Healthy soils are fundamental to food production, biodiversity, water management and climate resilience, yet they remain one of the most under-measured natural assets. The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and Carbon Asset Solutions (CAS) seek to address this by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to progress joint working in this area.
This partnership aims to build a world-leading soil intelligence and carbon market ecosystem in the UK, combining advanced soil measurement technology with CAS's digital MRV (DMRV) systems for robust carbon reporting and verification systems.
Carbon Asset Solutions uses innovative Mobile INS (Inelastic Neutron Scattering) technology to provide real-time insights into soil health and productivity. By scanning fields directly and processing data instantly in the cloud, it enables field-scale assessment of characteristics such as carbon, moisture and texture, based on non-invasive elemental analysis.
What benefits will the partnership bring?
- Helping farmers and land managers better understand, manage and monetise their soil resources.
- Supporting businesses in reducing emissions across their supply chains with audit-ready data verified through CAS's DMRV pipeline.
- Creating a comprehensive national soil database.
The collaboration will help drive more sustainable and productive agriculture while positioning the UK as a global leader in precision soil management and natural capital markets.
UKCEH soil scientist David Robinson said, “Unlike methods that estimate or infer, Inelastic Neutron Scattering (INS) directly measures soil carbon and other elements - unlocking a new generation of non-invasive, field-scale soil assessment for agriculture, engineering, environmental remediation, security, and science. We’re thrilled to be working with CAS to help unlock this technology for users across Europe.”
CAS Co-founder and chief technology officer, Sara Macdonald said: “We're thrilled to bring our scientific team together with UKCEH to apply this technology to UK soils and environmental conditions for the first time. That science feeds our Soil Intelligence Platform, turning field-level data into soil health insights growers can act on. From there, our DMRV pipeline verifies the carbon outcomes to meet the standards buyers require, and this partnership is how we bring that infrastructure to the UK.”