The next ESA Norway Industry Day is coming

The ESA Φ-lab and the InCubed programme will be presented, together with the Norwegian ESA BIC and the ESA BASS programme, at the Norway Industry Day that will be held on Tuesday 11 May.

All Norwegian companies working in the Earth Observation value chain – from satellites, systems, sub-systems to ground segments and the utilisation of space applications – are welcome to participate in the next Norway Industry Day, which will take place virtually on Tuesday 11 May, starting at 10 CET until 13.00 CET.

Giuseppe Borghi, Head of the Φ-lab, and Amanda Regan, Head of  Φ-lab Invest Office, will give a general overview of the Φ-lab activities and opportunities and of the Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed) programme.

Rita Rinaldo, from the Downstream Business Applications Department of the Telecom and Integrated Applications Directorate,  will present the ESA BASS programme together with representatives from the Norwegian ESA BIC with company examples.

Presentations will focus on the Norwegian space economy perspective.

Representatives of companies that are already part of InCubed will provide their experience of working with the φ-lab and InCubed.

If your Norwegian company is interested in Earth observation and would like to attend the Industry Day, please contact Ville Meskus and Ole Morten Olsen.

The event will be held in English.


When: Tuesday 11 May 2021

Where: Online

Φ-lab and InCubed at the Earth Science Information Partners Innovation Webinar

The ESA Φ-lab and InCubed programme will be presented at the next Earth Science Information Partners Innovation (ESIP) Webinar to be held online on Wednesday 28 April, at 16:30 CEST.

The next Earth Science Information Partners Innovation Webinar will be organised in a virtual format next Wednesday 28 April, at 11:30. Registration are opened here.

The webinar shall focus on the φ-lab and Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed Programme)

InCubed is a 100M euro open-call programme that focuses on developing innovative and commercially viable products and services to leverage the value of Earth observation data. This programme has a very wide scope and can be used to co-fund anything from building satellites to ground applications and everything in between or to develop new EO business models.

During the webinar, the InCubed Programme manager Amanda Regan shall provide an overall of the φ-lab and the InCubed programme and four companies who are in the InCubed pipeline shall present their activities: Hyperscout-2, CoastEO, MANTIS, and SAT4FLOOD.

Registrations are opened here.

To know more about this event please visit www.esipfed.org


When: Wednesday 28 April 2021
Where: Online

SuperVision Earth becomes the first German company to perform InCubed work

SuperVision Earth is a German start-up established in 2018 by the winners of that year’s local Copernicus Hackathon. Since then, the start-up has benefited greatly from the Copernicus Accelerator, Copernicus Incubator and ESA BIC programmes. This latest InCubed activity will develop SuperVision Space, an automated satellite-based monitoring solution for routine pipeline monitoring.

More than a million kilometres of high pressure pipelines, often buried underground, run through countries supplying gas and energy to businesses and communities worldwide. The pipelines are subject to various risks, such as third-party activities, vegetation and ground movement. Third-party activities, such as construction or digging close to pipelines, are the leading cause of incidents. An early and efficient detection of risks is necessary to minimise environment exposure and damage, natural gas explosions, loss of lives and carbon emissions. In addition, it could also save gas companies millions.

To address this issue, SuperVision Earth developed SuperVision Space (SVS) based on proprietary AI-powered software to analyse satellite data, detect and regularly report on various risks. ESA’s InCubed programme will co-fund SVS, support its development, and de-risk the activity by providing technical and programmatic support. As part of the programme, SuperVision Earth will also gain access to potential investors and networking opportunities through dedicated events and possible arrangements being explored in 2021.

Alongside ESA’s InCubed programme, SuperVision Earth has partnered with the energy and infrastructure companies Entega and Terranets. These partners have already conducted several pilot projects in the field of satellite-based pipeline monitoring.

The InCubed contract was signed and the kick-off meeting took place end of March 2021, attended by SuperVision Earth, Entega and Terranets, alongside representatives from ESA. Members of the German delegation, who backed this activity were also in attendance, alongside representatives from the German industry association DVGW, a standardisation body for the gas and water industry, who are supporting SuperVision Earth with their expertise.

On signing the InCubed contract, SuperVision Earth’s COO and co-founder Jan Kolmas said: ‘’We are honoured to be the first German company to sign a contract with ESA’s InCubed programme. This activity is essential to SuperVision Earth’s mission of making gas infrastructure more secure, with a positive impact on the reduction of CO2 emissions, increased competitiveness of the European EO and AI sectors, and generation of high-tech jobs in Europe.’’

Left to right: Supervision Earth’s CEO Karsten Wiertz, CTO Sebastian Bussman, and COO Jan Kolmas

Satellite-based monitoring represents a useful addition to the toolbox of gas infrastructure operators, thanks to its low cost, its convenient frequency and its absence of carbon dioxide emissions. SuperVision Earth’s SVS downloads satellite images of pipeline corridors from providers around the world. These are analysed by an embedded AI model in order to detect potential threats. SVS then sends prompt warnings to the operator’s engineers, who use the product to make informed decisions, so preventing threats from becoming catastrophic incidents such as natural gas explosions, environmental damage and economic costs. More information on SVS can be found here.

Amanda Regan, InCubed programme manager, added: ‘’This activity offers an innovative solution aimed at gas and energy pipelines monitoring. This is the first German InCubed contract to be signed and we would like to thank both SuperVision Earth and the German Delegation. This is an innovative concept which will contribute to the overall European EO commercial landscape.’’


To know more: SuperVision Earth, InCubed activity, Entega, Terranets, DVGW

InCubed supports Satforcert for sustainable forest management

Irish company Treemetrics will work with ESA’s InCubed programme to develop Satforcert, a commercial platform to enable the delivery of forest certification and carbon verification standards. Satforcert leverages the latest satellite imagery from the Sentinel satellites and will make it easier for forest owners globally to adopt forest certification.

According to the World Bank (2015 report), global demand for wood is set to quadruple by 2050. The challenge now is to rapidly deploy forest certification standards to meet the exponential growth in demand for sustainable forest management practices and sustainably sourced forest-based products. 

Satforcert, developed by Irish company Treemetrics, aims to address these issues by developing an online platform providing tools to facilitate the forest certification process. The contract signing and kick-off meeting for this latest InCubed activity took place in November 2020. Satforcert will utilise the latest EO data by integrating satellite images (e.g. Sentinel-2), maps, documents, checklists, corrective actions, processes and reporting together into centralised systems replacing the many systems and spreadsheets currently used. This streamlined approach will enable more effective and transparent forest certification. More information can be found here.

Treemetrics’ vision for the future is a digitised global forest industry that optimises productivity and sustainability through a move to precision forestry. The Irish company captures and analyses data using customised satellite and mobile communication’s technology to enable forest owners and managers to maximise sustainable production and profitability. The Irish company’s Forest HQ Cloud-based (SaaS) data platform integrates easily with all other systems used by clients and delivers real-time critical operational data to inform sustainable decision making. Treemetrics’ data insights are also integrated into stakeholders’ processes throughout the forest management and supply journey, ensuring better forecasting and optimising production.

Amanda Regan, ESA’s InCubed programme Manager, said: ‘’Satforcert is the latest InCubed activity to provide potential customers with sustainable decision making, and we look forward to working with Treemetrics and other companies to develop these kinds of technologies which are shaping the future of EO.’’

ESA InCubed, along with Enterprise Ireland, will support the development of Satforcert to enable the delivery of forest certification and carbon verification standards. Enda Keane, Treemetrics CEO and founder, welcomed the co-funded collaboration with ESA and forest industry partners commenting:

“Over the past 15 years Treemetrics, with the support of Enterprise Ireland, has worked in over 35 countries across the planet and we have observed the positive impact of responsible forest management. The global forest industry has a huge challenge to meet the growing demands for wood. We are delighted to be working with global leaders and look forward to delivering a system that makes forest certification easier to adopt and more transparent for auditing.”

Welcoming the announcement, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, TD, said: “Treemetrics are a fantastic example of an innovative Irish company using digital space data, made available through Ireland’s membership of ESA, to ensure the sustainability of raw materials on Earth.”

Satforcert will be developed in partnership with major players in sustainable forest management certification, including the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and the Sustainable Biomass Programme (SBP). PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification system, with 790 million acres of PEFC-certified forest across the globe, and will ensure Satforcert meets the needs of their international certificate holders. SBP, a global standard to ensure that wood biomass is sourced sustainably, will also support the development phase. 

Other partners include the leading forest auditing body Soil Association, which is responsible for the certification of 18 million hectares every year. F&W Forestry, the largest private forest manager in the UK, will also support the project to ensure the platform meets the needs of private forest owners and managers globally. These companies will bring a wealth of experience having pioneered the adoption and delivery of forest certification standards for the past two decades.

Satforcert will also provide carbon verification standards and be used by Forest Carbon who lead the way in UK woodland creation for carbon capture. Enda Keane, Treemetrics CEO and founder, added: “Forest Carbon is a rapidly emerging product that forest owners are monetising across the planet. The platform will also leverage the Treemetrics precision measurement, verification and certification tools that help to reduce the potential associated risk and increase overall adoption of this important mechanism.”


To Know more: Satforcert InCubed activity, Treemetrics, Enterprise Ireland, PEFC, SBP, Soil Association, F&W Forestry, Forest Carbon

World Water Day: Interview with Water Availability Monitor

This year’s World Water Day theme is ‘’valuing water’’.  For InCubed’s activity Water Availability Monitor (WAM), valuing water means providing European farmers with efficient irrigation advice to mitigate drought issues and reduce water use. Find out more in this interview with WAM Project Manager Alexander Hoff and ESA InCubed Programme Manager Amanda Regan.

World Water Day is an annual UN campaign that celebrates water and raises awareness of its use and accessibility. Valuing water, this year’s World Water Day theme is at the core of several InCubed activities including Sat4Flood, CoastEO and WAM.

WAM is an information service that provides daily irrigation advice to European farmers, jointly developed by Dutch tech partners Nelen & Schuurmans, AgroVision and VanderSat. Reliable irrigation advice is crucial to ensure high and stable yields, particularly when increasing drought issues are threatening farmers, their income, and food security worldwide. To help mitigate these issues and reduce the use of water in irrigation, WAM uses the best available climatic, soil and crop datasets to provide farmers with effective irrigation advice.

To celebrate World Water Day on Monday 22 March 2021, Alexander Hoff, WAM Project Manager and Business Manager of Integrated Water Management at Nelen & Schuurmans, explained how WAM is helping European farmers value water. Amanda Regan, Head of ESA’s Φ-lab Invest Office and InCubed Programme Manager, also added her point of view, highlighting how the programme can help the European EO industry preserve our Planet.

How does WAM help European farmers use water more efficiently?

Alexander Hoff: WAM combines satellite data with in-situ sensors and hydrological models to provide actionable irrigation advice. Farmers can access this information using a user-friendly online dashboard called CropVision, developed by AgroVision. This provides farmers with end-to-end irrigation advice that makes the use of irrigation water more efficient, resulting in less unnecessary water use.

How are satellite images used to provide irrigation advice to farmers?

Alexander Hoff: WAM irrigation advice is calculated by a hydrological model, which is driven by VanderSat’s satellite data product. Their world leading soil moisture product provides reliable daily observation at 100-metre resolution. Our hydrological models on plot level use meteorological and hydrological parameters as an input whilst satellite soil moisture observations are used to provide calculations on a daily basis using data assimilation techniques. The soil moisture products are derived from L-band, C-band and X-band microwave sensor observations in orbit on various EO constellations including ESA and NASA.

Amanda Regan: The WAM project, co-funded by ESA InCubed programme, is an example of services that combine multiple sources of EO data, both from optical and radar family, in this case aimed to provide the most advanced parametrisation of the key water availability indices. This highlights the potential of synergistic use of data coming from the Sentinel satellites, but also the added value of integration of this data with other off-the-shelf data products to deliver solutions that are advancing the state-of-the art in the retrieval of this information. On top of this, the ability to prepare data for easy ingestion into the existing farmers’ decision support systems shows how far we have moved from pure EO image analytics to data-driven decision making that can be realistically integrated with end-users systems. 

How has the InCubed programme helped you develop WAM?

Alexander Hoff: Technical assistance and support from the InCubed programme has helped make WAM a reality. The InCubed team have been a great support for the development of our product. Their expertise on remote sensing, EO applications, as well as product and business development have helped us sharpen WAM’s value proposition. Their support throughout the project from proof-of-concept to commercialisation is extraordinary and one of a kind. Information services based on EO have enormous potential to enrich plain data services with spatial and temporal data. However the technological complexity requires larger development investment, which can be challenging for SMEs.  

Amanda Regan: Indeed, InCubed aims at supporting European EO industry to take their products and services to the next level by applying often novel but scientifically validated data analysis methodologies, and commercialising them in a clearly defined market context. WAM project is a test bed of how joining forces and expertise from different fields can lead both to innovation and market uptake. The project is being implemented by a consortium of experienced SMEs that leverage their respective know-how to develop business relationship based on their complementary products and services. The co-funding nature of the InCubed programme means that this business relationship is a long-term investment from all partners involved and will continue even after ESA support will naturally wind down. 

What future plans do you have for WAM?

Alexander Hoff: In 2021, WAM will have its soft launch where selected clients will receive a fully operationally service from start to end of the growing season. This will allow us to technically validate the irrigation advice service throughout the growing season and verify WAM’s value proposition for its clients. After that, we plan to scale up our advice with hundreds of new users per crop growing season. Once this early growth has proven successful, we will expand our service to both Eastern and Southern Europe. Efficient water use is becoming particularly important in Southern Europe where the stresses of climate change are having a severe impact on water availability. For this reason, we have already assessed the usability of WAM in Portugal.  

The topic of this year’s UN World Water Day is “‘valuing water’’. What does water mean to WAM and InCubed?

Alexander Hoff: Water is of course at the core of our activity. We chose to focus on improving irrigation systems because we are convinced that this is arguably the most important natural resource on our planet and we really need to avoid even the smallest waste. We decided to use satellite data for a more sustainable water management, as agriculture is both a victim and part of the solution for increasing drought problems. This concerns available water food production, and directly affects nature and the living environment. So I would say that water is really a central theme in the challenge of climate change, as well as biodiversity.

Amanda Regan: Alexander makes an important point about improving efficiencies in water use which can be transferred to other industries. Water resources management is a global challenge of this century and ESA is fully committed to provide satellite systems of current and next generation to ensure that we have a continuous stream of data to identify and manage these scarce resources. However the success of different management options depends on the ability to trust and apply these EO data in a way which is fully optimised and responding to the needs of the water management authorities, or regulators while taking into account specificities of local conditions as well as, for example, the performance of farming support equipment. Such end-to-end system thinking and the ability to customise solutions to user needs is key. In this decade, we will see a progressive uptake of digital water solutions and, in this context, the InCubed programme allows and encourages the innovators to assess different science and market strategies to address water management issues. Some of them can be developed, demonstrated and delivered through activities like WAM, Sat4Flood and CoastEO. We welcome any ideas that use satellite data to preserve planet Earth.

More information on WAM can be found here.

More information on UN World Water Day can be found here.


Artificial Intelligence powers latest InCubed activity from Planetek Italia

On Wednesday 13 January 2021, Planetek’s AI-express (AIX) platform joined ESA’s InCubed programme with the official kick-off meeting and virtual contract signing. The AIX  Incubed activity will develop a hybrid in-orbit data processing platform powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technology.

Planetek’s AIX platform brings a new satellite as-a-service concept to the market and makes on-demand, in-orbit resources such as data and actionable information available to users. AIX will provide an on-board software environment enabling the development of new Earth Observation (EO) based space apps within a user-friendly dedicated store on the ground.

Representatives from ESA’s InCubed programme, Planetek Italia, D-Orbit and AIKO attended the virtual signing earlier this year. On signing the contract, Planetek CEO Giovanni Sylos Labini said: ‘’We are excited to work within ESA’s InCubed programme, with D-Orbit and AIKO, to develop an innovative platform that, thanks to AI and edge-computing, will provide a new generation of Earth Observation tools.’’

With AIx, Planetek supports the space commercial evolution by providing users with a testbed for state-of-the-art technologies, including AI and Blockchain technologies. This hybrid edge ecosystem will give the users EO payloads, ready-to-deploy CubeSats, and software framework infrastructure.

After signing the contract Amanda Regan, Head of the Φ-Lab Invest Office and InCubed Programme Manager, added: ‘’ESA’s InCubed programme is always looking for innovative activities like AIx to exploit state-of-the-art technologies for the benefit of potential customers. We look forward to working with Planetek, De-Orbit and Aiko to shape the future of EO applications and technologies.’’

Planetek has already started InCubed activities, including customer consultation, design trade-offs and prototypal implementations.

The consortium is also organising an online workshop on Wednesday 24 March, 10:30, addressed to interested customers and stakeholders. This will be the occasion to present the product and the specific techonology it uses but also to show the added value of AIx services.

Registrations are opened at https://mc.planetek.it/ai-express_workshop.

More information about the AIX InCubed activity can be found here.

Join the free trial for in1 on Monday 15 March 2021

Does your satellite data suffer from sub-optimal resolution? Find out how InCubed activity in1 can be used to enhance your satellite data at Sobolt’s free two-week virtual trial, starting on Monday 15 March 2021.

AI solutions provider Sobolt joined the Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed) programme in February 2020 and has worked to develop state-of-the-art Artificial Data Enhancement (ADE) software called in1.

in1 uses a sophisticated image processing model for unpaired super-resolution to reduce the cost of enhancing satellite data in real-time. The so-called “unpaired” problem consists in super-resolving a low resolution satellite image with AI deep learning techniques, without having a high resolution target image to compare it to. To do so, Sobolt has developed a dedicated state-of-the-art artificial intelligent model that provides potential customers with upgraded data and unlocks exciting new use cases for existing datasets and satellite programmes such as more accurate data analyses. Find out more here.

The free Copernicus Sentinel-2 trial of in1 will start virtually on Monday 15 March 2021 and run for two weeks. Anyone working with Sentinel-2 images can participate in the free trial, using Sobolt’s image library provided on the website or super resolving own images with an API in the cloud. In three easy steps participants will be able to upload an image, enter a short line of code into the API, and finally click on a button to get a higher resolution Sentinel-2 image emerging in a matter of seconds.

This free trial will allow participants to get first-hand experience of in1, be able to evaluate the models performance, and provide valuable feedback. Please register by emailing hello@in1.ai – hurry, only 19 spots available!

Since in1’s intermediate milestone meeting as part of the InCubed programme in December 2020, in1 has been enhancing the sharpness of Copernicus Sentinel-2 images whilst preserving and exceeding Sobolt’s benchmarking for bilinear upsampling. The meeting focused on performance metrics of in1’s original colour definition and how well object edges are defined such as houses and trees.

In1 is a toolbox of AI deep learning functionality focused on improving and enhancing Earth Observation imagery and data sets. This is an innovative software development which pushes the architectural boundaries of deep learning techniques and GPU operational capability. Using a continual improvement approach, Sobolt have developed automatic testing procedures and conducted external peer reviews on every new piece of code added to consistently improve the toolbox.


When: Monday 15 March 2021

Where: Online

To know more and register: Email hello@in1.ai

InCubed co-funds Belgian Aerospacelab to develop Multispectral Companion Mission

ESA’s Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed) programme will focus on the development, launch and demonstration of the first Multispectral Companion Satellite prototype of Aerospacelab’s Multispectral Companion Mission whose aim is to provide daily global coverage and commercially focused multispectral data products within a constellation architecture.

The contract was signed during a virtual event on Friday 12 February 2021 by ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes Josef Aschbacher and the CEO of the Belgian company Aerospacelab Benoit Deper. The event was attended by Thomas Dermine, Belgium Secretary of State, and the Belgium Delegation (including Frank Monteny, the Head of the Belgium Delegation and Steven Bogaerts, the Belgium Programme Board for the Earth Observation delegate). ESA representatives included Giuseppe Borghi, Head of the φ-Lab, Amanda Regan, Head of the Invest Office in the φ-Lab and the InCubed Programme Manager.

The development, launch and demonstration of the first Multispectral Companion Satellite prototype of Aerospacelab’s Multispectral Companion Mission has become the latest activity under ESA’s InCubed programme. The Multispectral Companion Mission (MSCM) is one of two main constellations that Aerospacelab is developing to enhance efficiency and make geospatial intelligence actionable and affordable. Under the InCubed contract, Aerospacelab will develop an In-Orbit prototype.

Representatives from ESA and the InCubed programme, Aerospacelab, Belgium Secretary of State, and the Belgian delegation joined the virtual signing event. On signing the contract Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes and the agency’s next Director General, said:

‘’ESA is excited to support the European Earth Observation commercial sector and we are looking forward to working with Aerospacelab to develop the first Multispectral Companion Prototype Satellite. The development is commercially focused and is co-funded by the Belgium contribution to InCubed and Aerospacelab. This is one of the biggest InCubed contracts so far, providing an important contribution to the development of the European commercial EO landscape.’’

This demonstration mission will comprise the first satellite of Aerospacelab’s constellation. The aim is to provide a daily global coverage with commercially focused multispectral data products that strive to reach Sentinel-2 specifications for parameters like spectral bands, MTF, SNR, resolution, within the constraints of a cost driven approach. Additional bands will also be investigated, considering the studies performed for Sentinel-2 Next Generation.

The InCubed activity will focus on developing the first prototype satellite whilst ESA’s General Support Technology Programme will develop the satellite’s payload.

Steven Bogaerts from the Belgian delegation said: “Aerospacelab is a young and very promising Belgian company with many brilliant and innovative ideas. With its support to the Multi Spectral Companion Mission (MSCM), the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) wants also to help Aerospacelab in reaching their ground-breaking goals.’’

Head of ESA’s Φ-lab Invest Office Amanda Regan added: “ESA’s InCubed programme is delighted to welcome Aerospacelab into the programme and would like to thank the Belgian delegation and Aerospacelab for co-funding this new commercially focused activity.”

The ambitious goal is – for some selected applications – to ultimately achieve interoperability with existing Sentinel-2 data products (as well as those to Sentinel-2 Next Generation) and offer strategic complementarity by fusing data sources between Sentinel-2 and this companion constellation.

Founder and CEO of Aerospacelab, Benoit Deper, said: “Copernicus was built for global environment and security monitoring and Aerospacelab aims to complement this with a constellation of multi-spectral satellites. We see this InCubed activity as an important first step to de-risk the first satellite. We are delighted to work with ESA and we are looking forward to exploring possible synergies between existing satellites and smaller spacecraft.”

Aerospacelab is a Belgian company with expertise in satellite hardware and data processing. A mixture of existing, off-the-shelf and new components will be used to build the first satellite prototype which Aerospacelab will integrate across the space, ground and user segments. More information about Aerospacelab can be found here.

Representatives from ESA and the InCubed programme, Aerospacelab, Belgium Secretary of State and the Belgian delegation joined the virtual signing event on Friday 12 January 2021.

To know more: Aerospacelab Press Release, Belspo – Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Sentinel-2, Multispectral Companion Mission

Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure Summit

Find out more about 4IR and how to use geospatial knowledge to improve decision making at the virtual Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure Summit, 24-25 February 2021.

This virtual two-day summit will explore the concept of Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure and how Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies such as AI, IoT and 5G will influence the geospatial industry. The summit is jointly organised by Geospatial Media and Communications, and the UN Statistics Division. Register for the virtual summit here.

Space and Earth Observation companies are encouraged to attend the virtual summit which will include sessions on Geospatial Knowledge, data partnerships and analytics, and policy frameworks. More information can be found here.


When: 24-25 February 2021

Where: Online

To know more, see the full programme and register: Click here

The next Finland Industry Day is coming soon

The ESA Φ-lab and InCubed programme will be presented at the Finland Industry Day which takes place during the country’s Space Business Forum on Wednesday 17 February 2021.

Finnish companies interested in developing the Finnish space based value chain from satellites, systems, sub-systems to ground segments and the utilisation of space applications are invited to an Industry Day which will take place virtually on Wednesday 17 February 2021, 12:00-14:30 CET / 13:00-15:30 EET.

Kimmo Kanto, Head of Space at Business Finland, will open the Industry Day with an overview of Finnish space strategy followed by presentations from ESA representatives. Giuseppe Borghi, Head of ESA’s Φ-lab, will focus on how Φ-lab activities can support the use of Earth Observation for the Finnish commercial sector.

Amanda Regan, Head of ESA’s Φ-lab Invest Office, will give an overview of the Investing in Industrial Innovation (InCubed) programme and outline the application process for Finnish companies. Presentations on the InCubed and Φ-lab experience will follow from CEO of Swedish company Unibap Fredrik Bruhn, CEO of Reaktor Space Tuomas Tikka, and ICEYE Senior SAR Engineer Andrea Radius.

Jaan Praks, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Aalto University, will open the second half of the Industry Day with perspectives on Finnish space economy challenges. A company round table and open discussion will follow so that ESA can better understand and support the needs and challenges of the Finnish space ecosystem. To conclude we aim to have a discussion focused on the development of the Earth observation commercial sector and how Finland could play an important role in this emerging landscape. 

If your Finnish company is interested in Space and Earth observation, and would like to attend the Industry Day, please contact Ville Meskus and Tiina Nurmi.


When: Wednesday 17 February 2021

Where: Online