7 July 2011 - The new innovation competition GMES Masters has officially started. The European Earth Monitoring Competition calls for new ideas and services making the best use of earth observation data from Europe's flagship programme on global monitoring for environment and security.

With the aim of making the best use of possibilities that come along with global monitoring in the domains of environment and security, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and T-Systems have launched a new competition – the GMES Masters. While GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) is a European space related flagship programme initiated by the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA), the GMES Masters competition is organised by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO).

The GMES Masters 2011 encourages students, researchers, entrepreneurs, start-up companies and SMEs to develop market-focused applications from data gathered through the EU-led GMES initiative. Until 15 September 2011 they are invited to submit their applications and business ideas for one of the following five “challenges” via a secure online database on the GMES Masters website ( www.gmes-masters.com):

The core of the competition is the Ideas Challenge. The best idea for a commercially viable business using GMES data will be rewarded with a cash prize of 10,000 Euro as well as the chance to get the idea further developed in one of the five ESA Business Incubation Centres (BICs). The incubation package has a value of up to 60,000 Euro.

The Best Service Challenge invites service providers to upload profiles of their existing services within the main thematic areas of GMES. The submitted services will be published on the front page of the GMES Masters website.

All subsequent visitors to the website will then have the opportunity to vote for the services they find most beneficial for the European citizens.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will award the ESA App Challenge to the best application idea for the use of GMES on mobile phones. The winner will be considered for further development support by one of the five European Space Agency's Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) across Europe. The incubation package has a value of up to 60,000 Euro.

The DLR Environmental Challenge is looking for new applications in Earth observation, especially for proposals addressing the mapping of the environment and climate. The winner will receive a voucher for a workshop or initial coaching, depending on the actual status of the idea. This could mean ongoing development and joint implementation that eventually results in a new environmental monitoring service.

T-Systems will award the prize for its Cloud Computing Challenge for the best GMES application or service idea that will make use of the cloud computing service model infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) to provide Earth observation data on demand via a user-oriented web portal or mobile device. T-Systems will assist the winner in getting the awarded GMES application or service off the ground, which could lead to a long-term partnership.

The overall winner of the competition – the GMES Master – will be selected among the winners of the Ideas Challenge, ESA App Challenge, DLR Environmental Challenge, and T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge. The GMES Master will receive an additional cash prize of EUR 20,000.

About the GMES Masters:

From 2011 onwards the GMES Masters will reward on an annual basis the best projects and business ideas for a GMES commercial service, with the aim to support the development of GMES related entrepreneurship in Europe. Initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economy, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), T-Systems, and supported by the EU, the GMES Masters 2011 calls for proposals between 1 July and 15 September 2011 in five categories.

For further information please refer to:
www.gmes-masters.com
www.esa.int/gmes & www.gmes.info



Contact:

Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen
Ms Ulrike Daniels
Email Contact
Phone: +49.8105.7727714