Earth Observation-based initiatives for Portuguese cities could secure €1.5 Million
Call launched by the Portuguese Space Agency is looking for innovative projects that, through Earth Observation technologies, could help modernise Portuguese cities. Proposals can be submitted until June 2nd.
The Portuguese Space Agency has launched a call for innovative projects that could help modernise Portuguese cities using Earth Observation (EO) space technologies. This call is part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) InCubed (Investing in Industrial Innovation) programme, which provides co-funding for the development of innovative products and services that use Earth Observation (EO) data and are commercially viable. This dedicated InCubed call will support projects totalling 1.5 million euros.
This call, aimed at Portuguese companies, which will be able to apply in partnership with research centres and municipal entities, is a funding mechanism that will allow EO-based solutions to be devised and implemented for the specific needs of municipalities.
“Throughout the last year, we have travelled to various mainland and island regions to introduce EO and its potential applications to municipalities. During these interactions, we were able to identify several challenges specific to Portuguese cities that allowed us to create a list of topics, which, although not exhaustive, allows companies to know which problems they should address,” says Carolina Sá, Earth Observation Officer at the Portuguese Space Agency.
The Earth Observation for Municipalities initiative will continue touring the country in 2025. The next event is scheduled for February 7th in Évora, and the last is on March 27th in Faro.
“The Incubed competition for Municipalities reflects the Agency’s contribution and commitment to fostering innovation and applying EO space technologies for the direct benefit of local communities, promoting the development of smarter and more sustainable cities in Portugal,” says the EO programme manager at the Portuguese Space Agency. Therefore, to guarantee their sustainability and interoperability, the projects must comply with the technical specifications for systems integration defined by the Agency for Administrative Modernisation (AMA) within the National Strategy for Intelligent Territories (ENTI) scope.
Through this competition, the Agency aims to identify projects that exploit the potential of Earth Observation data to solve specific challenges faced by cities in key areas such as environmental management and monitoring (namely air and water quality, waste management and climate change), sustainable urban planning, emergency management, infrastructure monitoring, among others, including data integration and visualisation solutions to support decision-making.
Proposals can be submitted via the OSIP platform until June 2nd, 2025. There will be two evaluation periods: March 12th and June 22nd, 2025. The selected projects will receive funding and technical support to develop and implement their ideas.
