ClimateAI Awarded Competitive Grant from the National Science Foundation
Summary
San Francisco, CA, 14 September 2020 ClimateAI has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for $246,956 to conduct research and development (R&D) work to create more accurate and reliable climate forecasts on a two-week to three-month time scale that contain actionable decision-making information for farmers.ClimateAI takes a machine-learning approach to forecasting a breakthrough new way to predict weather compared to conventional models, which use only public data, are prone to biases, and require a great deal of time and vast computational resources. This information is invaluable to growers who need to make decisions about when to plant, harvest, and fertilize, in order to harvest the most edible crops and maximize their razor-thin margins, especially amid a changing climate.NSF is proud to support the technology of the future by thinking beyond incremental developments and funding the most creative, impactful ideas across all markets and areas of science and engineering, said Andrea Belz, Division Director of the Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships at NSF. With the support of our research funds, any deep technology startup or small business can guide basic science into meaningful solutions that address tremendous needs.AI is an exciting new wave in seasonal and meteorological forecasting with immense potential. ClimateAI received this grant under NSFs artificial intelligence program, specifically for smart agriculture.Advances in technology like this could make the agricultural sector more sustainable, profitable, and efficient amid the increasing frequency of extreme weather events due to climate change. ClimateAI provides customizable tools for decision-makers in the agricultural sector to make farming more profitable and food systems more resilient by bringing climate forecasting and agronomics into the age of machine learning.