UC ANR Innovate has a new home.
This site brings together everything we do under one roof: The VINE, the Farm Robotics Challenge, The Plant, BioCircular Valley, and the California AgTech Alliance. Five programs, one mission—connecting people, ideas, and resources to move agricultural innovation from research to adoption.
Why now?
Over the past few years, UC ANR Innovate has grown from a handful of pilot projects into a portfolio that spans applied technology development, workforce training, shared infrastructure, and statewide coordination. We've hosted field days where startups demo for growers. We've trained students to build robots that solve real farm problems. We've secured funding to develop pilot-scale facilities where food and biotech companies can test and scale.
But our web presence hadn't kept up. Information was scattered across multiple sites. It was hard to see how the pieces fit together.
This site fixes that.
What you'll find here
Programs: Learn about each initiative—what it does, who it's for, and how to get involved.
Blog: Stories, insights, and updates from across the portfolio. We'll share what we're learning, profile the people doing the work, and keep you informed on what's ahead.
Events: Field days, workshops, competitions, and convenings. Find what's coming up and register to participate.
Contact: Ways to reach us, whether you're a startup looking to connect with growers, a researcher exploring commercialization pathways, or a funder interested in California's agricultural innovation ecosystem.
What's next
2026 is a building year. We're launching the California AgTech Alliance across nine regions. We're moving The Plant from planning into pre-development. We're expanding the Farm Robotics Challenge and continuing to run VINE Connect field days across the state.
We'll be sharing progress here as it happens.
If you want to stay in the loop, subscribe to our newsletter for quarterly updates. And if you have questions or want to connect, reach out—we'd love to hear from you.
Welcome aboard.
—The UC ANR Innovate Team