Calling all innovators for Food, Energy and Environment

The PARSEC Accelerator aims to fuel innovation with Earth Observation. The Earth Observation sector is currently undergoing rapid changes, together with the maturation and convergence of a number of important enabling technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence. On top of this, the European Union’s Copernicus programme, operational since 2014 with its dedicated Sentinel satellites, generates over 1,5 terrabytes of data every day, which is freely and openly available for use by citizens, scientists and businesses. Consequently, Earth Observation presents an enormous opportunity for boosting the productivity, innovation and competitiveness of European SMEs and start-ups, especially in emerging industries such as food, energy and environment. The PARSEC Accelerator is created to seize this opportunity and enable new businesses make faster and better decisions by exploiting Earth Observation capabilities.

The Open Call 1 is the entry point into the PARSEC Accelerator and the first of two stages of the acceleration programme. The 100 selected winners will benefit from a broad range of services including: financial support (10.000 € per winner) and business services such as online and on-site matchmaking facilities, a comprehensive training program and an on-site bootcamp. Supported by the PARSEC Accelerator, they will develop their market intelligence and network with other companies to form cross-border and cross-sectoral consortia. The participation in the PARSEC Accelerator will enable the newly formed consortia to fine tune and endorse their innovative ideas and develop sound business plans.

The consortia can later apply to the PARSEC Accelerator Open Call 2 and defend their new business in front of a jury at the PARSEC Demo Day. 15 winning consortia will access the PARSEC Accelerator Second Stage support services, including €100.000 funding per consortia, to launch their innovations into the market.

More information about the PARSEC Accelerator Open Call 1 can be found in the attached overview (see here) and on our website here.

[1] Earth Observation is the collection, analysis and presentation of information about various features of the Earth via remote sensing technologies such as satellites.

Notes for Editors

About PARSEC
PARSEC is a business accelerator supporting the creation of new Earth Observation-based products and services. The accelerator targets SMEs, start-ups, entrepreneurs and individuals who want to have an impact on the emerging Food, Energy and Environment sectors. The holistic two-stage acceleration programme offers a total of €2.5 Million in equity-free funding alongside coaching, training and market entry support.

The PARSEC Accelerator partners
PARSEC consortium brings together 9 partners from 7 European countries with in-depth expertise in business innovation, market uptake, R&D commercialisation, design and deployment of big data applications, business clusters and accelerators within Earth Observation and emerging industries. EARSC – the leading business network representing companies creating EO-based value across Europe – has partnered with leading clusters (AVAESEN, bwcon), accelerator experts (BIOSENSE), and innovative SMEs (Rasdaman, Geomatrix, DRAXIS, Eversis, Evenflow) to bring the PARSEC vision to life.

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For more information

Download this Press Release here.

The PARSEC project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824478.