Join ‘Call for Φdeas’ and make your transformative mark in Earth Observation
‘Call for Φdeas’ is a call for ideas sponsored by ESA Φ-lab to stimulate transformative innovation in the Earth observation sector. This call encourages the submission of groundbreaking ideas that can make an impact in scientific fields like Earth Science, green-tech, climate-tech, and sustainability, institutions, NGOs or in the commercial sector. Selected ideas can receive up to € 1.000.000 in funding and the deadline for submissions is 31 August 2025.
In a rapidly evolving world, Earth observation (EO) plays a vital role in understanding and addressing global and local challenges. To keep pace with emerging needs and technological advancements, it is essential to look for fresh perspectives and novel approaches. Funding calls such as ESA Φ-lab’s ‘Call for Φdeas’ create valuable opportunities to explore untapped potential for transformative innovation in the Earth Observation domain.
‘Call for Φdeas’ is open to research and academic institutions, NGOs, commercial entities (start-ups, SMEs and LSIs), international collaborators, among others, to propose ambitious, forward-thinking initiatives that will have an impact in scientific fieldslike Earth Science, green-tech, climate-tech, and sustainability, institutions, NGOs or in the commercial sector.
The main targets for this call are ideas with transformative potential, not incremental innovation. Selected ideas are expected to deliver significant technology progress and/or impact the reference sector/market/system by a different use of current technologies.
Selected ideas can be used to populate future ESA Φ-lab workplans or as input for other ESA programmes (e.g., FutureEO, InCubed). ‘Call for Φdeas’ offers a maximum funding of € 1.000.000 per idea and co-funding is encouraged. For more information, please refer to ‘Evaluation Criteria’ in the dedicated Call for Φdeas channel on the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP).
Ideas should fall into three categories: ‘Exploratory Ideas’ (to investigate novel, unconventional or unproven EO-related concepts, including technologies, mission studies or EO applications), ‘Capacity Building’ (to build the competences, techniques, or ecosystems needed to mature promising disruptive EO ideas), and ‘Innovation Impact’ (to translate a mature idea into a transformative solution ready for adoption for an identified use case).
This is a recurrent call and accepts new submissions twice a year. For 2025, a single round of submissions is foreseen, and the submission phase deadline is 31 August 2025 COB.
By encouraging diversity of ideas, ‘Call for Φdeas’ helps ensure that the Earth observation sector remains dynamic, relevant, and responsive to the complex realities of our planet.
To know more: ‘Call for Φdeas’ OSIP, ESA Φ-lab
Photo courtesy of ESA
