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The Finnish team uMaze was declared the winner of the GSA’s Accuracy Matters challenge in the Galileo Innovation Challenge, which took place at Traficom Headquarters - Dynamicum, in Helsinki on 29 November – 1 December. The hackathon was organised by Ultrahack, with support from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) and European Space Week. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) acted as a partner, providing mentors and judges and sponsoring a challenge.

The contenders for the challenge were tasked with designing, developing and demonstrating a beta version of an innovative application that benefits from Galileo’s enhanced accuracy. In total, seven teams of innovators and developers from around the world took up the challenge, and worked over the three days to either create a new app or enhance an existing one to demonstrate how accurate positioning adds value in a variety of use cases.

The top four

uMaze took the EUR 3000 first prize for their app, which creates mazes in specific outdoor areas in which users can play. The uMaze team also reached the finals of the MyGalileoApp competition. Since then, they have taken their app to the next level, increasing accuracy and including a function that informs users when the phone’s Galileo positioning is working. Given the level of precision required by the mazes, the user experience really depends on whether the phone has Galileo, so it scored highly on the hackathon’s ‘Galileo relevance’ criterion.

Read this: First Galileo-enabled autonomous vehicle successfully demonstrated

“For its part, Traficom wants to help Finnish industry and application developers to be at the forefront in introducing new services based on the Galileo system. The objective of the Galileo Innovation Challenge is to raise public awareness about European satellite navigation and support application developers in creating more solutions based on Galileo,” says Senior Specialist Tero Vihavainen from Traficom.

There was a tie for second prize of EUR 2000 between the Heim.tech and Kill it before it Kills You teams. The Heim.tech app monitors and manages wild fires using a drone equipped with a very sensitive thermal sensor to detect even small fires; a mobile app for people on the ground, and a user interface for controlling operations.

At the hackathon they focused only on the mobile app interface for managing assets and resources on the ground, mapping distances to the fire, calculating the human and material resources needed to reach the fire, providing an overview of where the fire is growing, and optimising the speed and efficiency of the response.

The Kill it before it Kills You app, which monitors the spread of contagious diseases, consists of two parts: one for the disease control centre and one for the infected patient. The app creates heat maps for contagious diseases and also tracks infected people, monitoring where the disease might spread.

The idea is that when infected people go to hospital and are diagnosed, they are given free drugs in exchange for using the app to track where they go. The business case is that prevention is cheaper than cure, and that only by having a clear overview of where a disease is spreading will it be possible to put crisis centres in place and organise a targeted response.

And this: MyGalileoApp: the results are in!

Finally, third prize worth EUR 1000, went to the Approach team, for their crowdsourced app for climbers. The app is able to pinpoint arrival and destination marks for a climb and, based on user input, calculate the optimal path for reaching a climbing destination. The app uses the enhanced positioning of Galileo, pinpointing every step of the climb and mapping the continuous decision-making process of climbers as they navigate the most secure paths.

“All of the apps presented at the Galileo Innovation Challenge rely on the positioning provided by GNSS and Galileo, the apps that we supported and evaluated as part of the ‘Accuracy Matters’ stream really took advantage of Galileo and dual frequency, to the point that accuracy really determined the outcome and quality of the user experience,” said Justyna Redelkiewicz Musial, in charge of LBS and IoT market development at the GSA.

“App developers are a great community to work with because they completely understand the ‘user-centric’ ethos which is also at the heart of our work at the GSA,” she said.

Quantum leap progress

All the winning apps made quantum leap progress during the 48 hours of the hackathon and made the most of the support provided by the GSA in terms of strategic guidance, technical mentoring and business development.

Along with the cash prizes the top three teams will be able to take advantage of some one-to-one coaching on preparing an application to the Finnish ESA Business Incubation Centre, where the value of the potential incubation amounts to EUR 75 000 EUR. The winning teams will also get the opportunity to network with a wide selection of potential investors at European Space Week, which is taking place immediately after the Galileo Innovation Challenge, at Helsinki Congress Paasitorni on 3-5 December.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Ceny projektov pozemkových úprav (PPÚ) boli v poslednom čase hojne diskutovanou témou, a to na strane dodávateľov (projektantov, geodetických firiem...) i verejnosti (štátna správa, opozícia...). Jedným sa javia pdhodnotené, iným naopak nadhodnotené. Nezaškodí preto pripomenúť si, ako vznikali, čo malo na ich...

Aký je vzťah cien PPÚ k vývoju ekonomiky, resp. nie je vhodný čas na ich revíziu?

Aký je vzťah cien PPÚ k vývoju ekonomiky, resp. nie je vhodný čas na ich revíziu?

Use of European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS, EGNSS) is not restricted to Europe’s borders, and the compatibility of space systems means that users and businesses around the globe are able to benefit from greater coverage, higher accuracy and more confidence in their position fixes thanks to EGNSS. International users are therefore interested in exploring opportunities for greater cooperation with the European space programmes. Horizon 2020 is a key entry point for this.

Horizon 2020 and its successor framework programme Horizon Europe offer excellent opportunities for organisations around the world to team up with entities in the European Union to conduct research and development in a wide range of areas. European GNSS (EGNSS) is one such area and the EGNSS downstream market, in particular, is an ideal forum for international cooperation, with advantages for both sides in terms of new markets and business opportunities.

In this context, participation in Horizon 2020 Calls is an effective driver of international cooperation that strengthens existing and creates new links with non-EU countries. Any H2020 project can include international partners and international participation in these projects brings multiple benefits, including access to knowledge, markets, talent and investment, better research and exploitation and a higher global profile for the projects. Through previous R&I initiatives GSA has established cooperation with a wide network of international EGNSS players and the objective is to strengthen the existing and upcoming link with more countries.

Applicants from non-EU countries are eligible to take part in Horizon 2020 programmes – even if the calls for proposals or topic texts do not explicitly state this. However, they are not always automatically entitled to funding. For a list of countries eligible for Horizon 2020 funding, click here.

Creating international partnerships

EGNSS-related projects funded under Horizon 2020 have already yielded significant successes. One such project is BELS and its successor BELS+. The BELS+ consortium brings together partners from Europe and Southeast Asia with the aim of developing GNSS markets for EU companies in Southeast Asia and helping EGNSS applications gain a foothold in this rapidly growing market. Towards this goal, the project conducts a range of coordinated activities to raise awareness and build capacities for the exploitation of EGNSS technologies in the region.

Watch this:  Galileo Hackathon Bangalore

Likewise, the European GNSS Agency (GSA)-funded GNSS.asia H2020 project aims to stimulate the creation of partnerships between GNSS industries in Europe and Asia, while supporting institutional cooperation and encouraging Galileo adoption. The project is dedicated to GNSS industrial cooperation between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on the downstream market. The project offers various services, including industry matchmaking and international cooperation events, and has permanent teams in Europe, India, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Another example of successful international EGNSS cooperation is the MAGNIFIC project. The core aim of MAGNIFIC (Multiplying in Africa European Global Navigation Initiatives Fostering Interlaced Cooperation), which was funded in the Horizon 2020 1st Galileo call, was to demonstrate the benefits of EGNSS to African stakeholders. The project focused in particular on six priority markets: road, aviation, maritime, precision, agriculture/environment protection, civil protection and surveillance, and LBS.

Read this: Bavaria rings to the sound of BELS+

Last chance before Horizon Europe

Horizon 2020 will draw to a close in 2020, but there is still time to take advantage of the opportunities for international cooperation in the final EGNSS market uptake 2019-2020 Call. This Call, with a total budget of EUR 21 million, opened on 5 November.

Dealing with the development of new innovative applications fostering digitisation, smart mobility, societal resilience and environmental protection and with a brand new topic tailored to public authorities, this is the last Horizon 2020 Call before the launch of its successor framework programme – Horizon Europe.

For more information on the final EGNSS market uptake call, click here. The deadline for submissions is 5 March 2020.

Do you need support in getting in touch with non-EU partners? We can help, as we have particularly active links with:

• UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia
• Northern African countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
• South Africa
• ASECNA countries
• Israel, Lebanon, Jordan
• Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldavia
• South America: Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay
• Central America: Mexico, Costar Rica, Panama
• Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan.
• Australia, New Zealand.

We would be happy to discuss with you, contact us at RESEARCH@gsa.europa.eu!

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).