A panel of judges has been announced for the Royal Agricultural University's Farm491Challenge Prize competition.

The competition, which began last month, is a collaboration between the university's Farm491 innovation hub and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

It aims to motivate businesses to develop products or services that support eco-friendly, multi-functional land use.

This year's competition, with the theme Mixed Land Use, is the first of a three-year series.

The six shortlisted entries, selected from a high standard of applicants, will advance to an online pitching workshop next month.

Judges Henry Dimbleby, Baroness Young, Esmée Fairbairn, Foundation funding manager Will Steadman, and the RAU's own Professor Tom MacMillan will decide the overall winner and runner-up on Friday, December 6, at the Farm491 headquarters in Cirencester.

Verity Payne, operations and events manager at Farm491, said: "We are delighted to have secured such a strong panel to decide the winner of the 2024 Challenge Prize.

"The calibre of the judges really exemplifies the importance of developing synergies in land use."

The competition offers a £50,000 prize to the winner and £25,000 to the runner-up, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

This prize money will enable businesses developing innovative solutions to challenges in the natural world to invest in their operations and advance their products.

Verity Payne said: "The backdrop to this challenge is the unprecedented pressure in the UK and globally on our land and for it to deliver more than ever before.

"By incentivising those companies to develop products and services which aid multifunctional land uses, we hope to help mitigate this resource competition.

"The quality of this year’s entries was extremely high and shortlisting just six to take forward to the final judging was no easy feat."

Professor Tom MacMillan, a judge and the RAU's Elizabeth Creak Chair in Rural Policy and Strategy said: "We ask ever more of the land, so making the most of it is crucial.

"The shortlist spans a huge range of creative and ambitious responses to this challenge, so I’m really excited to meet the entrants and hear their pitches."

Professor Peter McCaffery, vice-chancellor of the Royal Agricultural University, said: "We are delighted to be working in partnership with Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to help identify and support innovators in developing nature-friendly solutions to multi-functional land use.

"I am sure that our newly appointed Honorary Fellow Henry Dimbleby, and the other distinguished panel members, will look forward to making a difference for tomorrow’s path-breakers."