10121892AI-driven environmental monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) methodology and optimisation engine for biomineralisation-centric, nature-positive food systemsClosedUnknownInnovate UKGlobal food-production is unsustainable, leading to around a third of greenhouse gas emissions, and causing huge damage to biodiversity and ecosystems. Tierra Foods is a science-backed company on a mission to transform food-systems to become more nature-positive and climate-smart. We harness plants with the unique ability to permanently capture atmospheric carbon and convert it into inorganic, calcium carbonate crystals in the soil (a process known as 'biomineralisation'), creating high-permanence Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). Our biomineralisation solution can be integrated into food supply-chains, offering additional, permanent carbon capture and numerous benefits for farmers, nature and soil - thus providing a route to regenerative and nature-positive food production. Realising this exceptional potential requires significant private investment to scale our biomineralisation-solution. Key to attracting such investment is developing a novel methodology to measure the quantity and durability of CDR; this is the vital step to allow the sale of inorganic carbon-credits. In this project, Tierra Foods will collaborate with the University of Huddersfield to develop the required 'Monitoring, Reporting and Verification' (MRV) methodology to measure the carbon biomineralised in our systems (as well positive benefits from biomineralisation for nature/biodiversity). This methodology will be underpinned by powerful AI-approaches, and will be developed and tested at field sites in the UK and Mexico. Successful delivery and verification of the new methodology will allow private investors to confidently invest in nature-positive projects as the resulting revenue streams are created: * carbon insets (carbon removed within a company's own supply chain) * carbon offsets (carbon removed outside a company's own supply chain) Our plant biomineralisation-solution holds global potential, capable of scaling with the many other mineralising plant species worldwide that we have identified as having this capacity for long-term carbon storage.