Navigate your ideas into business
Participate to the Galileo Masters 2019 competition with a great new idea on how satellite navigation can make life easier and better here on Earth and turn it into successful company, maybe at one of ESA's Business Incubation Centres. Submit before end July.
Navigation information has become an essential part of our daily lives, and Galileo, the European global satellite navigation system with its higher precision services, is a launch pad for new applications.
Galileo is fully operational and almost complete with the final four satellites of the 30 scheduled to be launched end 2020.
This year the construction of the Galileo High-Accuracy service is due to start. It will enable more precise position determination around the globe. With up to 20 centimeters accuracy, it offers great possibilities for all kinds of respective applications.
The competition serves as accelerating instrument for space‐related entrepreneurs and start-ups, providing Europe with path‐breaking novelties. It has always been scouting for the most forward‐thinking applications based on satellite navigation and remains to set benchmark levels of space‐related innovations for Europe.
Since its initiation in 2004, more than 11,500 developers have taken part proposing new ideas, and more than 300 winners have taken home the overall price pool worth €13million.
The spectrum of submitted business solutions reflects the manifold opportunities made possible by this future‐oriented technology: From healthcare and leisure to traffic management and other rail, sea, and air transport logistics, individuals and entire industries alike can benefit from satellite navigation.
No matter what stage a pioneering solution is at, the Galileo Masters provides support for innovations at any development stage, with the ultimate aim to turn them into real business cases.
From 1 May to 30 July, the Galileo Masters – the largest international competition for the commercial use of satellite navigation – is again in search of outstanding ideas and business models.
Submit your idea, the first step towards starting your own company
Proposals can be submitted to the 18 regions participating, each offering local awards. In parallel, they can also be submitted to one of the six Special Prizes offered by leading European stakeholders.
Among the winners, the grand prize Galileo Masters will be selected.
New in the 2019 edition is a synergy challenge by GSA and EC, which is looking for solutions using Earth observation data combined with Galileo EGNOS geo-referenced data.
Another novelty is the chance to win an additional EUR 15,000 each, if selected as the “Start-up of the Year” or the “Idea of the Year”. Both prizes are run by GSA and AZO, the organiser of the Galileo Masters.
With the total prize pool worth over €1 million in cash awards, business incubation, coaching, patent consulting, prototyping and marketing support, Galileo Masters 2019 will award many innovative ideas in using satellite navigation for novel terrestrial solutions.
Together with cash prizes, challenge winners will receive access to an international network of leading GNSS organizations, crowd-investing platforms, and business development support.
Galileo Masters 2018 overall winner: PlanBlue
German start-up PlanBlue took home the overall Galileo Masters 2018 prize with their intelligent seafloor mapping to improve conservation and industrial activities.
While Earth’s atmosphere and ground surfaces are well-monitored by satellites, there are no satellites in its oceans. PlanBlue has developed intelligent software linked to a specific underwater (hyperspectral) camera that facilitates accurate mapping of the seafloor.
The high-quality data it produces can be used to explore the unknown 95% of the oceans whilst improving both conservation and industrial activities. In comparison to traditional monitoring, PlanBlue’s technology is faster, more accurate, geo-referenced, and up to 75% cheaper.
More about PlanBlue here.
The complete list of all the 2018 winners can be downloaded from here.
Want to become an entrepreneur and dream of a start-up? Join an ESA BIC
Following the event there are many opportunities to move on with your ideas.
Many from the Galileo Masters select to join one of the ESA Business Incubation Centres.
The 20 ESA BICs, part of ESA space solutions initiative, make up the world’s largest ecosystem for space-related entrepreneurship located in 17 European countries – Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and UK. More centres are under preparation.
Over 750 start-ups have been fostered and another near 180 new start-ups are taken in yearly at the ESA BICs to be supported under the two-years ESA BIC business development programme.
Want to know more?
Visit the Galileo Masters at www.galileo-masters.eu.
About Galileo Masters
Initiated by AZO Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology, the Galileo Masters today is the leading network for satellite navigation. The Galileo Masters annually awards the best services, products, and business ideas using satellite navigation in everyday life, spurring the development of respective market-driven applications.
For 15 years, the international innovation competition serves as an accelerating instrument for space‐related entrepreneurs and start-ups, providing Europe with novelties. Since 2004, more than 11,500 developers took part with an overall prize pool worth €13 million
