Next-Gen Spatial Planning: GeoAI Solutions for Land, Ocean, and Climate

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Innovate UK Business Connect, and partners invite innovative solutions that leverage Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence to enable smarter spatial planning and sustainable land and ocean use. Solutions should address pressing challenges such as infrastructure development, habitat protection, and climate resilience with the aim of supporting spatial decision-making, environmental monitoring, and risk reduction. The goal is to develop commercially viable products that deliver accurate, actionable, insights to planners, regulators, and developers, ultimately improving outcomes across environmental stewardship, regulatory compliance, and sustainable development.

Opportunity

Challenge opens

15/10/2025

Challenge closes

09/11/2025

Benefit

The GeoAI Build and Pitch programmes offer a unique opportunity to collaborate directly with Defra, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Satellite Applications Catapult, Telespazio, Growth Studio, Space Comm, and other leading organisations. Participants will receive expert mentorship, cloud computing credits, and access to a wide range of EO datasets to accelerate product development. All participating companies will have the opportunity to showcase their prototype at Space Comm Europe, with the top 5 winners invited to present at the Downstream Theatre during the event. Additionally, the top 5 winners will also receive tailored commercialisation credits, redeemable against Satellite Application Catapult's Space Commercialisation Engine, worth up to £80k per company.

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The Background

Economic growth is the UK’s Government's apex priority, and The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is keen to emphasise its role as an economic department.

One area with significant, yet underutilised potential is Earth Observation (EO). By 2030, the global value of EO data could exceed $700 billion, with a cumulative $3.8 trillion contribution to global GDP between 2023- 2030, while eliminating 2 gigatonnes of GHG emissions. EO data is pivotal to national security, with applications across food security, environmental monitoring and emergency response. It is also increasingly relevant to both public and private sector efforts, driving innovation in nature and green finance, enabling spatial prioritisation, and informing green infrastructure planning.

To foster innovation, Defra's EO team, in collaboration with Innovate UK Business Connect, Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC), Growth Studio, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Space Comm and Telespazio will be hosting the GeoAI Build and Pitch programme. Participants will be challenged to combine EO data, both public and commercial, with other datasets and apply AI tools to build prototypes for innovative, commercially viable products. After a series of workshops and drop-in sessions participants will pitch their prototypes at Space Comm Europe in March 2026. This programme forms part of the GeoAI Festival, a series of activities bringing together innovators, businesses, academics, end users, and public bodies to explore and advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in geospatial applications using EO data.

The GeoAI Build and Pitch programme includes a three-day in person sprint event taking place at Cloth Hall Court, University of Leeds, and a 6-week development period where teams will continue to refine their prototypes while receiving ongoing mentorship as well as training on value proposition design, business modelling and pitch development. Throughout this programme teams will be expected to develop novel products with a clear customer in mind while ensuring they aren’t reinventing the wheel. 

This opportunity page invites applicants to develop solutions in response to targeted challenge statements under the theme “Next-Gen Spatial Planning” focusing on how EO and AI can improve the sustainable use of land and ocean resources for infrastructure development. 

The Challenge

Land and ocean resources are under growing pressure from human activities such as the building of roads, ports, housing, and energy projects, as well as expanding agriculture and urban development. These changes can disrupt ecosystems and biodiversity, disturbing the natural balance of these environments. Climate change, combined with the loss of wildlife and habitats, further aggravate and intensify these challenges. To address these effectively, spatial planning must strike a careful balance between competing needs, such as food production, nature restoration, infrastructure development, and environmental protection, ensuring that progress remains both sustainable and responsible.

There is also a growing need to mitigate environmental and operational risks throughout the planning and development process. EO technologies offer powerful tools to help meet this need by enabling more cost-effective, scalable, and repeatable monitoring and decision-making. These technologies can help planners, developers, regulators, and environmental consultancies make more informed decisions, reduce risks, and deliver better outcomes.

This challenge invites participants to use EO to develop solutions that support smarter land use, more efficient infrastructure development, and stronger environmental monitoring.

Some Intended outcomes include:

  • Improved ecosystem resilience and connectivity.

  • Enhanced regulatory confidence and compliance.

  • Smarter, nature-positive land decisions.

  • Maximising benefits from infrastructure and management interventions.

  • Reduced planning and survey burdens, along with their associated costs.

  • Early detection of environmental risks.

  • Maximising the impact of land management interventions.

Rewards & Market Opportunity

Successful teams will be invited to participate in the GeoAI GeoAI Build and Pitch programme taking place between January and March 2026.

The GeoAI Build and Pitch programme offers a unique opportunity to collaborate directly with Defra, AWS, SAC, Growth Studio, Telespazio, Space Comm and other leading organisations. Participants will receive expert mentorship, access to rich EO datasets, and cloud computing credits to accelerate product development. All participating teams will have the opportunity to showcase their prototypes at Space Comm Europe, with the top 5 teams invited to pitch at the Downstream Theatre during the event.

All teams will:

  • Receive expert mentorship from leading organisations including Defra, AWS, SAC, Growth Studio, Innovate UK Business Connect (IUKBC), Space Comm and others.

  • Receive access to credits for cloud computing services for the duration of the GeoAI Build and Pitch programme.

  • Have access to a wide range of EO datasets.

  • Participate in a 6-week development phase featuring workshops on value proposition design, business modelling, and pitch development, delivered by Growth Studio.

  • Showcase their prototype at Space Comm through a technical presentation in a co-hosted showcase area.

  • Be included in the final GeoAI Festival report and communications.

  • Gain visibility across all partner networks and broader audience at Space Comm.

  • Network with a diverse range of stakeholders and partners.

Top 5 winners will:

  • Receive tailored Commercialisation Credits redeemable against SAC's Space Commercialisation Engine valued at up to £80k per company. These credits will support teams in developing market ready products and preparing for future funding opportunities.

  • Be shortlisted to pitch at Space Comm 2026 in a dedicated showcase session at the Downstream Theatre, part of one of the UK’s leading space and tech events.

Who can apply?

This opportunity is open to innovators who want to use earth observation and geospatial data in combination with artificial intelligence to produce innovative prototypes. This includes innovators, start-ups, SMEs, large organisations, universities, Research Technology Organisations (RTOs), and end users.

We are particularly keen to receive applications from SMEs that already have a product and want to use the 6-week programme to undertake experimental development, de-risk the testing of a new product line, explore access to new markets, develop new business models, or add new services to an existing product. The Build and Pitch programme will incorporate design thinking methodologies to help teams rapidly prototype, test assumptions, and iterate based on user needs. Through a combination of technical mentorship and business support, teams will be guided to accelerate both the technical development and commercial readiness of their solutions.

More detailed information is available when you click Apply/Register.

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