Excellence in Specialty Crops

The Excellence in Specialty Crops award honors teams whose projects show outstanding potential to advance specialty crop production through cutting-edge automation, precision agriculture, AI, and innovative on-farm technology. This category highlights solutions that address the unique challenges of high-value fruit, vegetable, and nut crops—with a focus on real-world impact, food safety, sustainability, and industry adoption.

Projects will be evaluated on their effectiveness in addressing specialty crop issues, their relevance and value to growers, and the likelihood that the technology will be adopted in the industry. Successful teams will demonstrate a measurable impact and provide clear evidence of grower outreach or validation.

$5,000 cash prize for DI

$2,500 cash prize for DII

$1,000 cash prize for DIII

Cash prizes are funded through UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR). Sponsor contributions have been transferred to UC ANR, which will distribute awards directly.

Prizes will be issued as checks made payable to the winning institution (or its representative foundation) and sent to the team’s faculty or staff advisor. Awards are provided in the form of a gift, giving faculty/staff advisors flexibility in how the funds are used to support their teams.

Payment Process:

To receive an award payment, each Farm Robotics Challenge award recipient must complete UC Agriculture and Natural Resources’ payee-registration process through PaymentWorks. PaymentWorks is the secure system UC ANR uses to collect and verify the information needed to issue payments.

After awards are announced, eligible recipients will receive instructions for completing PaymentWorks registration. Award payments can only be issued after all required onboarding information and documentation have been submitted and approved.

For team awards, payment may be made to the team’s school, college, university, nonprofit organization, fiscal sponsor, or another approved payee, rather than directly to an individual student or team member. Recipients should work with their institution’s appropriate business or finance office as needed.

The Farm Robotics Challenge (FRC) staff will guide each winning team through this process to ensure timely distribution.

Once paperwork is submitted, please allow up to two months for the award check to be received by the designated team contact.