Frontier Tech Hub Newsletter #5
Welcome to the fifth issue of the Frontier Tech Hub’s regular newsletter, with a wide range of updates from across the Hub.
This month, we’ve been catching up with some of our pilot teams who are busy applying frontier technologies to the biggest challenges in development all around the world. We’re excited to share more about a conference our Virtual Reality pilot has presented at, an update from our satellite and ground data cocoa pilot, and a field trip to visit heavily landslide-affected villages.
We’ve also got an invitation to tender and a blog post to share with you this month, so let’s get going:
VR/AR for Conflict-related sexual violence
This month, the VR/AR for Conflict-related sexual violence pilot attended the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict conference. The team presented their initial research at the conference marketplace and led a side event with a variety of stakeholders, to dig into some of the technology cases they identified. We used this opportunity to home in on one solution to develop further. The conference was also an opportunity to formally announce a new partnership between the pilot and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which we will use to develop a prototype and potentially use as part of an ongoing court case.
Using data to improve cocoa production
Our cocoa pilot in Colombia is delighted to welcome Nicolás Meléndez as our new FCDO pioneer. Nicolás is the International Climate Finance Officer at The British Embassy in Colombia and brings wonderful insight and vision for improving the cocoa value chain in Colombia from his work leading several UK PACT (UK Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) programmes. You can read more about this pilot’s aims to learn how satellite and ground data can help smallholder farmers access international markets, and how cocoa farming is in the blood of many Colombians, from the previous pioneer Pedro Castro in this interview.
Mitigating risks exacerbated by monsoon rainfalls in Nepal
Our team travelled to Nepal to visit two heavily landslide-affected villages as part of our Climate Change Adaptation pilot. The pilot aims to map hazards, such as landslides, and profile risks to help local governments and communities visualise, prepare, and mitigate against risks exacerbated by excess and unpredictable monsoon rainfalls. The visit was incredibly valuable for the FT Hub members and our tech partners to understand the difficulties faced by community members. We envisioned this visit as a touchstone for team members to refer back to and keep the communities and their challenges as our focus. The visit also generated some amazing drone footage.
Work with us to explore climate financing
We are pleased to announce that the tender is now live for a partner to produce a short research report exploring how public-sector climate finance can be used most effectively to leverage private sector investment in innovation. Applications are due by December 12. Link to more information about this opportunity.
Learning from our Alumni
And finally, on November 16 we hosted an alumni event, where we brought together pioneers and partners that we’ve previously worked with to discuss and share what they’ve learnt with those just beginning their journeys with us. We explored the role that mobilising the right people, getting government buy-in, and working in sprints each play for Frontier Tech Livestreaming pilots. Read more about this alumni event.
That’s all for this edition…
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See you next time!