In the history of hackathons, workshops or competitions, people have mostly joined to learn new things or to win. Over the last years though, as organiser of these events within the space industry, we’ve noticed other motivations besides self-improvement or competitiveness. Turns out, the Galileo Masters satellite navigation competition covers all those interests.
Galileo Masters? What’s that?
The Galileo Masters is a competition for space business ideas – specifically aimed at satellite navigation. Europe’s own Global Navigation Satellite System is called Galileo, which can be seen as the European counterpart to the American GPS. Since 2004, the Galileo Masters competition accounted for 4700 ideas.
Why do people join the Galileo Masters?
The prize pool of nearly 850.000 euro surely helps, as well as more than 300.000 worth of incubation time for a business. Next to that, there are several country prizes to be won. Each local partner offers additional prize money and support to further develop satellite navigation ideas.
Entrepreneurs that have participated in the past say that it has opened doors for them and gave them validation of their idea, let them gain legitimacy and press, and the necessary appreciation and attention to speed things up.
Now more than ever, we’ve noticed other motivations to join a space technology competition. There’s a shift to wanting to contribute to something that matters. And the Galileo Masters honours that shift by offering suiting challenges.
Which challenge gets your groove on?
Something that matters for sure is the care for our planet. The EUSPA Space for Our Planet Challenge is looking for solutions that use space data to help overcome climate change and environmental degradation. Think of using satellite-based solutions for monitoring, which can prevent pollution from the air, water, soil and consumer products.
Next is something that has been on everyone’s mind for over a year now: COVID-19. To secure our safety and health in pandemics, the Galileo Masters and EUSPA have made a challenge, looking for space technology ideas that will benefit us all. Think of geo-referenced data that can be used to help public authorities to monitor and analyse emergency situations and to increase awareness amongst citizens.
Staying healthy also means taking care of your own well-being. Nothing beats a little exercise, doing sports or simply have some quality me-time. The EUSPA Space for Fun Challenge hopes to find ideas that can benefit gaming, sport, leisure and tourism. With Galileo, you can for instance apply accurate and reliable positioning information to these sectors.
That’s just 3 challenges. You can find all challenges here. You can find all the local prizes here. And be sure to check out the Netherlands Prize! Think of all the things you can do with space technology and bring it to the Galileo Masters. You can apply until July 19, 2021.
The Galileo Prize Netherlands is brought to you by Netherlands Space Office and SBIC Noordwijk.
The Galileo Prize Netherlands is also made possible by our competition partners ANWB, ESA Space Solutions, HE Space, NVR, Rabobank and Zuits.
