Oxford University and Rothamsted Research spin-out, SugaROx has secured funding from Innovate UK to launch a Large R&D Partnership to accelerate the development and commercialization of its first biostimulant to improve the productivity of wheat production in the UK.

Since launching 3.5 years ago, SugaROx has developed its T6P biostimulant product and conducted wheat trials to evaluate its performance in the UK, Canada, the U.S., Germany and India.

“Our field results show that under good growing conditions, our T6P Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has the potential to boost wheat yields by 5%-22%. Even under drought stress, we’ve seen yield benefits ranging from 4%-14%,” stated the company.

“Our work suggests differences in response depending on environmental conditions and wheat varieties, so as a science-based venture we felt a need to explore GxExM (genotype x environment x management) interactions,” explains Dr. Cara Griffiths, CTO and venture co-founder. “In the new project we will collaborate with plant scientists from Rothamsted to screen mapped wheat genotypes from pre-breeding populations for T6P response and identify markers to predict performance in commercial varieties.”

ADAS, the UK’s largest independent provider of agricultural and environmental consultancy, will facilitate trials on commercial farms.

“Through an 18-month FIP Feasibility Study completed in March 2023 ADAS and us identified generic barriers for the adoption of biostimulants in the UK,” says Bianca Forte, business development director. “In our new project, ADAS will be coordinating in-depth surveys and consultations with a range of stakeholders including farmers, agronomists and food companies to ensure we address questions and accelerate end-user adoption.”

SugaROx develops single-molecule formulations whose active ingredients are inspired by natural molecules that stimulate carbon use and allocation in plants. The company’s flagship active ingredient is a proprietary version of trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P), which has shown potential to increase wheat yields.

“Our goal is to deploy these products in key markets through a B2B model, partnering with established input distributors who can help validate and scale our products globally. The first product that we will launch is a T6P biostimulant for wheat – we will target the UK and EU markets to start with. Then, we will launch T6P biostimulants for soybean and maize in key markets like the U.S. and Brazil,” the company told New AG International.