New sensing systems for monitoring of our waterways, habitats, soil and greenhouse gas emissions will receive £12 million funding from NERC, Defra and Innovate UK.
The Innovation in Environmental Monitoring programme has been designed to support UK academic institutions, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and large companies in their development of novel monitoring technologies and systems-based approaches. It will drive UK growth and commercial opportunity in this sector through the development of new products, processes and services.
This represents an important step forward in our efforts to protect the environment, as trusted monitoring data is crucial to assessing the effectiveness of interventions and informing decisions about targeting resources appropriately.
Monitoring our natural resources
High quality environmental monitoring is essential for meeting environmental goals in the UK and worldwide, underpinning government policy, emerging green finance markets and driving sustainability in the private sector.
Monitoring enables us to track the status of our natural environment, measure the success of interventions that tackle climate change and detect natural disasters.
As part of this programme, £7 million has been awarded to 13 research-led investments, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Driving green growth
The collaborations are located across the UK, to improve capability for monitoring the following.
Biodiversity and invasive species
The development of biodiversity monitoring techniques, such as eDNA, will help us to understand more about how we can meet the target to halt the decline in species by 2030. Invasive non-native species (INNS) are one of the top five threats to global biodiversity and cost the economy nearly £4 billion a year.
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Posted On: 13/03/2024