Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Innovate UK Business Connect, and partners invite innovative solutions that leverage Earth Observation (EO) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable scalable, cost-effective Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of nature-based carbon and biodiversity projects. We are looking for approaches that improve data quality, reduce uncertainty, ease the burden of manual surveys, and support the validation of carbon and nature credits. The goal is to develop commercially viable tools that help investors, regulators, and project developers make trusted, evidence-based decisions. Consequently, these solutions will support sustainable finance, credit validation, and automated compliance across environmental markets.
Defra’s EO team, in collaboration with Innovate UK Business Connect, Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC), Growth Studio, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Telespazio will be hosting a three-day in-person Build and Pitch sprint event taking place at Cloth Hall Court, University of Leeds (13-15 Jan 2026). This will be followed by a 6-week incubation period. These activities form part of the GeoAI Festival, a series of activities bringing together innovators, businesses, academics, end users, and public bodies to explore and advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in geospatial applications using EO data.
Participants will be challenged to combine EO data, both public and commercial, with other datasets and apply AI tools to develop concepts for innovative, commercially viable, products. Teams will be expected to develop novel products with a clear customer in mind while ensuring they aren’t reinventing the wheel. Solutions must be cloud-native and software-only.
All selected teams will have the opportunity to showcase their prototypes at Space Comm Europe, 4-5 March 2026 in London.
This opportunity page invites applicants to develop solutions in response to targeted challenge statements under the theme “Nature-based market initiatives” focusing on how EO and AI can improve sustainable finance, carbon and biodiversity monitoring, and scalable monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV). See below for a full list of challenge statements: proposed solutions must align with at least one of these.
Two further challenge areas are available: “Next-Gen Spatial Planning: GeoAI Solutions for Land, Ocean, and Climate and “Harnessing GeoAI for a Resilient and Sustainable Agri-Food System”. You are welcome to apply to multiple challenge areas.
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This opportunity is open to innovators who want to use earth observation and geospatial data in combination with artificial intelligence to produce innovative prototypes. This includes innovators, start-ups, SMEs, large organisations, universities, Research Technology Organisations (RTOs), and end users.
Government participants are welcome as mentors or facilitators, but not as competing teams.
Collaborative proposals are welcome, and collaborations may also be formed during the sprint event.
All participating organisations must be UK-registered entities. International collaborations are permitted where the main applicant is a UK-based entity.
We are particularly keen to receive applications from SMEs that already have a product and want to use the 6-week programme to undertake experimental development, de-risk the testing of a new product line, explore access to new markets, develop new business models, or add new services to an existing product.
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Nature-based solutions are central to climate and biodiversity strategies, yet their market growth is constrained by challenges in verification, transparency, and trust. EO data, alongside other technologies including AI, can help overcome these barriers by enabling continuous, scalable, and reproducible monitoring of land use, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity and environmental impact indicators. As financial institutions increasingly seek credible data to support green investments, there is a growing need for tools that link ecological performance to financial risk and opportunity. With global policy shifts and tightening Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) regulations, robust, tech-enabled MRV systems are needed to ensure nature-based solutions deliver measurable, lasting benefits.
Some intended outcomes include:
- Improved trust in carbon and nature data.
- Enhanced transparency for investors.
- Accelerated adoption of MRV systems.
This challenge will also support policy alignment with ESG goals.
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We invite solutions that bring clear relevance and practical value to the achievement of Nature based market initiatives: Using EO and AI to underpin the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of carbon and biodiversity projects through sustainable finance frameworks. Solutions to the below challenge statements can be applicable across a range of financial, regulatory, and environmental contexts, enhancing resilience and supporting decision-making, compliance, and risk reduction.
Specific challenge areas:
- How to measure changes in outcome at the project level with enough accuracy and transparency to support reliable carbon or nature/biodiversity credit issuance? i.e. helping to increase confidence on whether one carbon credit truly represents one tonne of CO2 removed by tracking changes in biomass or soil carbon over time. This is especially relevant for projects involving forests, peatlands, or other carbon rich ecosystems and requires the combination of EO data with ground truth measurements.
- How to improve soil-carbon monitoring, reduce nationwide monitoring costs, and provide more frequent, verified, updates between field surveys.
- How to support low-cost, project-level, carbon auditing and verification by accurately tracking changes in carbon stocks and woodland establishment with sufficient transparency to underpin carbon credit schemes? When integrated with ground truth data, EO can reduce uncertainty, improve traceability, and support funding and monitoring decisions, especially for small or resource-constrained projects.
- How to detect and validate soil-carbon accumulation over time, particularly in regenerative agriculture systems?
- How to support MRV under the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code by integrating ground truth data, tracking carbon stock changes, and clearly communicating uncertainty, while meeting the accuracy and transparency standards required for credit validation?
- How to enable the aggregation of smaller-scale Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) improvements into saleable units, unlocking new mechanisms to monetise nature recovery efforts and support agricultural transitions?
There are also a number of cross-cutting challenge areas to consider:
- How to combine EO data with other data types?
- How to make product interfaces accessible to the desired market while avoiding jargon?
- How to suitably present uncertainty to provide trusted outputs?
- How to demonstrate the product has a good return on investment?
- If it is a novel product, how would you validate demand?
- How to utilise AI tools to reduce workflows?
- Where can EO reduce the need for manual surveys while maintaining accuracy?
- How to enable end-users with limited EO skills and tools to use outputs effectively?
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Successful teams will be invited to participate in the GeoAI Build and Pitch programme, taking place between January and March 2026.
The GeoAI Build and Pitch programme offers a unique opportunity to collaborate directly with Defra, AWS, SAC, Growth Studio, Telespazio, Space Comm and other leading organisations. Participants will receive expert mentorship, access to rich EO datasets, and cloud computing credits to accelerate product development. All participating teams will have the opportunity to showcase their prototypes at Space Comm Europe, with the top 5 teams invited to pitch at the Downstream Theatre during the event.
All selected teams will:
- Receive expert mentorship from leading organisations including Defra, AWS, SAC, Growth Studio, Innovate UK Business Connect (IUKBC), Space Comm and others.
- Receive access to credits for cloud computing services for the duration of the GeoAI Build and Pitch programme.
- Have access to a wide range of EO datasets.
- Participate in a 6-week development phase featuring workshops on value proposition design, business modelling, and pitch development, delivered by Growth Studio.
- Showcase their prototype at Space Comm through a technical presentation in a co-hosted showcase area.
- Be included in the final GeoAI Festival report and communications.
- Gain visibility across all partner networks and broader audience at Space Comm.
- Network with a diverse range of stakeholders and partners.
Top 5 winners will:
- Receive tailored Commercialisation Credits redeemable against SAC’s Space Commercialisation Engine valued at up to £80k per company. These credits will support teams in developing market ready products and preparing for future funding opportunities.
- Be shortlisted to pitch at Space Comm 2026 in a dedicated showcase session at the Downstream Theatre, part of one of the UK’s leading space and tech events.
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- Launch of the Build and Pitch Programme: 15 October 2025
- Deadline for applications: 9 November 2025
- Application assessment period: 11 November 2025 – 21 November 2025
- Selection and notification of finalists: 25 November 2025
- GeoAI Build and Pitch Sprint event at Cloth Hall Court, University of Leeds: 13 – 15 January 2026
- GeoAI Build and Pitch Business Development Workshops delivered by Growth Studio: 21 January 2026, 28 January 2026, 4 February 2026, 11 February 2026 (may be subject to change)
- Submission video pitch and deck: Due in February 2026
- GeoAI Festival Showcase at Space Comm Europe: 4 and 5 March 2026
- Pitch Event at Space Comm Europe (selected participants only): 4 March 2026
- Technical Support Drop-in Sessions: Weekly throughout January and February 2026
For further info, including terms and conditions, application guidance, technical requirements, IP conditions, and assessment criteria, visit the Innovation Exchange site at the link below.