The Generative AI for Geospatial Challenge

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and thriveGEO hosted the EMEA edition of the Generative AI for Geospatial Challenge.

The challenge brought together innovators, industry leaders and cloud resources to explore what is possible when generative AI, geospatial data and cloud technology come together. Fourteen winning teams developed solutions addressing challenges across climate resilience, infrastructure, data, ecosystems and decision support.

The full challenge report and four-part podcast series have now been released, sharing the projects, outcomes and lessons from across the cohort

Meet the
winning teams

The GenAI for Geospatial Challenge supported teams across the EMEA region as they explored how generative AI, cloud infrastructure and geospatial data can be applied to real-world problems.

14 winning teams selected
from across EMEA
$650k AWS cloud credits supporting prototype development
4 podcast episodes sharing lessons from the challenge

Climate Resilience & Environmental Intelligence

Aspia Space project preview
Aspia Space logo
01
Europe Climate

Aspia Space

ManyWorlds

Trustworthy, data-driven probabilistic scenario planning to improve climate resilience.

GeoTerra Image project preview
GEOTERRAIMAGE logo
02
Africa Climate risk

GEOTERRAIMAGE

GeoChat Analytics

A climate resilience assistant for KwaZulu-Natal.

NatureAlpha project preview
NatureAlpha logo
03
Europe Nature risk

NatureAlpha

Ecosystem Service Forecasting

Forecasting ecosystem service risk with geospatial foundation models.

OceanOS SeaLense interface preview
OceanOS logo
04
Europe Marine

OceanOS

DARWIN & SeaLense

A marine geospatial foundation model and an agentic interface for offshore-wind consenting.

Urban Climate MENA project preview
Urban Climate MENA logo
05
Middle East Urban heat

Urban Climate MENA

Temperature Spatiotemporal Downscaling

Neighbourhood-scale urban heat intelligence pipeline.

Infrastructure & Smart Cities

Metaplanet project preview
Metaplanet logo
06
Europe Risk

Metaplanet

AURA

An agent-driven Earth observation platform for site-level risk assessment.

VIDA.place project preview
VIDA.place logo
07
Europe Infrastructure

VIDA.place

VIDA Agent

An agentic interface for infrastructure analytics.

VISTA project preview
VISTA logo
08
Europe Planning

VISTA

VISTA Agentic AI

An agentic geospatial AI platform for evidence-based spatial decision-making.

Data Foundations, Trust & Scalable Platforms

ATOM AI project preview
ATOM AI logo
09
Africa Data context

ATOM AI

ATOM AI Platform

A contextual AI data platform for geospatial and multimodal intelligence.

BigData Ghana project preview
BigData Ghana logo
10
Africa Forests

BigData Ghana

ForestTrace AI

An AI-assisted forest monitoring platform for faster environmental intelligence.

RASID project preview
RASID logo
11
Middle East Methane

RASID

GoPilot

An agentic Earth observation platform for methane monitoring and beyond.

Sproxil project preview
Sproxil logo
12
Africa Health

Sproxil

Project INSIGHT

Integrated national settlement intelligence for geographic health targeting.

Ecosystems, Markets & Decision Intelligence

BolgiaTen project preview
BolgiaTen logo
13
Europe Maritime

BolgiaTen

EO-VTI

A marine intelligence copilot for dark fleet risk.

Globeholder NEXT project preview
Globeholder NEXT logo
14
Europe Urban intelligence

Globeholder NEXT

UrbanRegion

Multimodal pipeline for region-level urban intelligence.

What did the winners get?

$650,000 AWS cloud credits

Technical support from AWS

Community, visibility and recognition

Scene From Above · Season 16

GenAI for Geospatial
podcast takeover

A four-part Scene From Above series spotlighting winning teams and outcomes from the GenAI for Geospatial Challenge across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Episode 1

Africa Team Spotlight with Nana Akua Afra Owusu-Addo, BigData Ghana

Africa spotlight ForestTrace AI

BigData Ghana: forest intelligence for action

Host: Sabrina Szeto
Guest: Nana Akua Afra Owusu-Addo, BigData Ghana

Afra shares how ForestTrace AI uses generative AI to make forest and land-use intelligence clearer for policymakers, sustainability teams and local stakeholders.

Episode 2

Middle East Team Spotlight with Reda Haidar, RASID

Middle East spotlight GoPilot

RASID: asking better questions of Earth observation

Host: Julia Wagemann
Guest: Reda Haidar, RASID

Reda introduces GoPilot, an agentic Earth observation platform that lets users ask natural-language questions and generate geospatial workflows, including for methane monitoring.

Episode 3

Europe Team Spotlight with Cormac Purcell, BolgiaTen

Europe spotlight Marine intelligence

BolgiaTen: AI-enabled marine intelligence

Host: Scene From Above
Guest: Cormac Purcell, BolgiaTen

The episode explores how BolgiaTen is developing AI-enabled geospatial tools for maritime intelligence, including dark-vessel risk and decision-ready ocean monitoring.

Episode 4

Report Launch with Phil Cooper, AWS, and Nadine Alameh, Lunate AI

Closing episode Challenge reflections

What the Challenge revealed about geospatial AI

Host: Scene From Above
Guests: Phil Cooper, AWS; Nadine Alameh, Lunate AI

A closing conversation reflecting on the Challenge, the report launch, the lessons emerging from the winning teams and what the results reveal about the future of generative AI in geospatial.

Challenge sponsors

The partners behind
the EMEA Challenge

The Generative AI for Geospatial Challenge – EMEA Edition brought together leading geospatial researchers and some of the largest geospatial data providers to push the boundaries of what was possible in making the planet’s data more accessible and searchable.

From bold ideas to working geospatial AI prototypes.

With the broadest and most comprehensive set of cloud services, AWS was at the forefront of this transformation, empowering customers to accelerate the development of highly scalable, cloud-native geospatial solutions.

The challenge was designed to inspire and support the development, commercialisation and scaling of innovative geospatial applications.

Cloud infrastructure Geospatial innovation Community support Storytelling Cohort visibility

Challenge timeline

From launch to
showcase

8 October 2025 – 22 July 2026

8 Oct – 7 Dec 2025

Launch

The challenge opened for proposals, inviting teams to develop bold ideas for generative AI and geospatial innovation.

01
8 Dec – 7 Jan 2026

Award

Submissions were reviewed by the jury and the selected winning teams were announced.

02
8 Jan – 31 May 2026

Build

The winning teams developed their ideas with AWS cloud credits, technical support and community learning sessions.

03
1 Jun – 22 Jul 2026

Show

The teams presented their prototypes through selected geospatial events and storytelling activities.

04

Explore the Challenge

Catch up on the launch webinar, meet the winning teams, and revisit the kickoff event that brought the GenAI for Geospatial Challenge to life.

Introductory webinar

Watch the challenge briefing

A recording of the introductory webinar covering the challenge timeline, eligibility, selection criteria and available support.

  • Challenge timeline
  • Eligibility and selection criteria
  • Resources and support
Watch webinar

Inside the winners

Meet the winning teams

Explore the 14 winning teams selected across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and the themes shaping their projects.

  • 14 winning teams
  • Projects across EMEA
  • Climate, cities, data and intelligence
Explore winners

About the kickoff

Read the launch summary

A recap of the Royal Geographical Society kickoff event, including keynote presentations, expert panels and the formal challenge launch.

  • Kickoff event recap
  • Keynotes and expert panels
  • Challenge launch context
Read summary

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