Lighting Technologies
We investigate how LED technologies, light spectra, intensities, photoperiods and light distribution influence plant growth, morphology, yield and quality.
We design and build much of our lighting hardware in-house, giving us direct control over the LEDs, electrical architecture, optical configuration and control strategy. Working from first principles helps us understand exactly how light is produced, distributed and regulated, while allowing experimental systems to be adapted to specific research questions rather than being constrained by commercial fixtures.
Climate & Microclimate Control
We investigate how temperature, humidity, CO₂ and airflow shape the environment experienced by the crop. Precise environmental control allows us to reproduce and compare growing conditions, study interactions within the crop microclimate, and create climates for crops that would otherwise be difficult to cultivate in the Netherlands.
Rather than treating climate as a fixed background condition, we use it as an experimental variable. Independent control of growing environments allows plant responses to be studied across contrasting conditions and provides the environmental resolution needed for larger multivariable experiments.
Crop Physiology & Stress
We study how plants respond to controlled environments and how those responses translate into growth, morphology and productivity. A particular interest is the role of controlled stress in indoor cultivation.
Indoor systems are commonly designed to minimise stress, yet plants evolved under variable environments. Carefully controlled stress can alter development and the production of quality-related compounds. We want to understand when stress is detrimental, when it can be used deliberately, and how those responses depend on the wider growing environment.
Crop Quality & Postharvest
Crop performance does not end at harvest. We investigate how cultivation conditions influence characteristics that determine the usefulness and value of the harvested product, including its physical, sensory and nutritional quality.
A particular focus is the connection between growth strategy and postharvest behaviour. Shelf life and quality loss after harvest can partly be determined by conditions experienced while the crop is still growing. Controlled environments therefore provide an opportunity to optimise not only production, but the properties of the final product itself.
Resource-Efficient Crop Production
We study crop production as a balance between biological performance and the resources required to achieve it. Growth time, yield, product quality, energy, water and nutrients can all affect which cultivation strategy is preferable, making the optimum much broader than simply maximising biomass.
Our flexible facility also allows us to work across crops with very different requirements. Species already grown include lettuce, radish, shiso, mustard greens, pea shoots and green beans. This diversity helps us investigate both crop-specific strategies and principles that may generalise across controlled-environment production.
Experimental Automation & Optimisation
Controlled cultivation is a high-dimensional optimisation problem: light, temperature, humidity, CO₂, airflow, irrigation and other conditions interact, while a single crop cycle can take weeks. Exploring this space sequentially is therefore extremely slow. We are developing many independently controlled microenvironments so that contrasting cultivation states can be investigated in parallel.
Our longer-term aim is to combine automated control, sensing and imaging with AI-assisted experimental design and crop management. Building this infrastructure is necessary to make fuller use of modern AI in CEA by generating rich data across the cultivation state space, allowing algorithms to select informative experiments and progressively optimise crop performance and resource use.
