Call all budding entrepreneurs to submit ideas.
Kick off – Friday April 29th. Register now for ESNC Kick Off Event
Now in its 13th year, the highly-anticipated European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2016 is about to get underway, with participants across Europe being invited to submit their ideas for new opportunities in the €100 billion satellite services market.
From April 1st to June 30th, the competition web portal, www.esnc.eu will be open to budding entrepreneurs to submit ideas for new services, products and business innovations that integrate satellite navigation technology into everyday life such as mobility, health or safety. The burgeoning Sat Nav market is expected to grow to €240 billion by 2020.
The regional Irish winner will receive a prize valued at €20,000, which includes incubation space, business coaching, technical support, marketing expertise as well as travel costs and automatic entry to the Galileo Masters, where competitors across the globe compete for the €1 million prize fund.
Since 2004, the ESNC has become the world’s largest innovation network in the field of satellite navigation. The Each year, the ESNC’s global partner regions and key institutional and industry stakeholders award prizes worth around EUR 1 million – including cash prizes, business incubation, coaching, patent consulting, prototyping and marketing support, access to customers and user communities, and publicity in the world’s leading satellite navigation network.
More than 130 partners, including the most relevant European GNSS stakeholders, support participants in taking the next step with their business cases. Since its inception, the competition has welcomed more than 9,000 participants from 4,263 registered teams and chosen a total of 241 winners. Many of these business cases have already been implemented and successfully brought to market.
ESNC’s network is supported by the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) and currently comprises 25 global partner regions, with the Irish region being sponsored by the National Space Centre Ltd (NSC).
NSC Chief Executive Rory Fitzpatrick said: “We are delighted to continue our association with this prestigious competition as it gives Irish entrepreneurs and businesses in the space and satellite sector an opportunity to showcase their innovations on a truly global level. The competition is a unique platform that can launch a concept, business or application as well as further helping to build a space-based tech industry in Ireland and Europe.”
NSC is located in the south of Ireland, based at Elfordstown Earthstation, just outside Midleton, Co Cork, and is Ireland’s only teleport. NSC provides carrier grade satellite communications facilities from Elfordstown for the commercial satellite sector and partners with organisations and institutions worldwide for R&D projects, which include a number of emerging satellite technology projects.
Last year’s winning idea from Ireland, 112Gps.com – 112GPS provides emergency services with accurate location coordinates for calls made from a mobile phone. The lack of accurate caller localisation presents a significant problem to emergency services in responding to emergency callers across Europe, particularly when callers are unable to provide their location verbally. Using the 112GPS app when a call is made to 112, the user’s GPS coordinates – along with the medical data entered by the user during initial registration – are transmitted securely to emergency services. In addition, the app automatically notifies up to five contacts in the event 112 / 999 is dialled from the user’s mobile device. LocateMe Ltd, the Irish company behind 112GPS, firmly believes that this life-saving application will not only help save lives, but also aid emergency services across Europe in saving time, money, and other resources. It is currently at feasibility stage and Aidan hopes to launch a demo this year.
Register now for ESNC Kick Off Event