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Category: Incubed

Nourishing commercial growth in Earth observation

Posted on by nchimonides

Hot on the heels of the first Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum, now is a good time to take a look at the all-embracing support that ESA gives to the commercial sector in Europe. With funding programmes, business guidance for companies, and multiyear contracts, ESA provides a vital springboard for continued growth in commercial Earth observation.

The global Earth observation data and service market is estimated to be worth around €2 billion every year and predicted to increase to €7–9 billion by 2032. But despite this wealth of opportunity at a global level, companies in the commercial Earth observation sector in Europe may find getting off the ground difficult owing to the complexity of navigating the investment landscape.

Read the full article on www.esa.int.

Relive the Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum

Posted on by nchimonides

ESA’s first Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum took place at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 30–31 October 2023. The event saw investors, institutions, entrepreneurs and different-sized companies from the Earth observation sector come together to discuss the commercial potential and challenges of Earth observation. Revisit the event by watching the streaming replay.

In his opening address, ESA’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher, said, “Advancing commercial space in Europe is one of the key components of Agenda 2025, which I set as an ambitious vision when I took over the position of ESA Director General.

“The fast-growing Earth observation sector has an abundance of possibilities that private businesses can capitalise on, from satellites and ground infrastructure through to value-added services that address real-world needs with information from space.”

Read the full article on www.esa.int.

Six trends to watch in commercial Earth observation

Posted on by nchimonides

With a multitude of opportunities for start-ups, established companies and investors, commercial Earth observation is a vibrant sector with fast-moving innovations in technology, datasets and downstream applications. ESA is a key driving force for the development of European Earth observation and provides impetus through its many programmes and initiatives.

To set the scene as ESA’s Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum starts this week, here is some need-to-know background information on the evolution and state of play of the Earth observation industry.

Read the full article on www.esa.int.

Sign up now for the ESA Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum

Posted on by nchimonides

ESA’s first-ever Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum will open its doors at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 30 October. Registration is still available for this premier two-day event, which will bring together institutions, investors and businesses to explore the commercial potential and funding landscape in Earth observation.

The forum is open to all Earth observation (EO) stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, start-ups, established companies and public and private investment bodies. Attendees will be treated to keynote addresses from ESA speakers such as Director General Josef Aschbacher, Director of Earth Observation Simonetta Cheli and Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness Géraldine Naja, along with representatives from the European Commission, venture capitalists and industry leaders.

The speeches, panel discussions and networking sessions will provide a unique opportunity to understand the market trends, major drivers and challenges in commercial EO. With such a wealth of opportunity for connecting up the many and varied players in the sector, the event is sure to be the go-to platform for delving into the state of the art and direction of travel in commercial Earth observation. Full details can be found on the dedicated website.

Register for the Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum here.

To know more: Φ-lab, InCubed, esa.int article

Φ-lab contributes to Earth observation education at ESA-NASA training week

Posted on by nchimonides

The Trans-Atlantic Training course (TAT 2023) took place in the Czech Republic from 27 June to 1 July and included presentations and tutorials from current and past Φ-labbers. Organised by ESA, NASA and the Charles University in Prague, the course was aimed at educating early-career scientists and post-graduate students on remote sensing for environmental monitoring and modelling.

TAT has been running since 2013 with the objective of providing training activities for young scientists in the field of Earth observation (EO), with a particular emphasis on remote sensing of land-cover change and ecosystem dynamics. The forum shares and discusses advanced space research through a series of workshops, with this year’s edition dedicated to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), passive optical sensing and lidar for forestry, agriculture and hydrology.

Attendees from 18 countries took part and were able to gain a detailed picture of the state of the art in satellite-derived environmental measurement and prediction. The week was split between the cities of Prague and Brno and included insight from a number of global experts in the field.

The expert input included a significant contribution from ESA’s Earth Observation Programme Directorate. Scientific Coordinator Francesco Sarti was part of the TAT organising committee and kicked off Day 1 with an outline of the Agency’s current and forthcoming EO missions. Next was a session introducing Φ-lab and its activities, with talks from Digital Technologies Engineer Bertrand Le Saux, InCubed Officer Albin Lacroix and other Φ-labbers. The session began with a comprehensive overview of how the Explore Office’s research is transforming Earth observation through the application of artificial intelligence, quantum machine learning and other computational methodologies. This was followed by a presentation on the scope, benefits and successes of the ESA InCubed programme.

Day 2 featured a key lecture on applying SAR data time series to forest monitoring. Given by former Φ-lab visiting researcher Daniel Paluba, the workshop was largely based around work carried out at ESA and included two practical sessions, covering topics such as processing Copernicus Sentinel data and comparing Classical and Automatic Machine Learning approaches. This and the other ESA-related presentations were very well-received by the course attendees, with the Φ-lab sessions in particular giving a glimpse into real-world opportunities in EO research and commerce.

“I think it’s crucial that Φ-lab contributes to educational events such as TAT,” Bertrand Le Saux reflects. “Not only is it a pleasure for us to share details of our research and industry support with such an enthusiastic and energetic audience, but I also feel we are helping to plant the seeds for the EO scientists and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

To know more: ESA Φ-lab, ESA InCubed, TAT on eo4society, Copernicus Sentinel missions

InCubed co-funded SaferPlaces platform maps aftermath of Emilia-Romagna floods

Posted on by nchimonides

The Italian region of Emilia-Romagna was devastated by severe floods in May 2023, claiming lives and displacing thousands of people, resulting in an estimated €8.8 billion in damages. With the region still grappling with the aftermath, satellites have been instrumental in assessing the damages of the affected areas.

Between 16-18 May 2023, 350 million cubic metres of water, equivalent to six months’ worth of rain, fell within 36 hours across Emilia-Romagna, one of Italy’s most important agricultural regions. The heavy rain led to the overflow of 23 rivers across the region, affecting 100 municipalities and triggering more than 400 landslides, which in turn damaged and closed off hundreds of roads.

Read the full article on www.esa.int.

Φ-lab-WMF AI4EO competition inspires European New-Space start-ups to rise to the challenge

Posted on by nchimonides

At a recent award ceremony, Φ-lab announced the four winners of the AI4EO Call, a competition launched in conjunction with the We Make Future event. The top entries received a range of prizes, including an all-expense-paid trip to the ESA EO Commercialisation Forum in October.

As a seed bed for innovation in commercial Earth observation (EO), ESA Φ-lab actively promotes and encourages ideas from start-ups and entrepreneurs. We Make Future (WMF) is the largest digital and social innovation festival in Southern Europe, and so provides an ideal forum for Φ-lab to interface with today’s and tomorrow’s success stories in the space sector. In fact ESA has enjoyed a major presence at the gathering since 2020, and this year’s edition in Rimini in Italy featured a popular ESA booth with exhibits that included activities, products and mock-ups from Φ-lab. The multitude of visitors to the booth comprised enthusiasts, start-ups and companies among others, with each taking the opportunity to interact with Φ-labbers and other ESA representatives.

A notable attraction at this year’s event was the AI4EO Call, a joint initiative of Φ-lab and the organisers of WMF. The competition concerned applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and data processing in aerospace and EO and aimed to reaffirm the value of these sectors in international development and the protection of our planet. Entries were assessed by a panel consisting of ESA and industry representatives, based on criteria including project feasibility, degree of innovation, competitive positioning and potential for further development.

Sixteen of the start-ups were shortlisted and invited to WMF to pitch their proposals to the panel. At a dedicated ceremony in the ESA booth, Φ-lab AI Ecosystem Manager Sabrina Ricci announced the four winning applications:

  • FlyPix AI, a geospatial platform that extracts insights from satellite and drone imagery, enabling customers to detect and segment objects of interest, identify their characteristics and monitor changes and anomalies over time
  • SaferPlaces, an AI-based digital twin solution that uses satellite and climate data to deliver flood risk intelligence for urban environments
  • Terroir from Space, a service for the wine industry that both detects unexploited planting sites and monitors existing vineyards through AI processing of EO data
  • Latitudo 40, an analysis engine that draws on Deep Learning algorithms to provide customers with satellite-derived information on topics such as land use, carbon sequestration and coastline erosion

The first-prize winners, FlyPix, won a trip to the ESA EO Commercialisation Forum in October, where they will participate at an ideas-pitch session with private investors. Other prizes for the runners-up included access to business and technical coaching on EO and a subscription to the Sentinel Data Hub.

“We’re truly grateful to have had the opportunity to take part in the AI4EO competition at WMF 2023 and were overjoyed to be selected as the winners,” commented FlyPix co-founder Sergey Sukhanov. “Not only did this experience allow us to showcase our progress, but it also provided a platform for networking with other participants and exploring potential collaborations. In addition, the EO Commercialisation Forum will be a fantastic chance for us to present our product to a new audience.”

Head of the Φ-lab Invest Office Michele Castorina was impressed by the competition’s take-up: “There has been a striking response to the AI4EO Call, with an extremely broad range of ideas that amply demonstrate the vigour and continuing growth of European innovation. We’ve also had a great deal of interest shown in the ESA InCubed programme, giving a number of possibilities for future co-funding of EO start-up activities.”

To know more: ESA Φ-lab, ESA InCubed, We Make Future, AI4EO Call, ESA EO Commercialisation Forum

Image courtesy of WMF – WeMakeFuture

Register for ESA’s first Earth observation commercialisation event

Posted on by nchimonides

Registration is now open for ESA’s first-ever Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum. Taking place at ESA Headquarters in Paris from 30 to 31 October 2023, investors, institutions, entrepreneurs and companies of any size from the Earth observation sector will now be able to come together and discuss the commercial potential and challenges of Earth observation, together with the technical, industrial and risk-capital support available to European companies.

Advancing commercial space in Europe is a vital component of ESA Agenda 2025 and the Earth observation sector has an abundance of possibilities that private businesses can capitalise on, from satellites and ground infrastructure through to applications that solve real-world problems with data from space. ESA’s Earth Observation Programme Directorate is organising the first Earth Observation Commercialisation Forum to bring leading stakeholders of the fast-growing Earth observation commercial space sector under the same roof.

Read the full article on www.esa.int.

Additional commercialisation innovation opportunities for Portugal with InCubed

Posted on by nchimonides

After confirming their support to ESA InCubed at the 2022 Ministerial Council, Portugal and ESA are announcing a new call for co-funding innovative Earth observation (EO) business cases.

With its mission to support commercially successful business activities in the Earth observation sector, the ESA InCubed programme has a fundamental role to play in promoting growth and competitiveness in the space economies of its Participating States. Portugal is a well-established subscriber to InCubed, and has recently confirmed its intention to open a new call for applying for InCubed co-funding.

Portuguese entities can now submit ideas, which will then be assessed by InCubed and the Portuguese Delegation. Activities selected will need to meet the needs of the Portuguese National Space Strategy, demonstrate a credible return on investment for the company and provide a balance of subject areas and geographical locations within Portugal.

Proposals can be submitted at any time, with two evaluation periods per year. In 2023, the first evaluation is scheduled for early July and the second for Quarter 4. Further details can be found on the Portuguese Space Agency website, and an online webinar to explain InCubed opportunities in Portugal will take place on 23 May at 11:00 CEST. Applicants for InCubed support from any participating state should submit their proposals on ideas.esa.int.

“This initiative from Portugal amply demonstrates the broad commitment to InCubed,” commented Head of the Φ-lab Invest Office Michele Castorina. “We will continue to work hand in hand with our participating states to increase access to finance for the European EO sector, and I look forward to seeing a host of new proposals from Portuguese enterprises.”

Carolina Sá is the Earth Observation officer at the Portuguese Space Agency: “Earth Observation and all its potentialities are a central component of Portugal’s National Strategy for Space. The Portuguese Space Agency believes that this funding opportunity for innovative products and services will give a fundamental boost to our national Earth Observation ecosystem.”

To Know more: ESA InCubed, Portuguese Space Agency

New call released for UK InCubed proposals

Posted on by nchimonides

The latest ESA InCubed call for the United Kingdom is now out. UK entities are invited to submit proposals seeking to develop innovative and commercially viable products and services that exploit the value of Earth observation. The deadline for submissions is 31 May.

The ESA InCubed programme focuses on co-funding commercial development activities across the entire Earth observation (EO) value chain, including satellites, ground applications, downstream applications and new EO business models. InCubed works in very close cooperation with its participating Member States and periodically issues dedicated country-oriented calls.

The most recent national call has been released in collaboration with the UK Space Agency and is open to UK industry and academia. A total of £1 400 000 of funding has been made available, with no upper or lower limit for individual activities. Idea pitches and proposals will be jointly assessed by InCubed and the UK Space Agency, based on criteria such as financial return for the British space sector, level of innovation and wider environmental, social or economic benefits.

Selected activities must finish within 18 months of starting and be able to demonstrate market readiness at completion.

There will be a webinar on 24 April to guide entities on the application process and answer questions relating to the call. Requests to join the event can be sent by completing the online form.

Details of the call can be found here. Applicants should submit their proposals on ideas.esa.int, and the closing date for entries is 31 May 2023.

To Know more: ESA InCubed, UK Space Agency