Developing countries are defined as low and middle income countries that, compared to industrialised countries, have a less developed industrial base relative to their population. They are facing common challenges related to health, food security, lack of infrastructure and utilities (e.g. electricity, water, sewage), or pollution. Given local conditions, they may suffer from natural disasters [...]
Copernicus – the European Union's Earth Observation Programme – invests in different stages of start-ups to support the growth of Copernicus-based businesses in Europe as well as user uptake for Copernicus-based products and services. It is composed of: Copernicus Prizes, Copernicus Hackathons, Copernicus Accelerator, Copernicus Incubation. Source: Copernicus The Copernicus Prizes innovation competition (aka Copernicus [...]
The Earth Observation (EO) industry as a whole is in the midst of a revolution, spurred by deregulation, smaller and cheaper electronics, innovation in launcher and sensor technologies, and advancements in Cloud Computing and data processing. The phenomenon is dubbed “NewSpace”, and it covers the whole value chain, from satellite manufacturers and operators to data [...]
Among the greatest strengths of Earth Observation (EO) is its universal application. This aspect is manifested in two ways. Firstly, EO satellites allow the monitoring of a wide variety of natural phenomena and operational processes across the whole globe. Secondly, the decisions or actions that organisations dealing with such phenomena or operations must take are [...]
The enormous increase of Earth Observation data over the past few years is bringing tremendous business opportunities for start-ups and SMEs but also calls for a fundamental paradigm shift. Thus, making the most of Big EO data, requires disrupting the traditional workflows whereby downloaded datasets are processed locally. Instead, through a multitude of web-based platforms, [...]
Since the advent of the Copernicus Sentinels era and the rise of new, venture-backed business models relying on large fleets of small satellites, more and more data is becoming available. To unlock the insights provided by this unprecedented volume of diverse data, users need robust access, powerful computation and innovative processing methods. This need can [...]
“Faster, Higher, Stronger” is not only an inspirational call to start-ups and young entrepreneurs to develop and launch EO-based services in the market. It is also the reality experienced today at the interface of Earth Observation with Big Data: Higher – the volume of Earth Observation data has grown almost exponentially in the past few [...]
The EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP) is a partnership between agriculture and society, and between Europe and its farmers. A common policy for all EU countries, it supports the production of food, development of rural communities, and environmentally sustainable farming. Since 1962, and throughout a series of reforms, the CAP has not only supported farmers [...]
For several decades, the EU has shown strong commitment to supporting Research and Innovation activities. These are funded through a wide range of instruments, most notably its framework programmes. With the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) on its way to approval, looking at past, current and future opportunities for start-ups and SMEs is worth a [...]
In December 2019, the European Commission (EC) presented the European Green Deal as their strategy and roadmap towards a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. It aims to tackle climate-environmental challenges, but also to transform the European economy and society towards sustainability and inclusiveness, protecting its natural assets as well as health and wellbeing of its citizens. [...]
