We firmly believe in the potential of truly transformative ideas and the power of compelling partnerships to accelerate the Earth observation future
ESA Φ-lab accelerates the future of Earth Observation (EO) through disruptive and transformational innovation, aiming to strengthen the world-leading competitiveness of the European EO industrial and scientific sectors.
Foster blue-sky transformative ideas
Nurture good ideas
Evolve solutions through a fail-fast approach
Financially support and develop solutions
Foster entrepreneurial initiatives
Achieve innovation adoption
Φ-lab is an open innovation laboratory, acting as a hub and catalyst for Earth observation innovative and transformative ideas. Φ-lab creates a bridge within the Earth observation ecosystem, between innovative actors from the industry, the investment community and academia, to foster impactful entrepreneurial initiatives. Φ-lab aims to generate a competitive advantage through a unique commercial and/or scientific value proposition.
Φ-lab is the only organisation within ESA where, within a single team, you can propose a blue-sky, unqualified idea and receive assistance in maturing it up to its adoption in the market or society. Our motto is “we innovate and apply under one roof,” and this model has now been adopted, under the auspices of ESA Agenda 2025, as an ESA strategic action deploying a network of Φ-labs across Europe
We are located at ESA’s ESRIN establishment in Frascati, Italy. The Φ-lab family encompasses approximately 40 members across 12 different nationalities, including around 20% of ESA staff, in combination with ESA Research Fellows, Visiting Professors and Visiting Researchers from academia and industry.
Φ-lab consists of two offices
The Explore Office focuses on the initial part of the innovation pipeline, while the Invest Office drives proposed innovations to market via the InCubed commercialisation programme
Explores the innovation universe and connects together the EO and digital revolutions.
A team of Researchers and innovation seed funding (FutureEO)
Stimulates competitiveness by fostering the growth of entrepreneurial initiatives through investment actions from ESA Member States and private investors.
A team of business innovators and a commercial co-funding programme (InCubed)
Established in Spring 2018, the concept of Φ-lab was infused with ideas from a trip by ESA executives to Silicon Valley, where they saw organisations that nurture innovation in inspirational environments.
In the short period from its inception until today, ESA Φ-lab has become the reference point in the Earth observation sector for transformational innovation and business investment. We have garnered many successes, some of which are given below.
Contributions to AI-powered satellites
The Φ-lab Explore Office continues to accelerate the adoption of the digital revolution on board of satellites. We have contributed to the genesis of the Φ-sat programme and supported the AI elements of Φsat-1, Φsat-2, Intuition 1, Kanyini, OPS-SAT, etc., together with studies for ESA operational missions. Through InCubed, we have supported the development of several emerging EO data and services constellations.
External collaborations with companies, agencies, research centres and private investors
We have signed partnerships with industrial and research entities, scientific AI associations and institutions. These organisations provide the stimuli to many of the activities we do.
InCubed fund size
The InCubed programme increased significantly its fund size at the last ESA Ministerial Conference, reaching a total of €225 million in subscriptions from 22 European countries. We aim to leverage the successes of InCubed and the great feedback from industry to expand the programme to all ESA Member States, thereby increasing its impact in the ecosystem.
Publications in peer-reviewed journals and at conferences
We have published over 100 works, including international journal and conference papers, and as the editors of books.
Read all publicationsVisiting Professors
Φ-lab, in collaboration with its 12 visiting professors, continues to set the European research and development agenda within AI for Earth observation.
Discover all work opportunitiesVisiting researchers
Φ-lab has hosted over 60 visiting researchers from industry, universities, research centres and other organisations. We typically host around ten researchers at any one time.
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