Copernicus Masters opens for entries
In the past five years, Copernicus Masters has selected 39 winners out of more than 1200 applicants from 60 countries, who submitted some 700 cutting-edge business ideas.
The Copernicus Masters competition is open again this year. Ideas for business concepts, applications and services, based on satellite Earth observation data, are now being accepted.
The vast amounts of data produced by Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme and its Sentinel satellites are helping to develop countless products and applications in a wide array of business sectors.
Since 2011, ESA and Germany’s Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) have organised the competition to bring entrepreneurs’ innovations on the market. Offering over €300 000 in cash prizes, it gives access to a leading international network, start-up funding and other support.
Participants can choose from a number of Challenges covering topics such as environmental monitoring, transportation logistics, agriculture and forestry, civil security, cloud computing and mobile services, as well as the use of high-resolution satellite imagery and radar data.
A jury of research and industry experts will select the winner. Along with the prizes in the Challenge, the overall winner – the Copernicus Master 2016 – will receive €10 000 and a satellite data package worth an additional €30 000.
“We're very pleased to have seen the Copernicus Masters develop into one of the engines of innovation in Earth observation in recent years,” notes ESA’s Josef Aschbacher.
“We believe that the launches of additional Sentinel satellites will also continue to drive the commercialisation of related services.
“This competition is a first-class initiative that gives visionary companies the boost they need to turn their creative ideas into real-world solutions."
Submissions for all Challenges will be accepted from 15 April to 18 July 2016. For more information, visit the Copernicus Masters website.
