Jacob Nickles moved to the UK in 2017, with a vested interest in hospitality and management. After working in various management positions for Mitchells and Butlers for two years, Jacob moved to Sheffield to begin his own business, and has been running and growing The Red Deer public house in the city centre since 2011.
In 2015 Jacob collaborated with Prof. Duncan Cameron on a project looking into the omics of beer and related products, resulting in the recruitment and funding of a PhD student and Jacob’s subsequent industrial supervision of said student.
Jacob was approached by The University of Sheffield in 2016 to act as Project Manager on an agricultural technology feasibility study in Oman. The resultant work from Jacob and his colleagues produced a successful grant application with the British Council, building an institutional link with Sohar University and securing £397,000 to build and demonstrate agricultural technologies including but not limited to green house evaporative cooling, salt water desalination, hydroponic and aquaponic agri-systems, soilless growth media, integrated pest management and controlled growing for sensitive crops.
In 2018 Jacob was brought in to work on aquaponic systems in Kathmandu on a GCRF quick spend grant, with a view for further development and dissemination of agricultural systems and technology planned in conjunction with DFID Nepal. Recently, he has been project lead on an internally funded urban farm and training facility in Sheffield city centre, whereby hydroponics and controlled growing environments are built incorporating low technology, off-the-shelf equipment and used as demonstrators for local unemployed and low skilled workers.
Contact Information
Email: j.nickles@sheffield.ac.uk