Funded by the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF), ENVIRA is a fellowship programme for three early-career researchers from the Philippines. We seek to investigate how artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches for analysing unstructured data (i.e., large amounts of text) can be applied to: (a) the extraction of scientific knowledge that can inform biodiversity conservation programmes; (b) the understanding of food production and consumption-related information in order to make food systems more sustainable; and (c) the extraction of information on the impacts of natural disasters on citizens, based on narratives.