General Information about the Challenge

Applications due: 31 October 2025

Who can apply: Teams of partners from at least one institution whose primary focus is research and at least one institution whose primary focus is the provision of goods and services or program implementation, e.g. commercial, NGO, or non-profit organizations.

What we’re looking for: Proposals to advance development of geospatial technologies or analytical methods currently at TRLs 4-7 that address one of the following questions:

- How might advances in geospatial technologies, models or methods improve information sources and monitoring capabilities used to understand risks to food supply chains?

- How might advances in geospatial technologies, models or methods better inform strategies for crop shifting, based on predicted changes to agricultural environments and crop suitability factors?

- How might advances in geospatial technologies, models or methods enhance capabilities for measurement and model verification protocols designed for use on working farms and capable of identifying effects of location-specific stacked practices on Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) and N losses?

What’s available: TGI will award funds of up to $550k and additional in-kind support through an 18-month applied research and innovation program.

What you’ll build: Your project will provide a proof-of-concept implementation of an early-stage geospatial technology or analytical method, implement changes to maturing geospatial technologies or methods that constitute a meaningful advancement, or demonstrate a proof-of-concept implementation of a mature technology in use in another application domain in a novel operational environment. Your project will actively engage with the ongoing emergence of geoAI and its implications for geospatial technologies, methods, and models.

Your project’s impact: Projects must advance TGI’s mission: to empower the Greater St Louis region by growing its capacity for world-leading geospatial research and innovation. In pursuit of this mission, projects may address problems that manifest at any scale - local, regional, or global - and incorporate case studies globally.

Where you’ll work: Team members may collaborate remotely and may be based anywhere while conducting most project activities. Teams must commit to occasional travel to the Greater St Louis region to engage with its research and innovation community and the TGI team.

Contact the team: gifs@taylorgeospatial.org

TGI Geospatial Innovation for Food Security Challenge Info Session