Even though the General Aviation (GA) community undertakes millions of flights on aircraft equipped with GNSS-receivers, it is not taking full advantage of the technology. It is a priority of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) to support GA by facilitating instrument procedures with EGNOS. As a first step the GSA has identified enablers and blocking points along with aviation stakeholders and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
When an emergency or a disaster hits a city or region, the priorities are to care for the wounded, restore infrastructure, provide logistics and basic services, and then to restore livelihoods and reconstruct communities. European GNSS – Galileo and EGNOS – supports applications and the delivery of critical services during the four key phases of the disaster management life cycle: preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.
GNSS is a key enabler of precision agriculture, allowing farmers to drive their tractors along parallel lines, avoid overlaps and gaps in field cultivation, and reduce their fatigue thanks to satellite-enabled autopilot. GNSS also helps to reduce agriculture’s ecological footprint – a win-win situation for society as a whole. Thanks to Galileo′s dual frequency and authentication capability, it can also help farmers and authorities in the frame of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The drone market is booming and is set to outstrip any other GNSS user base in aviation and open up new business opportunities for application developers, according to a White Paper on European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (EGNSS) for drones operations, produced by the European GNSS Agency (GSA).
The second day of the EU Space Week event in Helsinki opened with an overview of the final tranche of project calls under the Horizon 2020 space programme. The final Horizon 2020 EGNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) calls are now open, with a closing date of 5 March 2020. The session covered research and innovation topics across Copernicus, EGNOS and Galileo programmes and also took a look to the future with Horizon Europe.
Concrete funding opportunities that are available to space tech start-ups were in focus at the MyGalileoApp competition, held at the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) headquarters in Prague on 7 November. At an investors panel discussion held as part of the event, start-ups heard about some of the concrete funding opportunities that are available to them.
The MyGalileoApp competition has contributed to the creation of an ecosystem that helps start-ups and other innovators to build innovative applications and grow while enabling both private and public investors to find and invest in projects of interest to them. At the MyGalileoApp finals, which took place at the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Prague headquarters at the start of November, start-ups heard about some of the key elements that they will need to succeed in a highly-competitive marketplace.
Once again, the Galileo Masters – and its sister award programme the Copernicus Masters – was the glittering highlight of EU Space Week 2019 that took place in Helsinki on 3 to 5 December. In its 15th year the Galileo Masters continues to attract the attention of some of the brightest and best minds. Topics submitted to the competition this year ranged through digitisation, big data, the sharing economy and artificial intelligence (AI), amongst others, but all with a common theme: the use of European Global Navigation Satellite Systems (EGNSS) Galileo and/or EGNOS to benefit society.
Thales Alenia Space has been awarded a grant under the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Fundamental Elements funding mechanism for the development of the GIANO (Galileo-based TIming Receiver for CriticAl INfrastructure Robustness) receiver, which aims to make critical infrastructure more robust against interference, jamming and spoofing.
The upstream space market, with its rocket launches and high-tech satellite payloads, may seem at a first glance to be the most exciting segment of the space industry. But when it comes to innovation, job and revenue creation and the provision of services that change people’s lives for the better, the downstream market is where the action is. This was the key message delivered by European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides at the New Space Economy forum in Rome on December 12.
Helsinki was the cool venue for European Space Week 2019. From 3 to 5 December Europe’s leading space event brought together business leaders, policymakers, international experts and the space application user community to gain first-hand insights into the EU’s Space Programmes Copernicus, EGNOS and Galileo. They discussed how space solutions can contribute to a more sustainable future for Europe and the world.
A Call for Proposals recently opened under the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Fundamental Elements funding mechanism is targeting the development of a drone-borne double-frequency Galileo receiver that leverages the differentiators of European GNSS (EGNOS and Galileo).
To support Search and Rescue services and provide general awareness on the related infrastructure, the GNSS Service Centre is publishing relevant SAR/Galileo information, such as the status of the Galileo satellites SAR payload, SAR reference beacons on the ground and the availability of the SAR data server.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has opened a call for proposals within its Fundamental Elements funding mechanism, targeting the development of close-to-market GNSS receivers and associated technologies (‘filling the gaps technologies’) not developed by other FE projects; and/or cutting-edge GNSS receiver technologies (‘emerging technologies’) that are at the forefront of current R&D and may or may not have immediate adoption in market-ready products. The deadline for submissions is 8 January 2020.
Interested in presenting your solution at the world’s largest mobile event? Then read on! The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is looking for innovative solutions to showcase at the Galileo stand at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 24-27 February 2020. Every year MWC brings together leading mobile technology developers, manufacturers, service providers and app developers from across the globe. With over 107,000 visitors expected in 2020, next year’s event will be a perfect opportunity to showcase the latest EGNSS-based innovations.
