Rewarding the best innovative ideas for EGNOS

Satellite navigation is already changing our lives. The search is on for new ideas that could use the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to improve life further. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is offering a prize for the best proposal that uses EGNOS – the European satellite-based augmentation system for GPS.

The European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) awards the most innovative proposals for new applications in the sector. This is the eighth edition of the competition and the fourth year that the European GNSS Agency (GSA) has offered a Special Topic Prize for the most promising application that uses EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service.

EGNOS: For safety-critical applications

EGNOS, Europe's satellite-based augmentation system, improves the accuracy and reliability of GPS signals across Europe. The GSA’s annual Special Topic Prize awards innovative application ideas that make use of EGNOS signals or services.

Entrants should submit their idea before 30 June 2011 on the ESNC website (https://login.galileo-masters.eu). Positioning should be a key enabler of the application and EGNOS should be the primary means of positioning.

2011 is already a landmark year, as the EGNOS ‘Safety-Of-Life Service’ was declared fully operational for civil aviation on 2 March. EGNOS provides verification of the system’s integrity, which relates to the trust that can be placed in the correctness of the location information supplied by the navigation system. In addition, it provides timely warnings when the system or its data should not be used for navigation. “This is essential when satellite-based navigation is used for applications where lives are at stake,” explains Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the GSA, "and it is now fully available, free of charge and here to stay.”

From innovative ideas to products

Winners of the GSA’s Special Topic Prize for EGNOS will have the opportunity to realise their idea at any incubation centre in the EU for six months (with the option of an additional six months). Ideally, applications this year should leverage the new ‘Safety-of-Life Service' and adapt it in innovative ways that have both social and business potential.

Since the GSA Prize’s debut in 2008, three previous winners have taken their ideas forward with the help of a business incubator.

The first winner, UK-based Sci-Tech Systems, used the award to complete a working prototype of their location system for people who are lost overboard at sea. Their proposal for a person-overboard (POB) system that uses EGNOS’s positioning accuracy also won the Galileo Masters prize, the ESNC‘s top award.

The German firm Nogago won the 2009 prize with an EGNOS navigation application for smart-phones. ‘Nogago Outdoor‘ can be used offline, with free and up-to-date satellite positioning data. Users are charged for the digital maps but the free smart-phone app surpassed 15,000 downloads within days of publication.

Last year’s award went to Austrian start-up Mobilizy for their ‘Wikitude Drive’ mobile augmented reality navigation system. It provides smart-phones with driving instructions overlaid on real-time video footage. EGNOS will improve accuracy and speed up positioning signals.


About the GSA:
The GSA, a European Community agency, works with the European Commission on a range of activities aimed at helping European entrepreneurs and businesses – especially high tech small-to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), business incubators and related networks – commercially exploit EGNOS and Galileo. Promotional activities, such as the ESNC, help ensure that European industry maintains a competitive edge in the global satellite navigation marketplace.

About the European Satellite Navigation Competition:
The European satellite Navigation Competition is an international ideas competition awarding the best ideas based on satellite navigation. It is open to everyone, it does not matter whether the participants are companies, entrepreneurs, research institutes, universities and private individuals. What counts is the idea. Between 1 April and 30 June, participants can submit their ideas on www.galileo-masters.eu. The kick-off event for interested innovators will be held at the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) in London on 11 May 2011.

Having started in 2004 with three partner regions, the ESNC has since grown into a global network of innovation and expertise. More than 20 regions compete against each other to produce the overall winner, the Galileo Master who gets EUR 20,000 and the chance to realise their idea in an incubation centre of their choice.


Press Contact:
European Satellite Navigation Competition
Ulrike Daniels
Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen
Friedrichshafener Straße 1
82205 Gilching
Germany
Tel.: +49(0)8105-77277-14
Fax: +49(0)8105-77277-55
[email protected]