Piloted Innovations

Partnership, Applicability and Scalability of Innovations and Technologies for Climate Resilience in South Asia

iCARE Fund

The iCARE Fund, under the scope of the CARE project, aims to promote innovation and co-creation in climate resilience data and analytics, decision-support systems, and guidelines and standards in South Asia Region (SAR). Building on the earlier work carried out under, the iCARE Fund will upscale footprints in enhancing disaster resilience and climate change adaptation, making infrastructure and systems resilient, and enabling innovations in sectoral decision support systems for climate resilience development.

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Founded in 2010, Cropin is a global Agritech pioneer who has built the world’s first purpose-built industry cloud for Agriculture. Cropin Cloud enables various stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem to leverage digitization and predictive intelligence to make effective decisions that increase farming efficiency, manage risk and environmental changes, and enhance sustainability. Cropin has digitized 16 million acres of farmland, improving the livelihoods of more than 7 million farmers across 102 countries.

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Geoneon is an innovative technology firm, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Earth Observation to transform complex geospatial data into actionable climate risk insights for built and natural asset managers. Geoneon unique solutions facilitate comprehensive and accurate climate risk disclosure and support sustainability initiatives. We work across various sectors including utilities, cities, government agencies, and international organisations, reinforcing our ability to handle challenges of varying scales and complexities with proficiency.

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Small Island Geographic Society (SIGS) is an NGO registered in the Maldives aimed to create an interest among young people and build new generations who are interested in the unique environment, geography, and the livelihood of small islands. As such, SIGS will collaborate genuine, knowledgeable, and practical ideas and concepts that positively impact the small island environment and its people.”

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Naxa Pvt. Ltd. is a Geo-ICT service provider, focused on the design and development of geospatial and technological solutions to support evidence-informed decision-making. NAXA’s vision is to be a leading geo-intelligence provider company that helps the world navigate its future. Established in 2014 by a passionate and visionary group of Geomatics engineers from Kathmandu University, Nepal, NAXA is dedicated to spearheading innovations in geospatial technologies to address the pressing global challenges of our time.

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Inara Technologies specializes in bespoke solutions and premium professional services for Service Provider Networks, OSS/BSS systems, Content Delivery Networks, Enterprise Systems, and Virtualization & amp, Cloud services. Using its “Software First” approach the organization has developed seamless solutions for ICAS at the national scale. While employing advanced DevOp tools, ICAS data solution is now offering higher level of “citizen scientists” engagement while running algorithms to construct advisory services simultaneously.

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EMBSYS(PVT) LTD is a growing private entity in Sri Lanka, involved in controlled electronics, embedded industrial systems, design and developing robotics for industrial usage and design of data loggers using cutting age technology. The organization have designed, developed, and supplied automatic rain gauges, data loggers, street light monitoring systems and web applications to several government, semi government and private organizations in Sri Lanka during last five years with continuous maintenance services.

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The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) is an international English-speaking postgraduate institution, focusing on engineering, environment, and management studies. AIT’s rigorous academic, research, and experiential outreach programs prepare graduates for professional success and leadership roles in Asia and beyond. Founded in 1959, AIT offers the opportunity to study at an institution in Asia which possesses a global reputation. Going forward, AIT will be stressing its global connections, injection of innovation into research and teaching, its relevance to industry, and its nurturing of entrepreneurship, while continuing to fulfill its social impact and capacity building role.

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Durham University’s Department of Economics boasts a rich legacy of internationally acclaimed research in economics, providing vital support to some of the UK’s leading businesses and institutions. The University endeavors span a wide spectrum, encompassing areas such as economic growth and policy, development economics, behavioral economics, quantitative research, and environmental and energy economics. By amalgamating rigorous academic theory with practical research, we strive to influence the business landscape and offer unique insights to shape public policies.

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Practical Action is an innovative international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work in building resilient communities in the face of poverty and climate change. Established in 1966 and operating as a UK-registered charity, we work alongside communities to develop sustainable, locally owned solutions for agriculture, water, and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. In Asia, we have a strong presence with local registrations in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

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Think Blue Data is developing a web-based Early Warning and Decision Support System (DSS) for risk and impact analysis of hazards in Bhutan (such as flood and drought on energy infrastructure). The platform integrates hazard and climate models with geospatial data to provide timely and actionable information through customized interactive maps and reports. The platform also allows partners to import, analyze and securely share localized data with all relevant stakeholders.

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Precision Development (PxD) is a global non-profit that harnesses technology, data science, and behavioral economics to build digital services that empower people to transform their lives. We build low-cost information systems at scale to share knowledge with world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people. As part of the iCare project, we will be sharing high-accuracy weather forecasts combined with advisories to improve climate resilience of smallholder coffee farmers in Karnataka, India.

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Leading India’s development journey for the past five decades by providing transformational solutions through policy research, technological innovation, and advocacy, TERI has been at the centre stage of understanding the ecological impact of climate change to drive sustainable development. TERI has been deeply committed to addressing every aspect of sustainable development. TERI’s enduring engagement in the areas of Himalayan glaciers, climate change, water resources, sustainability in agriculture, energy transitions, advanced biofuels, transport, buildings, and forestry is focused on making critical contributions to create a cleaner and greener Earth.

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WindPower Nepal (WPN) is a pioneering clean-tech company, advocating for sustainable solutions and environmental stewardship. Driven by its vision of transforming lives through innovation, WPN provides engineering and consulting services in renewable energy, climate change, waste management, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable agriculture. Committed to fostering positive change, WPN delivers cutting-edge technologies to protect the environment and promote a more sustainable future for generations to come.

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IHRR is a research institute dedicated to Promoting Innovations and Science based Decision making in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management. Founded with a vision of preparing risk-informed societies for disaster resilience and sustainable development, IHRR employs a multifaceted approach.

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Institute of Technology, pioneers’ solutions for climate-related challenges. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, artificial intelligence, and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), AdaptX integrates climate adaptation strategies and risk assessment methodologies. Through innovative approaches, it develops advanced tools and predictive models, empowering communities to enhance resilience and effectively mitigate the impacts of climate change.

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Originally established in 1906 as the Punjab Agricultural College and Research Institute, the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-Pakistan (UAF) is an internationally acclaimed agricultural university, holding the distinction of being the only Pakistani university ranked among the top 100 institutions worldwide in its subject category. The UAF is comprised of seven faculties: Agriculture, Veterinary Sciences, Animal Husbandry, Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Social Sciences, Sciences, and Food, Nutrition, and Home Sciences.
Climate Innovation Challenge
Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC) was aimed to crowdsource innovative and disruptive technology solutions from around the world for resilience in South Asia. It builds partnerships, applicability, and scalability of innovations and technologies for climate resilience in South Asia supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Government of the United Kingdom’s through its Program for Asia’s Resilience to Climate Change (PARCC) Trust Fund.

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Oy Arbonaut provides technological solutions for natural resource management. In Nepal, they will pilot the ProMS platform and its functionalities by developing a GIS web interface as well as a mobile application to provide local farmers in Nepal with Agro-Met Innovative Advisory Services (AMIAS) and build food security of the farming communities.

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The Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources has developed the Irrigation and Climate Advisory Services (ICAS), an automated system supported by Artificial Intelligence and algorithms that integrates complex remotely sensed, field research, and citizen science (citizen observed weather parameters) data. The integrated data is then converted to useful information and climate advisories in local languages for farmers in Pakistan.

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The Small Island Geographic Society’s Heyli is a mobile application that utilizes citizen science and crowd sourcing to gather data on coastal erosion and flooding in the Maldives. The pilot application aims to implement a measurable monitoring system and calculate the extent to which an island is affected by coastal erosion and flooding over a period of time. The data is then used to develop end-products such as maps and statistics to support development planning and further research.

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The Alliance for Appropriate Technology Exchange will deploy a three-part sub-modules system integrated with ICT applications i.e (i) Smart Vertical Farming Module (SVFM) , (ii) rainwater harvesting module and (iii) solar module for smart vertical farming and improve the productivity of urban and semi urban farming in Sri Lanka.

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The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) will deploy A near-real time monitoring of road and power infrastructure using advanced geospatial datasets with the help of crowdsourcing and artificial intelligence via android application and associated (Climate Resilient Infrastructure for Social Transformation and Adaptation) Dashboard in Bangladesh and Nepal. The pilot is intended to support the decision makers in addressing risk information gaps to improve community level climate resilience through risk sensitization.

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Carthago will deploy its Tidal River Water Custodian, a decision-making framework on resilient and adaptive livelihoods to be deployed in Bangladesh. The pilot includes a set of tools and methods that allows diverse mapping of local communities and their vulnerability profiles and their inclusion in the formal decision support processes.

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CropIn Technology will deploy their SmartFarm, a tailored advisory dissemination system through an ICT platform with mobile and web interfaces. The platform would enable smallholder farmers to have access to knowledge and information on sustainable best practices as well as curated, timely, and automated weather advisories in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

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NAXA Pvt. Ltd will deploy their Household Level Risk Assessment Tool, a customizable data collection digital system that can assess household-level vulnerability and risk factors (using a mobile application and a web application) for evidence-based decision support and to plan effective risk financing strategies in Nepal.

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Seoul National University is deploying an integrated pest management platform (SPMP) in Bangladesh that provides seamless climate information, ranging from high-resolution gridded climate change scenario, seasonal forecast, weather forecast, to mechanistic modeling platform for pests and diseases. The SPMP comprises of three key information components to make pest management decisions possible: (i) UniDform (Universal Downscaling Platform for Climate Information Applications); (ii) GMP3 (Generic Modular Platform for Plant Pests); (iii) IPM (Integrated Pest Management).

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Zephyr Consulting Limited will pilot the SLAMDAM-technology, a low-cost hardware technological solution to enhance resilience against floods. The movable water-filled flood barrier, will be deployed in Pakistan where there are flooding risks and therefore improve resilience to flooding risks.

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Geoneon develops solutions to anticipate the impact of climatic disasters through deep-learning model that automatizes land-use segmentation on satellite imagery using convolutional Neural Network (CNN). In Bhutan, they will support a district administration to provide an overview of the infrastructures, the extent of hazard prone areas and the vulnerability of infrastructures to multi-hazards that allows for informed decisions to implement mitigation and monitoring measures.

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Tarayana Microfinance Pvt Ltd (TMF) will deploy its climate risk financing solution and catalyze Bhutan’s financial institutions to make small loans for climate risk financing available to remote, vulnerable mountain communities and their members, especially women smallholder farmers and pastoralists.

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University of Salford’s THINKlab will pilot a set of cloud-based digital services using “Software as a Service” (SaaS) model for local and national government agencies in Sri Lanka to collaborate in building local community resilience. The MOBILISE 3.0 is a cloud-based risk information space that allows local councils or local disaster management committees to capture and maintain their local intelligence on exposure, vulnerability and potential hazards.

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Led by the Curtin University, a consortium of public and private partners will deploy the ADOPT (Advocating available climate-smart technologies, Demonstrating the most appropriate technology, Omitting misinformation about climate-smart technology, and Putting peer pressure for Technology adoption) model (based on Nudge Theory) to incentivize farmers to adopt climate-smart technologies in the irrigation system.

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Pro Nature Alliance will pilot their Sustainable Agriculture Technology (SAT), a nature-based hardware solution customized to the Pakistani context. It combines three technologies backed by climate smart practices. SAT is a combination of (i) customized raise bed maker; (ii) organic mulcher; and (iii) precision planter to support low cost, water conserving, organic farming practices in Pakistan.

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A consortium of Stonestep TFD Pvt. Ltd and Practical Action will deploy the Parametric Flood Insurance for Climate Vulnerable Agriculture in Western Nepal. The parametric index is designed using historical flood data, satellite data and socio-economic data and the insurance product generated would protect smallholder farmers against losses to agriculture resulting from severe flooding.

Supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Government of the United Kingdom’s through its Program for Asia’s Resilience to Climate Change (PARCC) Trust Fund, the main objective of TechEmerge Resilience India Challenge was to enhance the capacity of communities and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) in India to prepare and respond to disasters, climate risks, and COVID-19 through cutting-edge technological interventions.

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Nelen & Schuurmans’ Flood Forecasting System will develop a flood early warning system that is useful for both immediate calamity management and long-term planning, through two software solutions that can be run through cloud-based computing from any laptop/tablet.  The interactive interface allows one to visualize how water flows during the actual simulation, and also interact with it. With the AI based simulation, the user can let it rain, generate storms or break levees, adapt elevation or change the interception of an area. An example here.    Learn more

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Seismic AI’s End to End Managed Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) covers all aspects of designing, deploying, maintaining, monitoring and improving the performance of the network.  The core of SeismicAI’s EEWS is a unique real-time seismic algorithm that uses Array Seismology to locate the epicenter (back-azimuth), and several unique non-empirical algorithms to estimate the magnitude and expected ground shaking at any location. The algorithm is driven by a state-of-the-art real-time, distributed computing environment that reduces the number of stations / nodes drastically, and supports real-time seismic processing even in the harsh settings where the stations are often located.   Learn more

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Project OWL’s Post Disaster Internet Connectivity provides wireless devices basic connectivity for messaging and information. Project OWL developed an innovative unified network infrastructure of hardware, firmware, and software to create a seamless plug-and-play solution. The DuckLink is a wireless device that provides basic connectivity for messaging and information.  DuckLinks may be deployed in networked clusters to form the ClusterDuck Network in the air, on the ground, on the water, or underground. The open-source nature of Project OWL’s technology makes it an effective solution to distribute code and knowledge to affected communities without requiring on-the-ground manufacturing and teams for deployment. Learn more

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deaForge manufactures fully customizable, high capacity drones that can be deployed for defense, homeland security and enterprise solutions. ideaForge’s drones will aid the chosen SDMA in; disaster preparedness through surveillance, survey and mapping, disaster response and relief by acting as first responder to provide on-ground situational awareness, and disaster recovery by conducting post-disaster damage assessment.   Learn more

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Pragathi foundation is to pilot a Two Way Community Based Connectivity using a Wifi based 2 way Local Radio, that caters to the information needs of rural communities living in a particular locality, which includes portable transmission and receiving devices using open source technology. The pilot is to be implemented in tandem with the chosen SDMA in signal dark areas that have hitherto never been connected to the outside world through any means of telecommunications. The communications solution is low tech, remote community based DRM and focuses on awareness creation. It is also highly cost effective. Learn more.

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Saif Seas has developed Autonomous Drones for Rescue, a remote operated buoy that functions as a zero risk rescue device.  The buoy has a strong communication range of up to 3kms that can be extended to 10kms if necessary.  The buoy is fully customisazle and can be retrofitted with HD cameras, robotic probes or weaponry and designed as per the needs / requirements of the SDMA.   Learn more

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Quantela’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Platform (CoVER) is an integrated command and control center for crisis management.  It is a proven Command Centre Platform with Flexible and Dynamic Integrations, Visualizations layer, Automation Rules and Mobile Apps (T COVID’19 – on Google Play and App Store).  Apart from the command and control center, the platform comes with Field officer mobile app and… Learn more