With a budget of €15 million, the European Space Agency (ESA) is offering over 100 opportunities for industry, start-ups and scientific institutions to pioneer new Earth Observation (EO) applications with the aim of fostering scientific excellence and to stimulate downstream industry growth in satellite data services.
ESA’s EO Science for Society programme will award over 100 individual contracts with a fixed price of up to €150, 000 and to a maximum duration of 12 months for potential recipients to develop innovative ideas that bring Earth observation science closer to society.
To ensure that both industry and scientific institutions can take advantage of short-term opportunities in today's rapidly evolving conditions, member states have requested that EO Science for Society has a permanently open call for applicants to apply for financial support. Although proposals can be submitted to ESA at any time, the monies will be awarded within the next five years.
“The initiative aims to boost European industry and scientific institutions by helping them to exploit Earth observation data and other resources in the competitive global market to develop platforms for enhanced large-scale data exploitation,” said Josef Aschbacher, Director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes.
As part of the process, ESA stipulates that “bidders will be required to demonstrate the innovative content of their proposals and, where appropriate, the engagement of relevant stakeholders. For proposals related to Scientific Data Exploitation, bidders will also be required to demonstrate scientific excellence of the proposed activity.”
For more information or to submit a proposal, click here.
