Deep Planet Selected for Inaugural ESA Phi-Lab UK Cohort to Advance Sustainable Agriculture with AI
We are incredibly excited to announce that Deep Planet has been selected as part of the inaugural cohort for the newly established ESA Phi-Lab UK, securing funding and compute servers in funding for our cutting-edge work on geospatial foundation model, trained on a massive scale geospatial data.
This fantastic recognition of Deep Planet's scientific approach highlights the power of leveraging geospatial AI for critical environmental monitoring, particularly in the vital area of regenerative agriculture.
SoilCarbonAI
Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a cornerstone of global efforts toward sustainable land management and climate mitigation. Our SoilCarbonAI project will harness the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence to predict soil organic carbon levels across regions where crucial ground truth data is often unavailable. This innovation will empower:
Farmers and Agricultural Supply Chains: To drive sustainable land management practices with predictive insights (particularly where soil data is scarce)
Governments and Stakeholders: To mitigate climate risk and drive transparency and reliability of carbon offsetting/insetting processes.
A Major Milestone and Collaboration
The funding, jointly provided by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the UK Space Agency, is part of a broader effort to accelerate the commercialisation of the European space sector.
We are looking forward to collaborating with our global field partners, including National Trust, Alliance Wines, and Synergy India Ventures, and the ESA Phi-Lab UK team. Additionally, we will receive funding of 220,000 Euros and access voucher of up to 150,000 Euros to benefit from the technical, business, and commercial expertise of Phi-Lab partners, including STFC, Amentum, and Cranfield University, enabling us access to high compute clusters which is essential for foundation model training.
Sushma Shankar, Co-Founder and CEO of Deep Planet, said: "We are looking forward to collaborating with our global field partners... and ESA Phi-Lab UK to push the boundaries of AI and Earth Observation, thus accelerating the impact of space technology for a sustainable future."
The ESA Phi-Lab UK aims to be a seedbed for transformational innovation in space , and we are proud that SoilCarbonAI has been selected for its innovation and commercialisation potential.
Driving Benefits on Earth
The projects selected by the ESA Phi-Lab UK, which address challenges in sustainable agriculture and space environmental intelligence. We believe that space technology can deliver real, tangible benefits right here on Earth.
Read ESA Phi lab press release here
Stay tuned and reach out for more updates on our progress!