European Space Agency calls for new 5G applications

The European Space Agency (ESA) is offering grant funding to develop new 5G applications across a range of development areas.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is offering grant funding to develop new 5G applications across a range of development areas.

ESA Business Applications offers funding and support to businesses from any sector who intend to use space to develop new commercial services.

The offer includes:

• Technical & commercial guidance
• Access to our network and partners
• Use of the ESA brand for your service
• Zero-equity funding

In the upcoming Announcement of Opportunity, economic operators are invited to propose either a Feasibility Study or a Demonstration Project addressing the themes below.

Law Enforcement and Emergency Response

KEY FOCUS AREAS

Major threats to the safety and security of cities are crime and violence, insecurity of tenure and forced eviction, and natural and human-made disasters. Combined, these three threats to the safety and security of urban residents currently pose a huge challenge to both city and national governments, as well as to the international community.

Reports also show how these threats can unequally affect citizens, and how the unequal distribution of risk and vulnerability is an important and growing component of daily urban life.

The impacts of crime and violence are multidimensional. Apart from injury and death, victims of crime and violence suffer long-lasting psychological trauma, and continuously live with the fear of crime. At the national level, crime and violence are impediments to foreign investment, contribute to capital flight and brain drain, and hinder international tourism.

At the local level, crime and violence result in the stigmatization of neighbourhoods or even entire sections of the city. Such areas become ‘no-go’ zones, and eventually lose out in terms of investment or provision of infrastructure and public services. It is important that the police and the criminal justice systems are ‘fit for purpose’ in the modern world and are seen as key contributors to the fight against crime.

Concerning natural and human-made disasters, when feasible, land-use planning is a particularly effective instrument that city authorities can employ to reduce disaster risk, by regulating the expansion of human settlements and infrastructure. In critical and remote areas, it becomes mandatory to monitor and prevent emergency scenarios. The technological and engineering expertise to achieve this is available; but implementation is still a major challenge, which can vary significantly from scenario to scenario. Therefore, it is of pivotal importance that the cooperation between local community and governmental authorities provide input on the needs and constraints on which the required services will be tailored.

The following scenarios have been identified as key focus areas:

• Support to Law Enforcement Daily Operations in Monitoring Urban Central Areas
• Monitoring and Prevention of Fire and Illegal Actions in Forestall Areas

To read more, click here.

Cultural Heritage

KEY FOCUS AREAS

The cultural heritage as well as the natural heritage is increasingly threatened with destruction, not only by the traditional causes of decay, but also by changing social and economic conditions which aggravate the situation with even more formidable phenomena of damage or destruction. Deterioration or disappearance of any item of the cultural or natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all nations of the world. Protection of this heritage at the national level often remains incomplete, because of the scale of the resources which it requires and of the insufficient economic, scientific, and technological resources of the country where the property to be protected is situated.

The following scenarios have been identified as key focus areas:

• Cultural Heritage Fruition and Diffusion
• Cultural Heritage Preservation

To read more, click here.

Closing date for the submission of the Outline Proposal: 13th January 2020.

 

Funding Scheme

Funded participation to ESA Business Applications is open to any company and/or organisation, be it as group of users, public body or non-governmental organisation, residing in any of those states that subscribe to the ARTES IAP programme. To date, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have subscribed. The applicable funding level of the individual prime- or subcontractors is subject to authorisation by the involved National Delegation(s). Therefore, bidding teams are requested to obtain a Letter of Authorisation from all their national delegations before submitting a Full Proposal.

For more information regarding the ESA Business Applications, click here.