The annual idea competition Copernicus Masters is now accepting applications. The competition rewards innovative (business) ideas that use Copernicus earth observation data to tackle important societal and business challenges.
The prize statues at the 2017 Copernicus Masters awards ceremony (c) AZO
Europe’s largest earth observation initiative
Copernicus is Europe’s most ambitious earth observation (EO) programme and provides free and open access to data for the development of applications in a wide variety of domains. No less than 10 Petabytes of free EO data is generated by the Copernicus Programme every year. This data enables the Copernicus services to deliver near-realtime data on a global level, contributing toward sustainable management of the environment. The data is sourced both from the family of Sentinel satellite missions, contributing missions (existing commercial and public satellites) and from a multitude of in situ sensors.
Big data from space holds great potential for the development of ideas and solutions in many (non-space) sectors. As these ideas continue to develop into commercially viable solutions, the economic benefits continue to grow.
One of the Dutch winners in 2017: OPT/NET won the Security Challenge (c) AZO
Turning EO data into business
The Copernicus Masters is searching for outstanding ideas, applications, and business concepts from future-oriented SMEs, startups, universities and individuals in all domains. From 1 April to 30 June, participants can submit their ideas to 16 challenges offered by the competition partners. Prizes include cash rewards, business development support and access to relevant networks.
Read the official press release here or start your submission now.
