Electronics Weekly
The winning systems focus on using satellite data to support urban planning and tackle challenges in both climate adaptation and sustainable mobility. Basically, the smart use of European satellite data for the better management of public spaces.
Each of the 20 winners will receive up to €36,000 of funding to create a detailed Solution Design. And funding will increase as the final five are selected
SPACE4Cities
Funding for SPACE4Cities is from the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). And it says it received 141 proposals from across 23 European countries.
“We were surprised and delighted by the huge interest in our competition, the space-based solutions, and this record number of tenders for us”, said the SPACE4Cities Project Coordinator, Renske Martijnse-Hartikka of Forum Virium Helsinki. “We are happy to say, the level of innovation is high, and there is a large enthusiasm from the companies to start refining their solutions with us.”
Winners
The 20 winners come from eleven countries, including three from Belgium, France and the Netherlands. There are two from Finland, Italy and Spain, and one from Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Portugal.
According to the organisers 85% of the winners are small or medium sized companies (under 250 employees). In terms of subject area splits, thirteen of them address the Urban Planning challenge. And eleven focus on Climate Adaptation, and four on Sustainable Mobility.
The full list of winning companies comprise: ASITIS (Czech Republic), Avoin Map (Finland), BitaGreen (Belgium), CEiiA (Portugal), CGI Nederland (Netherlands), Detektia (Spain), eOnsight (France), Everimpact (France), Geo Solutions (Belgium), GeoVille (Austria), Latitudo 40 (Italy), Neptune (Italy), OPTIM.AIZE (France), ORG Urbanism & Architecture (Belgium), Paulinyi&Partners Innovations (Hungary), Sensar (Netherlands), SINGULARLOGIC (Greece), Survintel (Netherlands), Vexiza (Spain) and Zero Gravity (Finland).
Phases
As mentioned, each company will create a Solution Design. After August 2025, the ten most suitable systems will advance to the next phase.
This will involve a further €90,000 each of funding for each. They will develop their concepts into working prototypes, by the end of April 2026.
Finally, the best five will then have the opportunity to field-test their prototypes in three different European cities during July 2026 – February 2027. They will also receive an award of up to €250,000 each, taking their funding up to €376,000 each.
The cities taking part for the final tests will be Amsterdam, Athens, Ghent, Guimaraes, and Helsinki.
You can read more about the urban planning inititative on its dedicated website.
Image: SPACE4Cities
See also: UK Space Agency funds satellite instruments to monitor emissions
