Market Opportunity Validation and Business Plan Development for horticulture research LED solution - HORTILED

Project Information

HORTILED

Grant agreement ID: 728982

DOI

10.3030/728982

Project closed

EC signature date 15 June 2016

Start date 1 July 2016

End date 31 December 2016

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

UAB ENERGENAS
Lithuania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HORTILED (Market Opportunity Validation and Business Plan Development for horticulture research LED solution - HORTILED)

Reporting period: 2016-07-01 to 2016-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Global food system will experience a food security crisis over the next 40 years. Global food production will need to increase by 70% to feed the planet. LEDs have tremendous potential to increase plant and food production, Determining how wavelengths, light level, position and time influence each single plant at the same given moment, can increase yields, quality of products and give better control of plant growth, however, such research in Europe is limited to only several research labs.

To address the problem, Energenas has launched a novel solution – HORTILED, the most flexible and versatile integrated system of light emitting diodes for plant growth research in controlled environments, and offer any researcher the ability to test plant growth and collect data, specifying the ideal growing conditions for plants.

HORTILED is currently at TRL6. The next step is moving on to TRL7 – system prototype demonstration in operational environment. For this reason horticulture research market was needed.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The objectives of Phase I project for HORTILED was to validate a novel high-efficient solution for plant growth research in operational environment and to develop a feasibility study of HORTILED.

First stage was to perform a market research for restaurants and horticulture research market & User needs identification. Global restaurant market research has revealed that Hortiled is not suitable for restaurants and does not match the current needs of the users thus it has been decided that currently the restaurant market will not be entered. Despite, the global horticulture research market analysis has revealed that Hortiled has a market demand among research institutes. Nevertheless, the product should be redesign and developed further in order match the current needs of research institutes. Therefore, redesign is recommended before commercializing in the horticulture researcher market.

Second stage was attending relevant scientific conferences. Energenas has attended five local and global scientific conferences in order to promote the product, create demand for it and get potential customers’ feedback - 8th International Symposium on Light in Horticulture, International Conference on the Scientific Actualities and Innovations in Horticulture (SAIH2016), International Scientific conference The Vital Nature Sign, GreenTech 2016 Amsterdam, III International Conference on Horticulture in Europe. The main results of this activity were more than thirty new contacts and Hortiled prototype promotion.

Lastly, a business plan was developed, including an elaborate business model, pricing, and marketing strategy, taking into account all information provided from previous two stages in addition to ongoing research and develpoment of the solution.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The tasks performed during the SME-instrument Phase 1 project showed that Hortiled LED lighting for plant growth research can be commercialized profitably. Since there is only one competitor and Hortiled has numerous advantages comparing to existing solution the commercialization of Hortiled is crucial.

Fully commercialised Hortiled solution will enable horticulture research labs as well as individual researchers to perform various experiments that will eventually lead to increasde yields, better quality of products, increase efficiency and control of plant growth. This in turn will help to address foreseen food shortage and access problem, and pave way for new and more innovative understanding and culture of growing food.

Hortiled Brochure for Horticulture Research Market