Students who won Farm Urban's Future Food Challenge pitch their idea to scientists and business leaders at The Heath

Science students from a Liverpool secondary school met and engaged with some of the region's leading scientists during a visit to The Heath Business and Technical Park.

Around a dozen pupils from St Hilda’s Church of England High School were invited to The Heath after winning the 2022 Future Food Challenge in which Year 9 students from ten schools across Liverpool City Region competed in an eco-enterprise competition. The Future Food Challenge is run by Farm Urban, a business set up in Liverpool in 2013 to find healthier and more sustainable solutions to produce food.

Farm Urban challenged teams of students to design and build their own vertical farming system in the classroom, supported by an interactive digital platform. The contest culminates in a final celebratory event where the winning team exhibit their prototype systems and present their business ideas in a Dragon’s Den style pitch.

The students produced a project that included:
• A prototype, functioning aquaponics system
• Vision, mission and identity statements with supporting graphics
• A business model canvas including a finance plan
• Market research
• Data analysis
• A marketing campaign plan
• A presentation
• A competition display board demonstrating their team’s journey
The St Hilda’s students gave their ‘Dragon’s Den’ style presentation to The Heath Business and Technical Park owner John Lewis MBE DL and representatives of two of the Park’s innovative science businesses, Richard Young and Mike Trevitt from Actylis and Don Wellings from SpheriTech. They also toured the laboratories of both companies to see the cutting-edge research and development taking place and visited The Heath’s Café where one of Farm Urban’s Edible Walls is located.

The visit to The Heath was coordinated by Farm Urban’s Routes and Shoots team, Tim Wright (Head of Education Programmes) and Abi Blackburn (Head of Schools Programmes).
Routes and Shoots are learning, outreach and engagement programmes which Farm Urban provide for Primary and Secondary Schools and community organisations and includes an online platform.

About The Heath
The Heath Business and Technical Park is a phenomenal regeneration success story. Formed in 2000, its owner and operator, SOG Ltd, has transformed a once single occupancy corporate facility into a thriving independent business park. The Heath now provides office and laboratory accommodation for more than 120 individual organisations, ranging from business services and IT specialists to those at the cutting edge of science, research and advanced manufacturing. Around 2,000 people are employed at the site. For further information, telephone 01928 515988 or visit www.theheath.com

For more information, please see:
www.theheath.com

PAUL SMITH ASSOCIATES
15th February 2023