applications, particularly crop fertilization, farming sustainability and enhancement of agriculture.
🌿 Bright Biotech is a Manchester-based company developing a new generation of protein manufacturing using plant chloroplast engineering. The company produces high-value recombinant proteins, starting with growth factors for regenerative medicine, cell and gene therapy, and tissue engineering applications.
Northern AgTech is home to world class research, pioneering startups and bold ideas, but what does it take to turn innovation into lasting impact? Following the Pitch Showcase, we'll be joined by the featured founders to deep dive into the opportunities and challenges shaping the ecosystem, from funding and commercialisation to university support and scaling. You'll leave with practical insights into the future of AgTech, the barriers to growth and the collaborations needed to accelerate the North's green bioeconomy.
This session is for start-ups, grassroots organisations, councillors, and anyone else working to get more plants into people's diets, fashion choices, and lives. The focus will be on the Greater Manchester conurbation but anyone is welcome!
What happens in the room?
Take part in a facilitated discussion exploring one simple but important question: How can we get more plants into people's lives?
Together, the group will work through a series of connected questions, considering not only the opportunities to increase the role of plants in everyday life, but also the barriers that need to be overcome. The conversation will build organically, drawing on the diverse perspectives and experiences around the table.
A facilitator will capture the key themes and reflections throughout the discussion, sharing them at the end of the session to identify common priorities, highlight emerging ideas, and uncover opportunities for future collaboration.
What will guests walk away with?
A new perspective and some new contacts to get things happening.