UK names eight robotics adoption hubs in £40M nationwide rollout
The UK named the eight winners of its £40M robotics hubs programme on October 9, moving robots from labs into hospitals, farms, and recycling plants.
The UK government on October 9 named the eight recipients of its £40 million Robotics Adoption Hubs programme, kicking off a national push to move robotics out of laboratories and into hospitals, farms, and recycling plants. The hubs will offer businesses and public services expert advice, live demonstrations, and connections to suppliers and finance providers.
Agriculture leads the lineup. The HARVEST hub — the Hub for Agri-food Robotics Validation, Engineering and Skills Translation — led by the University of Lincoln, will run a four-year programme with a robotics test track at Riseholme, industry-led Living Labs, and a £1 million Acceleration Fund to help robotics companies clear adoption hurdles. Agri-TechE has joined as a consortium partner.
The first named hub is NORAH, the National Waste and Recycling Robotics Adoption Hub, led by Kingston University with £3.6 million in Innovate UK funding. A consortium spanning the University of Kent, the West London Waste Authority, robotics developers, and waste operators will test multi-arm sorting cells on live waste streams, targeting more than 150 UK recyclers before 2030. Fewer than 5% of the country's waste facilities use automation today, the university says.
Healthcare is covered too: the programme includes a National Surgical Robotic Adoption Hub, where robotics could mean less invasive procedures and faster patient recovery, alongside farm automation such as automated fruit picking. The UK's AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, said the impact would be “quicker recovery for patients, more time for businesses to focus on the work that makes a real difference, and more food on our tables.”
The rollout follows a competition by Innovate UK and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for hub funding earlier this year. The government estimates that maximizing robotics adoption could add £150 billion to the UK economy by 2035. A national coordinating body and training projects to address robotics workforce shortages are part of the package.