In SER’s first global Hackathon, 14 teams faced off to develop innovative approaches to MRV

In SER’s first global Hackathon, 14 teams faced off to develop innovative approaches to Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) for restoration.

The winners in each category will be announced at the 11th World Conference on Ecological Restoration (SER2025)!

On the 10th and 11th of September 2025, 72 participants–selected from over 350 applicants—from more than 45 countries on 6 continents, came together online to compete in SER’s first-ever ecological restoration Hackathon. The Hackathon was developed as a way to enable those unable to travel to Denver for SER’s World Conference, SER2025, including experts from around the world whose voices might not otherwise be heard, to participate and contribute to the sharing of knowledge and ideas at the event.

What is an ecological restoration Hackathon?

A Hackathon is an event that brings together experts in a specific field to collaborate and solve a problem within a given timeframe, in competition with other teams. Often associated with the technology sector, SER’s ecological restoration Hackathon aimed to accelerate the development of solutions to help address critical challenges in restoration practice.

14 teams competed over two sessions to develop innovative, practical, and affordable approaches to Monitoring (or Measuring), Reporting, and Verification (MRV) in ecological restoration. The challenge posed by the competition was to develop practical MRV tools and solutions that strengthen transparency, build trust, and enable scalable, high-integrity restoration efforts to support the delivery of project certification, private finance, and other relevant activities.

While monitoring and reporting are already broadly developed in the ecological restoration space, including through SER’s International Principles and Standards, the intent was for participants to further refine this existing knowledge as outlined through three sub-challenges, across three main ecosystem types - terrestrial, inland waters, and coastal/marine:

1. Subchallenge #1:  Create a low-cost, lightweight “MRV kit” concept (real or theoretical) that a small organization in a rural or remote area could use with minimal connectivity, budget, or technical expertise, including recommendations for Automated MRV (AutoMRV) as appropriate.
2.  Subchallenge #2: Design a monitoring framework / method / protocol that addresses ecological monitoring challenges for your ecosystem, including recommendations for AutoMRV as appropriate.
3. Subchallenge #3: Design a monitoring framework / method / protocol that addresses social monitoring challenges for your ecosystem, including recommendations for AutoMRV as appropriate

The event was hosted in collaboration with the Nature Tech Collective (NTC), acting as a technical expert on MRV to help guide the development of the event and as a live resource for Hackathon competitors.

What is MRV and why is it important for restoration?

MRV refers to:

• The structured process of tracking restoration activities and outcomes (Monitoring)
• Organizing and communicating results in accessible formats, including in the context of global environmental targets (Reporting)
• Validating the accuracy and credibility of the monitored and reported data (Verification)

AutoMRV refers to MRV that can be readily automated or semi-automated through, for example, systems that collect, process, and report data with minimal manual intervention (e.g. remote sensing, AI, data platforms).

For more information about MRV and its importance in nature tech, NTC recently published a detailed blog post, with an overview of how it is used in restoration practice and its growing importance for policymakers, investors, practitioners, and researchers.

Outcomes of the SER Hackathon

Participants were allocated to teams across the three ecosystem types, broadly aligned with their area of expertise. Teams had four hours to collaborate online in the development of an MRV tool or solution according to the sub-challenge they had been assigned. The final products/solutions will be judged on a range of criteria, including innovation, feasibility, clarity of presentation, and alignment with SER’s Standards.

Hackathon winner video presentations will be shown at SER2025, taking place in Denver, CO, from September 30 - October 4, 2025. Thank you to all of our participants for your time and engagement to help expand knowledge and innovation in this vital field! 

…and especially to those who shared their experience with their networks…!

Team MAADTZ

Expert presenter, David B.