Conservation X Labs

Grand challenges: in december 2022, Conservation X Labs announced the winners of the amazon round of the artisanal mining grand challenge (www.artisanalminingchallenge.com) focused on solutions that make artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the amazon more environmentally responsible and socially equitable. Four grand prize-winning innovator teams were identified out of the 12 finalists that participated in the amazon colab wwwartisanalminingchallengecomcolab a six-month field-testing and acceleration program.in june 2022, Conservation X Labs announced the winners of the global microfiber innovation challenge (announced in 2020, launched in 2021). The challenge gave away $650,000 in prizes for transformative solutions to address microfiber pollution by providing promising innovators with funding and support to help the innovations get to market, become financially sustainable, and scale. In 2022, Conservation X Labs started scoping the fire grand challenge httpsconservationxlabscomfire with a goal to re-imagine how we live with fire. We are seeking solutions that can transform local and systemic fire stewardship by bringing together place-based engagement and knowledge with cutting-edge innovation, science, and technology. The team organized convenings in 2 of the 3 geographies where we plan to focus our efforts: the north american west, the amazon, and indonesia. "little thinks" were held in the fourth quarter of 2022 in san francisco, ca (na west) and medellin, colombia (amazon) a little think in indonesia and a big think are scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. The team focused on challenge design and fundraising for the competition throughout the year.

Sentinel/garage: during 2022, cxl's engineering team continued the development of a Conservation tool, sentinel, a smart camera system designed and engineered by cxl for the frontlines of the biodiversity crisis. Sentinel provides near real-time information to rangers, conservationists, and researchers, enabling more dynamic protected area management and faster response to important events in the wild. This product development included hardware design and manufacturing, software development, artificial intelligence research, field deployments, and fundraising.

Dna: nucleic acid barcode identification tool (nabit): Conservation X Labs is in development of a portable, battery-powered, rapid, and low-cost tool that allows for the detection of dna or rna targets in the field without the need for a laboratory, reagents, expensive equipment, or specialized training or expertise. This tool's development aims to empower those at the forefront of Conservation and planetary health such as inspectors, enforcement officials, and park rangers to conduct on-site detection using dna or rna barcodes. These barcodes are short gene sequences, like the co1 gene, which correspond to a species or strain's identity.the tool's focused applications include combating illegal timber and wildlife trafficking, maintaining traceability in supply chains, and detecting pathogens and invasive species using environmental dna or rna. In 2022, we continued work for the nih radx-rad program to enhance the nabit's ability to detect disease. Throughout the year, we conducted analytical testing on our instrument and extensive user testing on our kit and workflow. Following the results of this user testing, we have initiated adjustments to the test kit and nabit software to improve usability and performance.