EGNSS applications for Safety and Crisis management

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Development of innovative EGNSS-based solutions contributing to a resilient and more stable Europe that protects citizens.
• Development of innovative EGNSS-based solutions addressing safety concerns, to support the implementation of EU policy priorities relating to the safety of citizens, improved disaster risk management, , better security and resilience of infrastructure and vital societal functions, cybersecurity and crisis management.
• Development of innovative EGNSS-based solutions complementing the products delivered by the Emergency Management and Security Services of Copernicus.
• Awareness raising on the benefits of using EGNSS and Copernicus for emergency disaster risk management, and EGNSS for timing and synchronisation for critical infrastructures.

Proposals may be submitted in any of the following areas:

• Improved emergency disaster risk management and societal resilience. EGNSS solutions for critical services related to detection, preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation of emergencies and disasters, introducing synergies between satellite navigation, earth observation and communications. In particular, the synergies with the Copernicus Emergency Response Service, which is already operational, should be exploited. EGNSS solutions that leverage Search and Rescue service for resilience and management in crisis situations, following a disaster where conventional means, e.g. telecommunications, are no longer working. Further promising areas include mapping and high accuracy navigation for response and recovery, more intelligent and accurate distress beacons for Save and Rescue, drone and robot operations for disaster response, GNSS/Copernicus-based earthquake early warning systems, and Helicopter Emergency Medical Services.
• Timing and synchronisation applications focussing on emerging network synchronisation needs of critical infrastructures (electricity, telecommunications, financial etc.) in terms of accuracy and robustness, while reducing EU dependency on other GNSS. Proposals may e.g. focus on increasing receiver resilience to interference, increasing resilience and reliability in the reception of GNSS signals, tighter and more accurate time/phase requirements, timing precise synchronisation between financial platforms, Critical Assets Monitoring and Data Centre resistance against spoofing data; telecommunication networks’ operation; small cell synchronisation and 5G; Energy distribution and Phasor Measurement Units for smart grids. Links to the timing metrology infrastructure may be included, where relevant.

Proposals should exploit EGNSS differentiators such as Galileo Open Service multi-frequency, Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS), Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS-NMA), Galileo Signal Authentication Service and Galileo Search and Rescue Service (SAR) for the development of new innovative applications.

Developed applications should have a clearly defined commercial potential and should respond to user needs. The solution developed is expected to achieve TRL7-9 by the end of the project.

Proposals should deliver new innovative applications, with commercial
impact and a clear market uptake. Standardisation of new technologies is also in the scope of the topic and might be considered by the applicant. The use of other space components such as Copernicus is recommended. In particular, the use of Copernicus Emergency Management and Security services is highly encouraged. The developed solutions may integrate other non-space technologies like IoT, big data, artificial intelligence, drones, 5G, augmented/mixed reality etc.

For proposals under this topic:

• Participation of industry, in particular SMEs and midcaps, is encouraged;
• Participation of, or outreach to, entities based in countries without a space tradition is encouraged;
• Involvement of post-graduate researchers (engineers, scientists, and others) is also encouraged, for example through professional work experience or through fellowships/scholarships when applicable;
• A Business Plan and evidence of user engagement is compulsory and must be provided as part of the proposal, to demonstrate the user need and sustainability of the project.
• The involvement of public authorities in the safety critical domain may be foreseen, to attract public authorities as launching customer in case of successful projects.

Applicants are advised to exploit all possible synergies with other security specific actions funded under the work programme of Cluster 3 “Civil security for society” and funded under the work programme of Cluster 5 “Climate, Energy and Mobility” (e.g. Aviation safety topic “More resilient aircraft and survivability).

Proposals under this topic should exploit synergies and be complementary to national activities and activities funded by ESA.

Applicants are welcome to use the European space data infrastructures, e g. Galileo Service Centre, EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS) and the EGNOS user support facilities (ASQF).

Proposals addressing PRS (Public Regulated Service) related applications are not in the scope of this action.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL7-9 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.