Innovate UK and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have announced seven winners receiving a share of £1.3 million.
The competition is part of the government’s marine Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme, which is investing £2.1 million in integrating natural capital approaches into decision making for the marine environment.
First round of funding
In May 2023, Innovate UK and Defra announced the winners of the competition’s first round, developing key technologies and capabilities that can be used for more efficient observation of our marine natural capital assets.
These included:
- uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) propelled by wind, wave and conventional propulsion
- autonomous underwater vessels (AUVs)
- machine learning for data analysis
- a range of sensors including vision, acoustic and audio
- 5G communications
- environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis
Second round of funding
Innovate UK has also announced £1.3 million of funding has been allocated across seven projects in the second stage of the competition.
These innovative projects are for the development of complete end-to-end marine monitoring systems and their verification and validation.
The Rt Hon Lord Benyon, Minister of State (Climate, Environment and Energy), said:
“It is more important than ever that we invest in advanced technology such as artificial intelligence, drones and molecular tools to bolster our capabilities to monitor biodiversity in our seas.
“I look forward to seeing how projects from the second round of funding will provide us with the best capabilities available so that we can improve our efforts to keep our ocean clean, healthy and protected.”
Andrew Tyrer, Robotics Challenge Director, Innovate UK, said:
“Being able to award more funding in a second round of this competition builds on the work of round one and represents a deepening of the partnership between Innovate UK and Defra.
“It also represents the importance placed on the UK’s marine environment.
“This funding will support game-changing technological innovations that will help in the end-to-end monitoring of one of the UK’s most vital natural assets.”
