PRESS RELEASE: From Aberdeen to Exeter, nine exciting ideas for climate services have received development funding from the UK Space Agency. Supported by Space4Climate, the UK Space Agency funded the £85,000 call.
9 organisations around the UK benefit from grants
From Aberdeen to Exeter, nine exciting ideas for climate services have received development funding from the UK Space Agency. Supported by Space4Climate, the UK Space Agency funded the £85,000 call at the end of 2022. It aims to foster climate services innovation by developing UK business-viable ideas that use space data to address the impacts of climate change.
Nine organisations have shared the fund:
| Organisation | Location | Project |
| TrackGenesis Limited | Aberdeen | ‘Demeter’ – combining Earth Observation, GNS (Global Navigation Systems) and satellite connectivity for food production |
| Trade In Space | Edinburgh | Validation of deforestation in the case of Smallholder Farming Practices |
| GeoSmart Information Limited | Shrewsbury, Shropshire | Remotely sensed soil moisture data for the monitoring of groundwater resources and for predicting disaster risk |
| Stellarsat Limited | Bristol | Ai-based Geospatial Tool for Assessing and Mitigating Climate Risks on Critical National Infrastructure (‘AiGeo-CNI’) |
| Deimos Space UK | Harwell, Oxford | ‘CSI WAMA’ – Climate Service Impact on WAter MAnagement |
| Agtelligence LTD | Harwell, Oxford | ‘FarmScore’ – Earth Observation for land management and biodiversity |
| GlobalTrust | Alresford, Hampshire | Vertical Spaceport Monitoring and Solutions for Enhancing Environmental Sustainability |
| Recycle2Trade | Brighton | ‘ESDIM’ – Environmental Sites Data Intelligence Monitoring |
| Space Clipper Industries | Exeter | AI Generative Design for Natural Carbon Sequestration Management |
Beth Greenaway, Head of Earth Observation and Climate at UK Space Agency and Chair of Space4Climate, praised the quality and innovative approach of all the applications. She said: “I am delighted to see this set of projects get started with UK Space Agency funding to enable the development of business models for commercial climate services based on space data.
“The number and quality of applications in this first climate services call shows the appetite and ability of UK companies to be innovative and at the forefront of using space to allow others to adapt or mitigate for climate change. We look forward to the Space4Climate community growing as these business opportunities progress.”
Space4Climate is a not-for-profit membership organisation for the UK Earth Observation for climate community. Climate satellites gather data by observing and measuring Earth from space. Climate services provide / use climate data in a format to help end-users, decision-makers and policy-makers to take climate-smart decisions.
Recipients of the funding will develop a business viability presentation, setting out the vision for their climate service, how it could work, the core users and the route to market.
Krupa Nanda Kumar, Climate Services Development Manager at Space4Climate, said: “The UK is at the forefront of innovative applications of climate data from space for climate services. The awardees are a diverse range of projects across climate-related sectors and spread around the country. We are keen to support them and we look forward to the outcomes of their projects.”