With the official international kick-off for the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) in Vienna on 25th of April, entries are now open for the 2013 GSA Special Topic Prize. Innovative ideas with business potential using European GNSS are once more being sought with a valuable business prize on offer for the best product or service concept.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) sponsored a Special Topic Prize for the most promising EGNOS application idea, which completely fits this year’s objective of ESNC: "Take the Next Step with Your Business Case."
The GSA competition is designed to raise awareness of EGNOS, European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, to all market segments, and to demonstrate the business potential of EGNOS and Galileo. The prize also aims to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in the European GNSS markets.
The prize offers the eventual winner the opportunity to realise the idea in a suitable business incubation centre. The successful individual or team will be funded to develop their concept for six months with the option for a further six month extension depending on initial progress.
The GSA Special Topic Prize is part of a total ESNC prize pool for 2013 worth around € 1 million. This includes cash prizes, business incubation, coaching, patent consulting, prototyping and marketing support, access to customers and user communities, and some excellent publicity.
The prize winner will be announced as part of a glittering award ceremony that will take place in Munich, Germany on 5 November.
Great idea?
Do you have an innovative idea for a satellite navigation application? In order to enter your idea for the GSA Special Topic Prize your concept must use positioning as a key enabler and GPS augmented by EGNOS as the primary means of positioning. Special attention will be given to innovation in adapting EGNOS to specific applications. The idea might leverage the EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS) but must definitely address a significant business opportunity or have an important social dimension. And, of course, it must be capable of being developed further in an EU business incubator.
All entries will be assessed according to their level of technical and operational feasibility and their social benefit and/ or market potential. Entries should show clear innovation compared to current solutions and contribute to adoption of EGNOS and Galileo. Use of the EGNOS Software Development Kit (SDK) is also encouraged.
However the main award criteria will be the uniqueness and originality of the idea, its potential, the credibility of the proposing team, and the application’s use of unique EGNOS/Galileo features.
Winners
Last year’s winner of the GSA Special Topic Prize was Geko Navsat with their novel 3D Sound navigation system that helped visually impaired people to navigate via a three-dimensional acoustically augmented reality. In 2011 the UAVTCAS team won with a collision avoidance technology for unmanned aerial vehicles.
In both 2008 and 2010 the GSA EGNOS prize winner went on to be declared the overall winner of ESNC for that year and receive the coveted ‘Galileo Masters’ accolade.
The 2008 winner was Sci-Tech with their Real-Time Rescue, a personal GNSS tracker for maritime applications, and the 2010 winner was the Mobilizy with their WikitudeDrive augmented reality navigation app for smartphones.
The current market for satellite services – covering areas such as mobility, health, or safety - is already worth more than € 100 billion and is expected to rise to € 240 billion by 2020. The ESNC supports participating innovators in realising their applications and business cases through an extensive partner network that covers the technical, economical, and legal aspects involved in setting up a successful enterprise.
Get involved
The submission phase for project ideas for this year's ESNC is now open with the final date for submission on 30 June by 12 pm Central European Time.
To find out more about the GSA EGNOS Special Prize and all the details of ESNC 2013, including all of the information on this year's prizes and partners, the terms of participation and a direct link to sign in to the competition database, please visit the competition’s website. Good luck!
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