Sentinel-2, Copyright: ESA–P. Carril
The Copernicus Masters competition is inviting all interested participants to submit outstanding ideas, applications, and business concepts involving innovative uses of Earth observation data by 13 July 2015. The international competition is open to professionals anywhere in the world. Along with cash prizes, the winners will receive access to a leading international network, corresponding data, start-up funding, and other support valued at more than EUR 300,000 in total.
The competition has been launched by The European Space Agency (ESA) and Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) to aid visionary entrepreneurs in bringing their innovations to market. The Copernicus Masters is looking for new services and products in forward-thinking segments such as big data, cloud computing, crowdsourcing, data visualisation, and mobile applications, to name just a few.
In this year’s edition, prizes will be awarded in topic-specific challenges sponsored by a number of world-class partners, including: ESA, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), T-Systems International GmbH, Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd., Greece’s National Cadastre and Mapping Agency (NCMA), CloudEO AG, and European Space Imaging GmbH. In addition, the new University Challenge specifically addresses students and research assistants around the world.
“Start-ups and SMEs in particular stand to benefit from the virtually limitless scope of the data Copernicus provides,” affirms Prof Dr Volker Liebig, Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN, European Space Agency (ESA). “The ideas submitted to previous editions of the Copernicus Masters have already demonstrated this to impressive effect, as has the constantly growing number of companies that are developing products and services based on Earth observation data in ESA’s business incubation programme.”
“We and our partners are offering the participants space for innovation in areas that are already shaping the future – the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, smart cities, and renewable energy, for example,” states AZO managing director Thorsten Rudolph. “We want to support them in realising their creative solutions to these global challenges.”
Experts from the realms of research and industry will be tasked with selecting the winner of each challenge. The overall winner – the 2015 Copernicus Master – will receive (along with their challenge prize) EUR 20,000 in cash and a satellite data package worth a further EUR 60,000, which is being provided with the financial support of the European Commission.
All of the winners will be announced this autumn and recognised as part of a festive awards ceremony.
For all of the details on this year’s prizes, partners, and terms of participation, please visit the Copernicus Masters website.
