The climate and ecological emergency is driven by unsustainable business and investment and negative environmental societal (consumer) behaviours. These adverse effects can be addressed through approaches to investment that consider environmental consequences and where the nature becomes a valued asset. However, research and related policy/business initiatives have focussed on large corporates while ignoring the issues facing Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), despite the fact that they form a larger proportion of the UK and global economy. There is more recent attention to investment for climate change, but there remain major gaps in understanding concerning investors impact on biodiversity and nature positive impacts. Furthermore early stage SME innovators offer disruptive technology and new business models to support nature positive impacts. This is underpinned in the Dasgupta report (2021) and the recommendations for a Central Bankers (2022) mandate to improve the biosphere. Both investors and the SMEs seeking finance face challenges in terms of having information on each other about commercial and sustainability factors. These SME finance information asymmetries' (Owen et al 2022) are greater when considering nature positivity due to the lack of clarity in defining biodiversity impacts with related Science Based Targets (SBTs). These information asymmetries are even greater when dealing with new and small disruptive SMEs operating in novel and emerging sectors. This research examines the constraints facing investors wanting investees to report on biodiversity. It will also examine the current good practice in businesses seeking nature positivity and Net Zero. This requires attention to the metrics used and how their measurement can be practical and affordable for SMEs. Finally, it will explore the steps required to encourage a support ecosystem for both investors and SMEs so they can assess nature and carbon impacts. The study will examine four high-risk and potentially high net-gain impact sectors: i) agri-food; ii) infrastructure (transport and construction and appliance of Biodiversity Net Gain); iii) fashion and clothing; iv) advanced engineering and biotech (sectors offering tech for mitigating and measuring biodiversity). Across all of these we will examine the diverse sources of finance, such as banks, supply chain finance, and early stage equity investors (e.g. venture capitalists, business angels, accelerators). Through our project partners, the study will build on UK-based networks derived from impact investor groups, business case studies and support agencies. Key partners already committed to this project include early stage investors, banks, financial intermediaries (notably ESG advisors), and small business support and representative organisations. Data will be collected through qualitative interviews and workshops with investors, SMEs and other key informants advising on reporting for Net Zero and biodiversity. In a period of rapid change, this project will examine the process of change by continuing Middlesex University's longitudinal sample of businesses and SME investors developing innovative approaches to biodiversity reporting. Further work will examine the burgeoning industry around biodiversity reporting for SMEs and other businesses. Ecologists and business reporting specialists will work together to explore the approaches being used, the metrics being prioritised, the methodologies used to assess impact, and the technology being developed to reduce the costs and extend the depth and accuracy of analysis. By having practice partners embedded in the project from the start, the impact plan will ensure there are a range of good practice guides for SMEs, investors and those providing biodiversity and carbon assessment services. The results will reach a wider audience building on the strengths of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) communications team.

Soils are a life support system for global society and our planet. Soils directly provide the vast majority of our food; they are the largest store of carbon in the earth system; and they regulate water quality and quantity reducing the risk of floods, droughts and pollution. In this way, soils provide a natural form of infrastructure that is critical to supporting both rural and urban communities and economies. Despite the criticality of this infrastructure, we do not understand: - the current delivery of services in terms of food production, water flow and quality regulation and carbon storage - from which soils do these services derive and what value do they have for rural/urban communities? - how the decisions we make regarding land drainage, tillage, crop choice, livestocking, tree planting, deforestation, and urban development influence the capability of the soil to provide its' multiple services, or how these decisions may interact. - how resilient our soil infrastructure will be to a changing climate and the increasing pressures to produce more food from less land that our global society faces in trying to feed a population of 9 billion by 2050, and ongoing urbanisation. This lack of understanding stems from a lack of integration across traditionally separate scientific fields that relate to soil infrastructure. Soil functioning is the product of hydrological, physical (soil erosion and weathering), biological and chemical processes, and as such it requires knowledge to be combined across these fields. This fellowship will draw together these disciplines to create a new computer model that will improve our understanding of soil infrastructures, their value to society and their resilience. This model will be used to explore how future scenarios will influence the provision of food-water-carbon services to our societies. Uncertainty and risk analyses will be performed to provide a coherent robust evidence base for decision-making. This will allow us to find ways to enhance our soils to provide more benefits for our societies, improving sustainability and well-being. This fellowship aims to: a. Assess the value of soils as a natural infrastructure that protects and enhances both rural and urban areas through food production, water regulation and carbon storage. b. Estimate the resilience of soil infrastructure to climate change and changing land-use pressures and explore the potential for managing soil infrastructures to mitigate risks and enhance their value and resilience. c. Transform the perceived value of soil infrastructure in communities and businesses, and enhance decision-making capabilities across sectors to help create sustainable resilient societies. The outputs of this fellowship will include: - Scientific insights into soil functioning, sustainability and resilience. - The first valuations of soil as an infrastructure, it's capacity for enhancement, and it's vulnerability to a changing climate and increasing land use pressures. - Estimates of the uncertainties surrounding these estimations, and how this influences to the risk to delivery of food, water and carbon services. - Quantitative predictive modelling frameworks that can support sustainable, resilient decision making across food, water and environment sectors. - Deepened engagement between scientists, businesses, policy makers, and NGOs.