Innovate for Nature: A look back

Ganavan Sands, Oban. Image courtesy of Graeme Jarvie

It’s been a year since we launched CivTech’s Innovate for Nature initiative and we are very proud of the success of the programme which was designed to respond to the Scottish Government’s plans to address the environmental crisis. 

With COP28 UAE taking place later this month, it’s a timely reminder of the huge task on our hands if we are to successfully tackle the climate emergency. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, “it's not very likely that we always will stay below 1.5C” - meaning we are falling well behind the agreements we made at the Paris Accord. 

In 2022, the Mauna Lao observatory in Hawaii reported the global average concentration of CO2 was 417.06 parts per million (ppm). Preindustrial levels were 278 ppm meaning that human beings have more or less doubled CO2 in the atmosphere since the 1800s.

At the same time we’re at a critical juncture in terms of needing to take action to halt the loss of biodiversity and ‘bending the curve’ to restore nature. These two crises - nature and climate - are intrinsically linked. Climate change plays a key role in what is happening to our species and habitats and at the same time our natural environment has a huge role to play in both mitigating climate change and in adapting to its effects. 

Innovate for Nature, launched at the time of COP27 helps the Scottish Government take back control. The goal for Scotland is to be a global leader in addressing environmental concerns at a grassroots level in a bid to tilt the needle back in our favour. 

Innovate for Nature has been a resounding success with companies coming forward to solve environmental Challenges. The initiative has brought many public and third sector organisations together, and demonstrates the power of collaboration. The organisations include NatureScot, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Marine Directorate, the Environment and Forestry Directorate, the Directorate of Agriculture and Rural Economy and Scottish Wildlife Trust.

There were four Challenges in the inaugural Innovate for Nature series which formed part of CivTech 8. On Challenge 8.3 (sponsored by NatureScot and the Scottish Wildlife Trust) AECOM are developing a solution that addresses the dangers of an increasingly fragmented natural world - creating a platform to increase the resilience of nature by connecting important areas of biodiversity, helping map out Nature Networks and facilitating local authorities, communities, and others to implement them on the ground.

In Challenge 8.4 the Marine Directorate is on the lookout to increase investment in the nation’s marine natural capital. Tritonia Scientific Ltd are developing solutions that deploy emerging technology known as georeferenced photogrammetry to better understand marine natural capital and the seabed in general. 

Challenge 8.5, which was also sponsored by NatureScot, sees Informed Solutions developing a system to plan and prioritise the monitoring of protected areas and maximise the value of the data collected. It will also enable transformational approaches to how monitoring is undertaken and support the adoption of new and emerging innovative technologies including AI (Artificial Intelligence) to understand our environment and improve outcomes.

And on Challenge 8.6, NatureScot, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Scottish Government’s Environment and Forestry Directorate selected CreditNature to help them in their mission to design biodiversity credits in a way that provides simplicity for projects and buyers and enables meaningful investment in Scotland’s nature.

Red admiral butterfly. Image©Lorne Gill/NatureScot

In addition to the four Challenges at CivTech 8, we’ve been facilitating nature-focused Challenges since the inception of the CivTech Programme.

A few examples of this are Digiflec with Stirling Council and Forestry and Land Scotland from CivTech 6 who developed a data collection system to understand how environmental factors and traffic flow impacted the condition of the older public roads in and around the village of Balquhidder, in Perthshire. 

Also, CivTech 7 company Rethink Carbon, who will shortly launch their Rethink Platform to the market, won a Challenge to develop tech to help land managers make informed land-use decisions and increase carbon capture and storage. This Challenge was sponsored by the Southern Uplands Partnership, The Langholm Initiative, John Muir Trust, South of Scotland Enterprise, and Scottish Government. 

In 2019, Silvibio’s solution to a Challenge by sponsors Forestry and Land Scotland helps growers improve productivity and environmental sustainability through innovations in seed and soil performance technology. 

Rivertrack and Looper are excellent examples that bookend CivTech’s focus on nature-themed Challenges. Rivertrack won a Challenge set by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency way back in CivTech 1. And, most recently, Looper was selected as the company to deliver on a Challenge set by the South of Scotland Enterprise to enhance the country’s circular economy and accelerate companies' net zero journeys.

All the Challenges have garnered strong receptions from Challenge Sponsors, and highly innovative products from the companies on the Accelerators to provide environment-critical solutions. Partnerships facilitated by us have gone a long way in successfully tackling the nature-climate crisis through technology, innovation, and AI tools.

With the CivTech 9 Accelerator launching in December, we’re already developing potential Challenges for CivTech 10, which will be launched in mid 2024. So if you have a problem you’d like solved through innovation, be it in the environmental and climate spaces or other areas, come and talk with us. You’ll find us ready to help at civtech@gov.scot.