Investing in Industrial Innovation – InCubed - Announcement of Partnership Opportunity

The InCubed Element of the European Earth Watch Programme (InCubed) aims at accompanying the European economic operators in the Earth Observation market rapid evolution currently witnessed in Europe and overseas. InCubed offers a new process in ESA Earth Observation programmes to strengthen and stimulate the realization of endeavours near-to-the-market with Economic Operators. Activities to be supported include the development and/or demonstration of space assets (missions, instruments, prototype element of EO constellation), innovative mission management solution, including for future EO constellation, the development of application platforms, etc. InCubed is looking for commercial viability by the end of the activity (up to at least a minimum viable product level) and a substantial degree of innovation i.e. adding new value to the EO commercial landscape. Commercial customer engagement/involvement is mandatory. Commercial customers are encouraged to be either as part of the consortium representing the value chain or as beta testers/validators of the developed product/service. Customer engagement/involvement must be highlighted at the pitch and proposal stage. Letters of potential customer support/interest are seen as a very positive aspect. The actual scope of the proposed activities is defined by the economic operators themselves in relevance to the InCubed objectives. Two development cycles are possible within InCubed: TheDe-Risking Cycle (start TRL 4) and Product Development Cycle (startTRL 6) depending on the maturity of the concept being developed. Regarding this forthcoming Announcement of Partnership Opportunity, Economic operators are invited to register and submit idea pitches onto ideas.esa.int (InCubed channel). Following a positive pitch meeting, the second step is to fill in a Part 1 (Outline) proposal template, which must be supported by the Participating State(s) having jurisdiction over them. Following a positive assessment, the economic operators will be invited to submit a Part 2 (Full) proposal template, as per established procedure and evaluation criteria. The proposals to be supported by InCubed will have to be co-funded by the economic operators (partnership agreements), as a sign of their engagement and belief in their own business case.