First Earth Observation Use Case Ideas Competition for the Private Sector: open call

2023-06-29 11:30:00

The call to participate in the first Earth Observation Use Case Ideas Competition for the Private Sector is now open. Through this initiative, the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) seeks to obtain innovative proposals for Earth Observation use cases that the NewSpace ecosystem can offer to the Catalan private business sector as satellite information-based solutions. This call is framed within the NewSpace Strategy of Catalonia promoted by the Government of Catalonia with the participation of the IEEC, the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC) and the i2CAT Foundation.
The competition will choose and fund two Earth observation use cases applicable to the Catalan territory to promote the use of satellite data and highlight the benefits companies can obtain by incorporating data from the Catalan Earth Observation nanosatellite, the Menut, into their operations.

The objective of the call is to improve the competitiveness of private sector companies through the incorporation of satellite data technology, favouring the development of solutions and business for companies in the NewSpace sector.

Deadlines
The deadline to apply for this call is Friday 14 July 2023 at 2.00 p.m.

Funding
The two chosen use cases will be awarded a financial prize of 2,500 euros and will be eligible for a subsequent service contract of 47,500 euros each.

Participation
To participate it is required to submit a technical report in PDF format which clearly sets out: the definition of the challenge and the goals of the proposed use case; the working methodology; an implementation schedule; the working team organisation; the targeted users and their degree of involvement in the proposal. Each tenderer may submit more than one proposal.

Eligibility requirements
To be considered eligible, submitted proposals must fulfil the following requirements:

They must be NewSpace-based.
They must be based on Earth Observation satellite data and include data from Menut as a demonstrator.
They must be targeted toward the private sector.
That the tendering company has, at the time of submitting the proposal, a technical office centre, with specialised technicians, located within a maximum radius of 200 km around the IEEC headquarters.
They must be intended for use within the Catalan territory.
They must be operational within six months of the contract signature.
They must present end-user involvement.
They must be innovative use cases. Those proposals presenting solutions based on a new product and those based on an existing product but incorporating enough changes and adjustments to configure an innovative solution or one adapted to the use case in question will be considered eligible.
They must include an authorisation for the IEEC and the Generalitat de Catalunya to carry out the dissemination of the results of the application of the use cases with the participation of both the tenderer and the end-user.

Evaluation criteria
Among all eligible solutions, the jury will choose the two use cases which will be awarded. The evaluation criteria will be based on:

Alignment of the challenge with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and whether it is a common challenge for other companies/users.
Alignment of the proposal with the objectives of the call, technological feasibility and scalability, degree of innovation and use of Menut data.
Working methodology, timetable and working team organisation.
Type of end user to whom the solution is addressed according to the impact it may have in Catalonia, and their degree of involvement in the proposal.

It will be an asset if the participating company is a member of the DCA-NewSpace.

You can consult all the documentation of the project tender here.