EU FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS

Based around the theme 'New Ways to Grow' the competition aims to support inviduals and organisations with entrepreneurial, game changing ideas for social innovation projects.

he Competition invites Europeans to come up with game changing ideas that can advance Europe’s growth model, for example: 

• Challenge the assumptions upon which economic growth is usually conceived (e.g. the trend for sharing and collaborative economy);
• Question supply chain, production and delivery modes, or use of mainstream products or services (e.g. circular economy);
• Conceive new technologies or propose smarter use of existing technologies for the benefit of society (e.g. internet of things or 3D-printing);
• Generate new solutions and approaches for societal challenges of today and the future.

Deadline:  12:00 noon, Brussels time, on 8th May 2015.

 The annual Copernicus Masters competition is awarding prizes to innovative solutions for business and society based on Earth observation data. 

This competition rewards innovative proposals for new applications of EO data in solving problems for society and businesses. So don't miss the chance to win prizes with a combined value of more than EUR 300,000.

These are 3 of the 9 challenges 

BEST SERVICE CHALLENGE

The Best Service Challenge invites service providers to submit profiles of their existing services to the Copernicus Masters. For the Best Service Challenge all submissions are welcome which address any of the GEO (Group on Earth Observations) Societal Benefits Areas: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate, Disasters, Ecosystems, Energy, Health, Water, and Weather.
The Best Service Challenge aims at increasing the awareness of existing Earth monitoring services and their benefits to citizens.

IDEAS CHALLENGE

The Ideas Challenge gives students, entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs a creative platform to initiate and design the most innovative and cutting-edge ideas using Earth observation data. For this Challenge all submissions are welcome which address any of the relevant application fields, including: Agriculture Management, Automotive, Emergency Management, Environmental Protection, Marine Monitoring, Mobile Applications, Renewable Energies, Tourism/Leisure.
The evaluators will focus on creativity and market needs rather than on the technological perfection and business case of the ideas submitted.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will award the best application idea that uses Earth observation data on mobile devices. Proposals shall address one or more of the main thematic areas of the European Earth observation programme Copernicus (land monitoring, marine monitoring, atmosphere monitoring, climate change, emergency management). ESA is looking for ideas that can be implemented quickly into a profitable business. There are plenty of possible ways to enrich apps with data from space.

Deadline 15.07.2014 

The aim of the ESA App Developer Lab, the "App Camp", is to create awareness for the possibilities offered by the European Earth Observation Programme Copernicus - Global Monitoring for Environment and Security. The App Camp shall therefore facilitate mobile app development by providing developers with access to an API and insight into ESA's Earth observation activities.

The goal of the App Camp is to produce mobile apps using Earth observation data on smartphones, ready to be brought to market.

ESA will provide access to satellite data for the development of mobile applications (Android and iOS) in five predefined categories. A dedicated API will enable easy integration of Earth observation data into your app. To take part in the App Camp, you don't need any experience in integrating such data.

Participants will be able to choose their preferred category and apply either alone or in teams of two, three, or four. All selected candidates will be grouped into teams of four.

The following categories are available:

• Agriculture
• Emergency and Rescue Management
• Environmental Protection
• Maritime Environment and Maritime Transportation
• Lifestyle and Tourism

Participation in the App Camp is open to any app developer of adult age with citizenship in the following countries: ESA member-states, states involved in the Copernicus Space Component (CSC), and countries participating in the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Community, which are all listed hereafter: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Candidates who are permanently employed confirm with their application that their employers approve of their participation for the whole duration of the App Camp.

Registration will be open from 23 May to 21 July 2014.