Pulse Brain · Live catalogue

Research Partner Programme · Cohort 01

Become a Research Partner.

From practical actions to deep science, Pulse Brain is the only way to access the latest and most comprehensive evidence on what the farming and food industry can do to enhance human health. More than 4,000 peer-reviewed and institutional records on soil health, farming systems, nutrient density and human health — scored, tiered and citation-ready. The Research Partner programme makes Pulse Brain the evidence infrastructure beneath your services. See example reports generated by Pulse Brain →

The Research Partner programme is free. No cost. No commitment before pilot completion.

Apply for the pilot See a Pulse Brain answer
4,000+ peer-reviewed records 4 tiers evidence grading Weekly ingest cycle 30 days pilot

Why Research Partners exist

The bottleneck isn't knowledge.
It's the time it takes to assemble it.

Reply windows are hours, not days. Research workflows are still measured in weeks.

A trade body answering a parliamentary question, a retailer briefing a buyer team, a foundation sense-checking a grant narrative — every one of them can already find the underlying papers. The friction is downstream: assembling the right ten records out of four thousand, validating the methodology, citing it cleanly, flagging what is and isn't UK-applicable, and getting it to a reader before the moment passes.

Pulse Brain shrinks that path. Every record is read, tagged and tier-graded once, by Vitagri's research team, so the partner can compose answers in minutes instead of days. The Research Partner programme adds the layer on top: branded portal, ranking that matches the partner's editorial line, brief generation, and a governance audit you can show your board.

4,000+
Records in the catalogue
40+
Trusted publishers ingested
24 hr
Refresh cycle · Daily
Global
Search · UK & EU focused

What a Research Partner receives

Everything in the public catalogue, plus the partner-only layer.

The free catalogue stays free, forever. The Research Partner layer is the configuration, governance and commercial scaffolding around it. Both the public catalogue and the Research Partner programme are free.

Capability Public catalogueFree, forever Research PartnerConfigured for your workflow
Browse the catalogue Included Included
Tier-graded records (T1–T4) Included Included
Open search & UK-applicability filter Included Included
Citation export (APA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS) Included Included
Branded partner portal — Included
Tailored evidence ranking (editorial weighting) — Included
AI-generated briefs (on-demand composition) — Included
Co-publication rights on partner-led outputs — Included
Commercial API access Academic only Included
Embeddable widgets for partner sites — Included
Monthly retraction sweeps with partner alert Public sweep only Included
Quality Assurance (uptime, ingest, methodology audit) — Included

How the 30-day pilot works

Three phases. One workflow. A decision paper at the end.

The pilot is structured so the partner can say yes, no or extend at week 4 — with evidence, not a hunch. The pilot is free. No commitment before completion.

Week 1

Onboard

Ten partner users, three live queries.

  • Branded portal stood up under partner subdomain
  • Editorial ranking calibrated to partner's house line
  • Ten named users onboarded with role-based access
  • Three real queries from the partner team — answered and reviewed jointly

Weeks 2–3

Embed

Configure into one live workflow. Co-authored digest.

  • Pulse Brain wired into one production workflow (e.g. levy-payer briefs, buyer pack, board memo)
  • API or widget embedded in partner intranet or external site
  • Co-authored mid-pilot digest published under joint masthead
  • Governance log opened — every brief auditable to source

Week 4

Evaluate

Joint review. Governance audit. Decision paper.

  • Joint review against partner-defined success metrics
  • Governance audit on tier accuracy, retraction handling and provenance
  • Decision paper for partner board: extend, scale, integrate or close
  • Public co-publication on the pilot's findings (optional)

What a Pulse Brain answer looks like

Every claim carries its own evidence.

Tier badge, citation hairline, confidence statement, UK note, Pulse Score and an actions row — composed from the catalogue at query time.

Result card pulse-brain · result · ID 02841
T1Strongest

Cover-cropped soils raise crop polyphenol concentration by a median 27% versus conventional rotation, measured across 14 UK and EU sites.

Hartley et al. (2024). Soil management and crop polyphenol density: a systematic review. Field Crops Research, 312. doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2024.109284

Confidence: 14 trials, n = 2,138, I² = 22% — heterogeneity low, effect direction consistent across all sites.

UK applicability 7 of 14 sites in UK temperate-maritime conditions. Effect size in UK subset (n = 1,047) within 4% of pooled estimate. Directly applicable to UK levy-payer briefings.
Open Cite Add to brief Export RIS
87
Pulse Score HI confidence

T1 — Strongest

Systematic reviews, meta-analyses

T2 — Strong

RCTs, large cohort studies

T3 — Indicative

Observational, single-site

T4 — Emerging

Preprints, grey literature

Who qualifies

Five kinds of organisation get the most from day one.

If your team writes briefings, answers consultations, commissions research or feeds buyer decisions, the pilot pays back inside the 30 days.

Type 01

Trade body or levy organisation

Producing levy-payer briefings, parliamentary submissions and consultation responses on tight reply windows.

ProfileUK levy body, sector council or producer association

Type 02

Major retailer

Briefing buyer teams on supplier sustainability claims, nutrition narratives and category-level evidence reviews.

ProfileTop-five UK grocer or category-leading specialist

Type 03

Food corporate

Substantiating product claims, briefing R&D pipelines and answering investor or regulator questions on evidence at scale.

ProfileBranded food, ingredients, supplements or nutrition

Type 04

R&D commissioning body

Mapping the evidence landscape before issuing calls, sense-checking grant narratives and avoiding duplicate funding.

ProfileResearch council, foundation programme, government commissioner

Type 05

NGO or foundation

Anchoring campaign messaging, policy submissions and partnership proposals in tier-graded evidence rather than asserted claims.

ProfileEnvironment, food-systems, public-health or rural foundation

Beyond the pilot

A pilot that graduates, not one that ends.

The 30 days set the floor. Every Research Partner has four routes to extend, each one independently priced and independently chosen.

01

Sector breadth

Add adjacent verticals — soil to nutrition to public health — without re-tendering. New tiers feed straight into the existing portal and ranking.

02

Deeper integration

Move from portal-only into intranet, CRM or commissioning systems. SSO, API webhooks and partner-side authoring tools unlock here.

03

New domains

Commission new evidence streams under the same tiering and governance — animal health, water, biodiversity, climate adaptation. Co-funded ingest pipelines.

04

Co-publication

Publish jointly under the partner masthead — annual evidence reviews, policy submissions, sector white papers. The catalogue powers the words; the partner owns the brand.

Frequently asked

Ten questions we get most often.

What is a Pulse Brain Research Partner?
A Research Partner is an institution that takes the curated Pulse Brain evidence catalogue — currently 4,000+ tier-graded records linking soil health, nutrient density and human wellbeing — and configures it for their own workflow. Partners get a branded portal, tailored evidence ranking, AI-generated briefs, co-publication rights, commercial API access and embeddable widgets. The 30-day pilot is the on-ramp.
Who can become a founding Research Partner?
The founding cohort is opening to ten institutions — trade bodies, levy organisations, major retailers, food corporates, R&D commissioning bodies, NGOs and foundations. Founding partners help shape the configuration, pricing and governance of the programme and feed into a co-authored governance review at week 4.
How long is the pilot and what does it cost?
The pilot runs for 30 days across three compressed phases — Onboard (week 1), Embed (weeks 2–3), Evaluate (week 4). The pilot is free and there is no commitment before completion. Founding cohort partners help shape the configuration, governance and any future pricing of the programme.
What does Pulse Brain do that a literature search does not?
A literature search returns papers. Pulse Brain returns answers. Every record carries an evidence tier, a UK-applicability note and a Pulse Score, and the partner-facing layer composes those records into a briefing on demand. Reply windows shrink from days to hours because the assembly, validation and citation work is already done.
How is the evidence tiered?
Tier 1 (Lime Bright) is the strongest evidence — systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Tier 2 (Vitagri Teal) covers individual RCTs and large cohort studies. Tier 3 (Warm Amber) covers observational and single-site studies. Tier 4 (Stone Grey) covers preprints and grey literature. Every record on every page shows its tier so readers can weight the claim.
Where does the underlying research come from?
Automated daily ingest pulls from PubMed, CrossRef, OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar. A separate ingest crawls 40+ trusted publishers including Defra, FAO, IPES-Food, Soil Association, Rothamsted, James Hutton and NIAB. Every new record is manually reviewed before it goes live.
Who owns the briefs the partner generates?
The partner owns the briefs and the workflow integration. Vitagri retains the underlying catalogue and the tiering methodology. Co-publication rights are negotiated per output and credited on both sides.
Will the catalogue keep growing during the pilot?
Yes. Daily ingest continues throughout the pilot at no cost to the partner. Retraction sweeps run monthly and any retracted record is flagged in the partner portal within 24 hours of the sweep.
Can a Research Partner request UK-specific filters?
Yes. Every record carries a UK-applicability score and the partner portal can be filtered to UK-relevant evidence only, or weighted to surface UK studies first while keeping international evidence one click away. Most levy and trade-body partners use both modes — UK-only for levy-payer briefs, weighted for horizon-scanning.
How do I apply?
Use the form below or email rob@vitagri.org. Rob Ward responds personally within 48 hours. Ten partner slots are available in the first cohort.

Apply for the pilot

Ten slots. Cohort one.

Tell us about your team and the workflow you want Pulse Brain to power. Rob Ward responds personally within 48 hours. Joining as a Research Partner is free.

Research Partner · Cohort 01

Tell us about your team

Rob Ward responds personally within 48 hours.
Or email Rob directly
Founding cohort · Opening

The founding cohort is opening now.

Ten institutions will help shape the first production deployment of Pulse Brain — calibrating the editorial line, the governance audit, the brief-generation patterns and the partner portal against real workflows. Founding partners get the strongest pricing, the deepest configuration support and naming on the inaugural co-publication.

Join cohort 01

The evidence base on soil health and nutrient density is large, fast-moving and uneven. What partners need is the answer in front of them, with the workings shown — and the option to dig deeper when they want to. That's the test for the founding cohort.

Pulse Brain Research Partner programme · 2026