Microsoft will support fourteen Kenyan innovators as part of its pledge to the World Bank’s One Million Farmers Platform initiative.
The software company through its 4Afrika engine will provide technical and business assistance to fourteen agritech kenyan innovators. Through mentorship in business development, technology architecture and go-to-market strategies.
Kenya has the highest AgriTech intensity in Africa
The selected fourteen innovators displayed promising ideas during a two day disruptive agricultural technology challenge organized by the World Bank. Through those ideas they will build technology solutions for the One Million Farmers platform.
The World Bank shares that ” Kenya has the highest AgriTech intensity in Africa. With approximately 30 percent of AgriTech start-ups in Africa operating in Kenya.”
The One Million Farmers Platform initiative will address some of the challenges faced in Kenyan agriculture. Which include access to extension, financial services, markets and data-driven applications. With the aim of improving productivity, profitability and resilience through disruptive agricultural technologies. The platform will target reaching one million small holder Kenyan farmers in the next three years.
Committed to supporting agricultural transformation in Africa
As part of the partnership, Microsoft will also empower participating Kenyan government ministries with technical skills development. Both through workshops and by skilled resources through its programmes.
Agriculture … has a high potential to be a data driven sector
Amrote Abdella, Regional Director of Microsoft 4Afrika shares that Microsoft is “fully committed to supporting agricultural transformation in Africa“.
“Agriculture is a priority area of investment for us. Not only because of the enormous number of livelihoods it supports and the economic growth it drives. But also because it has a high potential to be a data driven sector”, she notes.
“With an expanding population, there’s an opportunity to use technology to improve farm productivity, optimise resource use and increase crop yields to combat rising food insecurity. We’re fully committed to supporting agricultural transformation starting in Kenya – and the rest of Africa – and more critically, the innovators who are key drivers of this digital transformation.”
Microsoft is awarding new grants to fellow pioneers in the Middle East and Africa through a new partnership with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and the National Geographic Society
The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) aims to create a world where both nature and humanity coexist in harmony. Over the past twenty years, LDF has awarded over $100 million in grants, funding 200+ high-impact projects in 50 countries across Asia, the Americas, Africa, the Arctic, Antarctica, and all five oceans.
LDF has achieved this success through active collaboration with a broad network of effective organizations to find and support the best, results-driven projects in the world’s most wild and threatened ecosystems.
Microsoft’s AI for Earth program supports organizations who are working to solve global environmental challenges using artificial intelligence.
To further their missions, LDF and Microsoft are collaborating on the AI for Earth innovation grant to support applicants in creating and deploying open source machine learning models, algorithms, and data sets that directly tackle environmental problems faced by the world today.
AI for Earth Innovation Grant Priorities:
With the latest IPCC Special Report outlining the level and urgency of broad action required to prevent global temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees, we would like to request a call for proposals that can deliver impactful solutions to immediate matters in the following four categories:
· Climate change · Biodiversity conservation · Agriculture · Water
Applications that also include the following will be prioritized for review:
· Demonstration that the work will lead to implementation of proposed solution (whether directly by applicant or in collaboration with others);
· Solutions that are developed in and/or will be implemented in developing countries or underserved geographies;
· Solutions that demonstrate ability to rapidly scale and create lasting impact.
Details:
Proposal requests can be up to $100,000, for support over one year only. In addition to financial support, successful proposals will receive free access to AI for Earth API’s, applications, tools, and tutorials, and support for their computational work on Microsoft Azure. Applicants must demonstrate a plan for continued support of the work beyond the grant period.
Applicants must consider how to utilize AI for global environmental impact in at least one of the following core categories:
Biodiversity conservation: Species are going extinct at alarming rates, and our planet’s oceans and last wild places need protection. We would like to see how AI can help, particularly in the following areas:
· Protected area identification, management and restoration · Sustainable supply chain management · Illegal trade and poaching control Wildlife tracking and ecosystem health monitoring · Realizing natural capital (including valuing natural capital, species identification)
Climate change: Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, higher global temperatures, and increased ocean acidity threaten human health, infrastructure, and the natural systems we rely on for life itself. We would like to see how AI can help, particularly in the following areas
· Climate resilience · Extreme weather and climate modeling · Measuring carbon sequestration through natural climate solutions · Pollution monitoring and reporting on air quality · More efficient energy and transportation systems
Agriculture: To feed the world’s rapidly growing population, farmers must produce more food on less arable land, and with lower environmental impact. We would like to see how AI can help, particularly in the following areas
· Sustainable land use planning and management · Natural resource conservation · Sustainable, closed loop food systems · Climate-resilient, regenerative agriculture · Food recovery
Water: In the next two decades, demand for fresh water—for human consumption, agriculture, and hygiene, as well as for the well-being of natural systems and species—is predicted to dramatically outpace supply. We would like to see how AI can help, particularly in the following areas
· Beneficial water supply strategies for human and natural systems · Water quality and sanitation · Water source monitoring · Water use efficiency · Extreme-event (droughts, floods, disasters, etc.) water management
All models supported through this grant must be open source, and grant recipients must be willing to share their models for use by other environmental researchers and innovators. More specifically:
(1) Grant recipients must make their solutions available for publication on the AI for Earth website through a designated open source license;
(2) Grant recipients must make the training data on which their solutions are developed publicly available in standard digital format;
(3) Grant recipients must include with their solutions a standard description template, including information on the machine learning data on which the solution was trained, summary statistics about solution performance, example use cases, and a disclaimer about the prototype nature of the solution; and
(4) Grant recipients must implement and deploy their solutions on Microsoft Azure.
Applicant Qualifications:
Applicants must be nonprofit organizations or academic institutions. We recommend that the main applicant has a demonstrated background in environmental science and/or technology, and we require that at least one member of the team has strong enough technical skills (such as machine learning, statistical data analysis, scientific modeling, software development, and/or remote sensing) to complete the proposed project successfully.
Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation believe great ideas spring from a diversity of experiences, and thus encourage applications from all over the world.
Timelines:
The AI for Earth innovators grant will begin accepting applications beginning May 21, 2019. The application period will close on July 31 2019 at 11:59pm PST. Only applications received during this period will be accepted.
Applicants will be reviewed and awarded within 2-3 months of application close. It is anticipated that the selected projects will commence on January 1, 2020 and will be completed by December 31, 2020.
Please note this RFP application, deadline, and anticipated project timeline is different from other LDF grant programs.
Upepo Technology recieves Microsoft AI for Earth grant.
Upepo Technology Company Limited, a Kenyan technology firm has become the latest recipient of Microsoft’s AI for Earth grant. The award from Microsoft is to help the company extend its innovative developments. Upepo joins 21 other Microsoft AI for Earth grantees across Africa.
Upepo Technology Company Limited provides intelligent water management solutions that support water utilities and water community associations. It also provides support to large abstractors of surface and ground water including agricultural enterprises, industries and commercial property owners to accurately measure and manage water while predicting future trends in consumption.
Microsoft’s AI for Earth program aims at empowering people and organization to solve global environmental challenges. Microsoft provides them with artificial intelligence to solve issues related to water, agriculture, biodiversity and climate change. Through grants Microsoft provides access to cloud and AI tools. As well as opportunities for education and training on AI and investments in innovative and scalable solutions.
“This important grant from Microsoft is a turning point” says Kevin Kihara, Upepo’s CEO. He also says Microsoft services such as “Azure Cloud, IoT and AI resources will help develop products to mitigate water losses“. These loses Kevin Kihara says, “directly contribute to large and excessive surface and ground water withdrawals” which are “detrimental to the supply of water for communities living downstream“.
Conserving and improving access to Kenya’s water supply
Kenya Water Service Regulatory Board (WASREB) shares that water access rates in Kenya have stood at 55% the last three years. It believes by adopting technology and enhancing infrastructure a 30% reduction in non-revenue water can be achieved by 2030. Saving up to Kes 80 billion for infrastructure expansion, enhanced supply and quality of water across Kenya.
“Through Microsoft’s AI for Earth program, we are excited to partner with Upepo. As they develop innovative intelligent solutions that will both conserve and improve critical access to Kenya’s water supply.” – Ghada Khalifa
Ghada Khalifa, Philanthropies Regional Director for Microsoft Middle East and Africa says, “In the next two decades, demand for fresh water is predicted to dramatically outpace supply.” Technologies such as the intelligent cloud and AI, Ghada says will model and measure the Earth’s water supply. To help us manage and protect fresh water.
Are you interested in securing a grant for your AI project? Then this is your opportunity.
The Microsoft AI for Earth program awards grants to support projects that changes the way people and organizations monitor, model and ultimately manage earth’s natural systems.
Depending on the project need, the grants can award Microsoft Azure cloud computing resources (including AI tools) and/or data labelling services. Microsoft says “Grantees receive access to and training on Microsoft’s innovative data science, machine learning, and visualization tools to improve their work in addressing climate change, protecting biodiversity, improving agricultural yields, and lessening water scarcity“
AI for Earth grants provide access to advanced Microsoft Azure Cloud computing resources. To support projects that change the way people and organizations monitor, model, and ultimately manage Earth’s natural systems.
Types of grants
Currently AI for Earth provides two types of grants. Each round, you can apply to either, or both, depending on your project needs.
Data Labeling services:
An important prerequisite for most AI projects is having an accurately labeled dataset to train your model on. Thus, we provide grants to help label key datasets in our four environmental focus areas. All datasets that are labeled through our grants program are hosted on Azure and made publicly available to other organizations and individuals for training models. The amount granted is dependent on size of datasets and difficulty of labeling.
Azure compute credits:
If you already have access to labeled dataset and are ready to start computing in the cloud and accessing Azure AI tools, this grant provides you with Azure compute credits worth $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 (depending on your project scope and needs.) By being a member of the AI for Earth grantee community, you also have access to additional resources (technical advice and support, online Azure training materials, as well as invitations to the AI for Earth Summit for networking and education opportunities).
The grant program accepts proposals on a rolling basis. It accepts environmental projects with focus areas on agriculture, biodiversity, water and climate change. Proposals are reviewed four times a year. For more information on the initiative and how to apply, visit the Microsoft AI for Earth grant page.
3 Kenyan and Ugandan projects receive Microsoft and National Geographic AI for Earth Innovation Grant to support research and scientific discovery with AI technologies.
Microsoft announces new recipients of its AI for Earth Innovation award. A joint $1.2M grant program offered by Microsoft and National Geographic to 11 grantees. AI for Earth is designed to advance the use of Artificial Intelligence in scientific exploration and research to help solve critical environmental challenges.
Out of more than 200 applications received, 3 projects from Africa were included in the 11 chosen projects to recieve funding. These are led by changemakers; Ketty Adoch, Torsten Bondo and Stephanie Dolrenry. They will receive financial support, access to Microsoft cloud and AI tools, inclusion in the National Geographic Explorer community and affiliation with National Geographic Labs.
The Microsoft and National Geographic AI for Earth Innovation Grant winners will use these resources to support their projects and better protect the planet.
Microsoft shares that the new grant offering will support research and scientific discovery with AI technologies to advance agriculture, biodiversity conservation, climate change and water.
Below are profiles of the winning grant projects;
Ketty Adoch Geographical information systems specialist from Uganda. Her AI for Earth Innovation Grant project will detect, quantify and monitor land cover change in the area surrounding Lake Albert and Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest and oldest national park.
Stephanie Dolrenry Director of Wildlife Guardians, based in Washington, D.C. Her team will use the AI for Earth Innovation Grant to help support the Lion Identification Network of Collaborators, an AI-assisted collaborative database for lion identification and interorganizational research.
Torsten Bondo Business development manager and senior remote sensing engineer at DHI GRAS in Denmark. With the AI for Earth Innovation Grant, his team aims to use machine learning and satellites to support irrigation development and improve crop water efficiency in Uganda together with the Ugandan geo-information company Geo Gecko. The goal is to contribute to food security, poverty alleviation and economic growth.
Previous beneficiaries of the Microsoft AI for Earth grant are Peace Parks Foundation, South Africa, International Center for tropical Agriculture, Kenya, I.T.Grapes, Tunisia, Energyrathon Consulting Ltd, Nigeria, etc.
How Microsoft and National Geographic AI for Earth Innovation Grantee is detecting land cover changes in Uganda.
“Ketty Adoch is working to address competition between preserving iconic species and mining natural resources in the same area. A huge advocate for applying technology tools to geographic data, she will use supervised classification and machine learning on satellite images to detect changes in the shape or size of land cover types, like shadows from changing tree cover. She’ll conduct these analyses both historically and, once promising algorithms have been developed, on an ongoing basis for the coming decade. The key outcomes — algorithms and maps to document the findings — will enable researchers, conservationists and technologists to monitor land cover change in the area, see the impact of oil activities and support conservation efforts going forward.”
