The ESA Φ-lab Newsletter #14 | September 2024

PAVING THE WAY FOR EO INDUSTRY GROWTH WITH THE ESA EO COMMERCIALISATION FORUM AND SPEED INCUBED

Dear Φ-lab community,

We hope you enjoyed your holidays. September is a month for new beginnings and our Invest Office has been pretty busy for the last few months. As the ESA EO Commercialisation Forum approaches, we are striving to deliver you the best content and opportunities possible.

The ESA EO Commercialisation Forum (ESA CommEO) is an event by ESA’s Earth Observation Programme (EOP), with support from the Commercialisation, Industry & Competitiveness (CIC) Directorate. The event promotes innovation and entrepreneurship in the Earth observation (EO) field, by fostering industry-investors collaborations, EO market growth and commercialisation, and supporting start-ups, SMEs and LSIs.

After a very successful first edition, the 2024 ESA CommEO will be at the intersection between Earth and climate initiatives, and EO commercialisation, with the underlying theme – ‘Addressing climate challenges and opportunities with Earth observation for human and planet prosperity’. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the EO journey from the industry to investors, what are the companies’ perspectives and approaches to investors, what are the main drivers for investing in EO applications, and much more.

The attendees will also have the opportunity to pitch their most promising commercialisation ideas at the CommEO Award, showcase their products and services at the Demo Corners and participate in matchmaking sessions with the industry and investors. For more information, check the event website.

Make sure you don’t miss this incredible opportunity by registering to ESA CommEO here!

Speaking of great opportunities, stay tuned for the new Speed InCubed Programme! Speed InCubed is an Industrial Research Fellowship for the development of EO applications – at PhD or post-doctoral level, mixing cutting-edge research with EO commercialisation. Novel, eligible research topics will be evaluated in comparison with the state-of-the-art research, spanning from space and ground segments to data processing technologies. Feeling interested? Take a more detailed look at it in our “Latest From The Lab” section.

And as always, watch this space for more news about groundbreaking advancements in EO.

The Φ-lab team

LATEST FROM THE LAB

IEEE IGARSS 2024

7-12 July – Several Φ-lab members were present at the 2024 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, held in Athens, Greece, with the underlying theme of “Acting for Sustainability and Resilience”. The event counted with three article presentations and talks from Φ-lab.

15-26 July – Φ-lab member Nikolaos Dionelis was present at the second European Summer School on Artificial Intelligence (ESSAI) and the 21st Advanced Course on Artificial Intelligence (ACAI), in Athens, Greece. He was also an invited speaker at the CLAIRE R2Net workshop about “AI Research & Mental Well-Being”, on 14 July 2024. See ESSAI & ACAI recorded presentations below.

10-13 September – The third edition of the IEEE GRSS IADF School on Computer Vision of Earth Observation was held at the University of Sannio, Benevento, Italy. Alessandro Sebastianelli, Φ-lab Research Fellow, talked about Φ-lab’s approaches and innovation on AI4EO and QC4EO.

16-20 September – Hosted by Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro (Bari, Italy), the Quantum Summer School 2024 counted with the presence of Φ-lab members Sabrina Ricci and Alessandro Sebastianelli, who shared Φ-lab’s innovative vision and the potential of Quantum Computing for Earth Observation (QC4EO).

18-19 September – Giuseppe Borghi, Head of the Φ-lab Division, Michele Castorina, Head of the Φ-lab Invest Office, and Daniele Romagnoli, Commercial EO system engineer at Φ-lab, attended the ESA ISD 2024, in ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Michele Castorina presented how the ESA Earth Observation Programme (EOP) Directorate supports industry through ESA InCubed.

‘Speed InCubed’ is a Research Fellowship programme dedicated to PhD students (up to three or four years) and post-doctoral researchers (two + two years), aiming to accelerate EO commercialisation by solving industry-identified technical challenges. The programme will be open until December 2027, and each selected proposal can get a maximum co-funding rate of 50% and up to 150k€ from ESA. Special conditions may apply. While we are working on a dedicated Speed InCubed webpage, click in the link below to know more.

The Collaborative Innovation Network (CIN) by ESA Φ-lab, managed in partnership with Pi School, is a dynamic community that brings together leading researchers and innovative talents to harness transformative technologies and accelerate the future of Earth Observation. The ESA Φ-lab CIN aims to establish a global network where researchers and innovators can collaborate with each other and with ESA, sharing knowledge and developing groundbreaking EO solutions.

Unlocking Earth Observation commercial opportunities in Spain: new ESA InCubed funding cycle

Spain-based companies of any size are invited to participate in the latest Φ-lab InCubed co-funding call, by submitting proposals for the development of groundbreaking and commercially successful products in the Earth observation (EO) field. The deadline for submissions is 28 October 2024 at 14:00 CET.

Φsat-2, ESA’s recent venture to advance Earth observation (EO) capabilities through AI on edge, was launched on a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from the Vanderberg Space Force Base in California, USA, on 16 August 2024. As part of the Transporter 11 rideshare mission, Φsat-2 will perform several AI-powered tasks on-board, generating actionable insight from raw data directly on the satellite, and improving autonomy and near real-time decision making. Also, Kanyini, from SmartSat CRC (Australia), has been successfully launched. Other three Φ-lab-supported satellites will follow in November 2024 on Transporter 12.

InCubed, a co-funding programme managed by ESA Φ-lab, is supporting agriKOPA – a platform that provides financial services and real-time crop monitoring, being an easy and convenient tool for end users during the agricultural season. This platform is led by agriBORA, a Kenyan-German agri-fin-tech company that aspires to empower small farming businesses in Africa.

14-18 October – The 75th International Astronautical Congress will be held in Milan, Italy. Φ-lab members will have the opportunity to present the InCubed co-funding programme to various stakeholders.

27-28 November – The 2024 edition of ESA EO Commercialisation Forum (ESA CommEO) will be held at KAP Europa in Frankfurt, Germany, addressing climate challenges and opportunities with EO for human and planet prosperity. Attendees will also have the opportunity to pitch their groundbreaking, commercial ideas for EO applications at the CommEO Award, showcase their products and services at the Demo Corners, and participate in matchmaking sessions with investors and the industry. For more information, take a look at the website below.

VACANCIES

Research Fellow in Quantum Technologies for Earth Observation

Within the ESA Φ-lab Explore Office, the candidate will collaborate with a dynamic team focused on transformative innovations in EO, leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, and Quantum Computing. The work will directly contribute to developing frameworks and solutions that tackle some of the most pressing challenges faced in climate action and sustainability. Call open for citizens of Indo-Pacific and South America Countries.

To know more, contact us at philab@esa.int.