Second myEUspace competition announced
EUSPA says it is “building a community of pioneering ideas with high market potential, sharing experiences, and inspiring each other.”
A second edition of the myEUspace competition has been announced by the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) following the success of the first competition, the winners of which were announced back in 2020.
The myEUspace competition aims to promote ground-breaking solutions that combine advanced technologies, innovative ideas, and the massive potential of space-based data.
The competition is aimed at start-ups and entrepreneurs with an idea or a ready-made solution for a product using satellite data, such as a mobile app, wearable, or robotic product. No specialization in the space industry is needed to participate in the competition. Applications will be judged through three different application routes, depending on the project’s level of maturity.
The European Union is developing two main space programs as part of EU space policy; the Galileo global navigation satellite system and the Copernicus Earth observation system. Satellite data sets from these programs are widely available and free of charge, and the potential list of applications for products based on them covers virtually all sectors of the economy.
Winning projects from the competition’s first edition include an application for sustainable precision agriculture, a platform for improving road safety using navigation and Earth observation data, and a solution for automatically monitoring subsidence on construction sites.
Proposed projects must fit into one of the three thematic areas:
Our Green Planet – innovative solutions to environmental and sustainable living challenges that contribute to the implementation of the European Green Deal and tools to support the green transformation of businesses
Space My Life – consumer solutions, such as mobile apps, wearable devices (smart watches, smart glasses, fitness trackers, etc.), drones, or robotic devices that address major societal challenges in areas such as the health, safety, and security of citizens; games and entertainment; sports and fitness; and tourism
Dive In Deep Tech – products that combine data from EU space programs with cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technologies (computing, simulation, encryption, etc.), blockchain, metaverse, and augmented reality (augmented reality (AR)/mixed reality (MR)/virtual reality (VR).
Speaking about the competition, Justyna Redełkiewicz, head of EUSPA’s Consumer Solutions, Market, and Technology department, said, “As well as funding the best ideas, we offer technical and business support to our experts. In recent years, EUSPA has built an impressive ecosystem of startups and organizations that use satellite data daily. We are building a community of pioneering ideas with high market potential, sharing experiences, and inspiring each other. We know from the participants of the first edition of myEUspace that this is of great value for them,” she added.
A prize fund of €1,000,000 has been reserved for the best entries to encourage innovators to apply. However, the organizers believe that financial support is only one of the many benefits of participating in the competition.
Hungary has recently announced several educational programs designed to facilitate greater involvement in European space projects, with ELTE announcing it will train space science professionals starting this year as one of 11 Universities contributing to the program. Today, 16 space-related postgraduate courses are now available nationwide.
