Precise, Global Temperature Data for a Growing Planet: HiVE

Programme(s): HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Topic(s): HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOROPEN-01 - EIC Accelerator Open

Call for proposal: HORIZON-EIC-2022-ACCELERATOR-01

Funding Scheme: EIC-ACC - EIC-ACC

Grant agreement ID: 190139307

Objective:
Food security is an urgent global challenge. To feed a population of 10bn by 2050, we must produce 50% more food despite water scarcity, loss of arable land, & climate change. Lack of water (water stress) severely reduces crop yields. The inability to measure water stress accurately leads to unpredictable and low-yielding harvests, impacting the entire food supply chain from farm viability to food prices. Current crop health data is not fit for purpose, leading to ineffective irrigation consuming 70% of global freshwater. ConstellR will provide the first high-precision temperature data at field level, daily & globally from a uniquely scalable constellation of microsatellites (HiVE), enabling water stress detection in time to prevent yield loss. The EIC project will develop & launch an MVP constellation, generating the data required to increase global food production by up to 4%, reduce agricultural water waste by up to 180 gigatons, & avoid up to 94M tons of CO2 emissions.