Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency, is looking to help companies develop innovative products and services that can use all the environmental data collected by government through various agencies.
Innovate UK says that companies are keen to understand how quickly their businesses and the markets they operate in will be affected by environmental change. However, effective planning for disruption of this kind requires a comprehensive understanding of environmental factors.
Through various agencies, government has amassed a large amount of environmental data that businesses could use in managing future risks and exploring opportunities. Data is routinely collected on subjects such as land cover, environmental change, precipitation, farm performance, biodiversity, water flows, geological surveys and marine environment.
Innovate UK is highlighting the fact that integrating these datasets with commercial and societal data can enable innovation in important areas:
- Infrastructure- including built environment and water
- Agriculture and food
- Energy generation and supply
Innovate has now published a directory showcasing the businesses involved and the feasibility studies it funded in its 2014 ‘Solving business problems with environmental data’ competition. Projects lasted up to 12 months, with a value of up to £200,000. The competition funded 33 feasibility studies with a total of £4 million investment, allowing companies to test their ideas and take them forward.
Water sector applications included:
- A project by Shoothill worked with the Environment Agency data to use Twitter to monitor UK river levels.
- BRE led a consortium with AXA Insurance and Lexis Nexis to undertake a project focused on flood technologies. The project developed a database that insurers could use to identify locations where measures were taken to improve properties’ flood resilience. This should allow properties within flood risk areas to obtain affordable levels of insurance.
According to Innovate UK, the feasibility studies it supported, in partnership with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), will help businesses to attract further investment for research and development, validation and eventual commercialisation.
Click here to download Directory of Projects: Environmental Data
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