Pulse Brain · Live catalogue

Vitagri Membership · Pulse Brain

Become a Vitagri member.

Free to join — pay only for the data you use.

Membership opens the AI layer on our 17,000+ curated records: search the catalogue by keyword, ask it questions, run claims checks and generate briefs. It is free to join and access is pay-as-you-use — no subscription, no contract, you pay only for the data and tools you actually use. Academic institutions receive a substantial discount based on their application.

Apply to join See Pulse Pods → Run a Pulse Claims Check first →
Free to join Pay-as-you-use — only for the data you use Substantial discount for academic institutions Free during the founding cohort

Why Research Partners exist

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

A literature search returns papers. Pulse Brain returns answers.

A research institute answering a policy consultation, a university faculty briefing a journal review, an individual researcher or small consultancy preparing a sector report — every one of them can already find the underlying papers.

more… The friction is downstream: assembling the right ten records out of 17,000+, 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.

more… 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: a branded Pulse Pod workspace, ranking that matches the partner's research line, brief generation, and a governance audit you can show your board.

17,000+
curated records
40+
Trusted publishers ingested
Weekly
Auto-ingest, manually reviewed
Global
Search · UK & EU focused

What members receive

Three streams. One catalogue.

Membership runs along three parallel routes. Research institutions get a branded Pulse Pod workspace under their subdomain; corporate organisations strengthen their teams with the interactive Pulse Workspace platform and direct strategic support from the Vitagri team; independent researchers and small organisations join or form a pod. Free to join, pay-as-you-use. Vitagri retains the underlying catalogue and the tiering methodology; members own the briefs and any workflow integration.

For institutions · 3 founding slots

Research institutions, university faculties & foundations

  • Branded Pulse Pod workspace under the institution's subdomain or sub-brand
  • Tailored evidence ranking calibrated to the institution's research focus
  • Multi-user pod with role-based access (researchers, leads, communications team)
  • AI-generated briefs from the catalogue, on-demand
  • Co-publication rights on joint outputs (papers, policy submissions, sector reviews)
  • Commercial API access for embedding in institutional systems
  • Embeddable widgets for institutional websites
  • Quality assurance: ingest audits, methodology audits, retraction sweeps
  • Naming on the inaugural Pulse Brain Research Partner masthead
Apply as a research institution →

For corporates · farming, food & retail

Corporate organisations

  • Full access to the world-leading Growing Health evidence database — every claim tier-graded and traceable to source
  • Strengthen your existing teams with the interactive Pulse Workspace platform — one shared evidence lens across buying, technical, sustainability, brand and ESG
  • Board-level strategic vision built on evidence grading — see where the weight of science sits before you commit
  • From strategy, to company objectives, to practical operational tactics — actions grounded in real evidence and credibility, not opinion
  • The depth and experience of the Vitagri team behind you — from the boardroom through to implementation
  • Multi-user pods with role-based access; AI-generated briefs on demand
  • Commercial API access and embeddable widgets for your own systems
Apply as a corporate →

For individuals & small organisations · ~50 founding slots

Independent researchers, freelancers & small consultancies

  • Personal Pulse Pod workspace with themed preferences
  • Option to start a new pod (independent freelance pods welcome) or join an existing pod
  • Tier-graded evidence with personal ranking preferences
  • AI-generated briefs from the catalogue
  • Citation export (APA, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS)
  • Publish discoveries as news or insights to your pod and (optionally) to the wider Vitagri network
  • Credit on co-published outputs you contribute to
  • Founding-member naming in the public Research Partner directory
Join as an individual or pod →

Pods can sit inside one institution, or be formed by independent researchers, freelancers and small organisations sharing a research line. Read more about Pulse Pods →

How the 30-day cohort onboarding works

Three phases. One pod. A joint review at the end.

Cohort onboarding is structured so the partner can confirm continued participation, deeper integration or co-publication at week 4 — with evidence, not a hunch. Free during the founding cohort. No commitment before completion.

Week 1

Onboard

Pod stood up, themed preferences calibrated, three live queries chosen with the partner team.

more…
  • Pulse Pod workspace stood up under the partner's subdomain or as an independent pod
  • Themed preferences calibrated (sector, topic, geography, tier weighting)
  • Pod members onboarded with role-based access
  • Three real queries from the partner team — answered and reviewed jointly

Weeks 2–3

Embed

Pod active in one live workflow. Co-authored mid-cohort digest published under the joint masthead.

more…
  • Pulse Brain wired into one production workflow (e.g. consultation response, sector review, board memo)
  • API or widget embedded in partner intranet or external site
  • Co-authored mid-cohort digest published under joint masthead
  • Governance log opened — every brief auditable to source

Week 4

Evaluate

Joint review against partner-defined goals. Decision on continued participation, deeper integration, or co-publication.

more…
  • Joint review against partner-defined success metrics
  • Governance audit on tier accuracy, retraction handling and provenance
  • Decision on continued participation, deeper integration or co-publication
  • Public co-publication on the cohort'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

Three streams. One membership.

Membership runs along three parallel routes. If you'd benefit from the catalogue but want to start informally, run a free Pulse Claims Check first — it's the natural sandbox before applying.

Stream 01 · 3 founding slots

Research institutions

Universities, research institutes and foundations conducting work on soil health, nutrient density, food systems or human health. Early conversations are underway with several leading UK institutions; 3 will form the inaugural cohort.

more…

ProfileUK university faculty, independent research institute, charitable research foundation, sector research council

Stream 02 · corporates

Corporate organisations

Food, farming and retail businesses that want the weight of independent science behind their strategy and claims. Strengthen existing teams with the interactive Pulse Workspace platform, and draw on the depth of the Vitagri team from board-level vision through to operational tactics.

more…

ProfileFood manufacturer, retailer, farming business, levy body, food-corporate sustainability / technical / buying team

Stream 03 · ~50 founding slots

Individual researchers and small organisations

Independent researchers, consultants, small NGOs, freelance scientists, and like-minded non-competitive groups who want to start or join a Pulse Pod. Pods are not restricted to single organisations — a group of independent freelancers or researchers can form their own pod.

more…

ProfileIndependent researcher, freelance scientist, small consultancy, small NGO, sector specialist

After the founding cohort

Four graduation routes.

Founding cohort onboarding sets the floor. Every Research Partner has four routes to extend the relationship, each independently chosen. Co-publication leads — it's the prize.

01

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. Founding cohort partners help shape what the first joint publication looks like.

02

Deeper integration

Move from pod-only into the partner's intranet, CRM or research workflow. SSO, API webhooks and partner-side authoring tools unlock here.

03

Sector breadth

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

04

New domains

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

Frequently asked

Six questions we get most often.

How do I apply?
Use the application form below or email rob.ward@vitagri.org. Rob Ward responds personally within 48 hours. There are three routes — apply as a research institution, as a corporate organisation, or join as an individual researcher or pod.
What does it cost?
It is free to join. Access is pay-as-you-use — you pay only for the data and AI tools you actually use, with no subscription and no contract. Academic institutions receive a substantial discount based on their application. During the founding cohort, usage is free.
What is a Pulse Pod?
A Pulse Pod is a working group of researchers sharing a curated lens on the Pulse Brain catalogue. Pods can sit inside one institution, or be formed by independent researchers, freelancers and small organisations who share a research line. Each pod has themed preferences calibrated to its research focus, and members publish discoveries as news or insights to the pod and (optionally) to the wider Vitagri network. Read more about Pulse Pods →
When does the founding cohort close?
The founding cohort is forming with Three significant United Kingdom research institutions plus approximately fifty individual researchers, freelancers and small organisations. Conversations are underway with several leading UK institutions; once the 3 institutional anchors have confirmed, those slots close. Individual pod slots remain open across the founding phase.
Where does the underlying research come from?
Refreshed daily. The auto-ingest pulls from PubMed, CrossRef, OpenAlex and Semantic Scholar. A parallel 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.
What happens to retracted papers?
Retraction sweeps run monthly. Any retracted record is flagged in the partner pod within 24 hours of the sweep, with the retraction notice DOI carried as metadata. The catalogue does not silently delete retracted work — provenance is preserved so researchers can see what was retracted and why.

Who owns what

The partner owns the briefs and any workflow integration. Vitagri retains the underlying catalogue and the tiering methodology. Co-publication rights are negotiated per output and credited on both sides.

Apply to join

Three routes. Same email destination.

Pick the route that matches you, and Rob Ward responds personally within 48 hours. Free to join — access is pay-as-you-use. Academic institutions receive a substantial discount based on their application.

Stream 01 · 3 slots Apply as a research institution Stream 02 · corporates Apply as a corporate organisation Stream 03 · ~50 slots Join as an individual researcher or pod

Research institution · Founding cohort

Tell us about your institution

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

The founding cohort is opening now.

Three significant United Kingdom research institutions plus approximately fifty individual researchers, freelancers and small organisations will help shape the first production deployment of Pulse Brain — calibrating the editorial line, the governance audit, the brief-generation patterns and the pod workspace against real workflows. Founding partners get the deepest configuration support and naming on the inaugural co-publication. Free during the founding cohort.

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