Call H2020-SPACE-2018-2020: Space 2018-2020 (one-stage)

Main pillar: 

  • Space

Budget: 

103 500 000

Currency: 

Euro

Call deadline: 

Thu, 5 Mar 2020

Statut: 

  • Closed

Description: 

Earth observation

Horizon 2020 Earth observation (EO) activities are considered an essential element to accompany the investments made by the Union in Copernicus, the Union Earth observation and monitoring programme. Through Copernicus and Earth Observation activities in the Horizon 2020 the European Union also contributes to advancing the Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS).

In particular, activities under the societal challenge for climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials focus on contributing to and drawing benefit from GEOSS. This aims notably at the development of comprehensive and sustained global environmental observation and information systems that stimulate the smart use of strategic resources, support the development of evidence-based policies, foster new environmental and climate services, and develop new opportunities in global markets. Activities under the Leadership in Industrial Technologies part focus on the evolution of Copernicus and the exploitation of existing European space infrastructure by promoting the development of innovative products and services based on remote sensing, geo-positioning or other types of satellite enabled data as well as geo-information generated already by services such as Copernicus services.

 It is widely accepted that the combination of the aforementioned information sources with data from outside the Earth Observation domain has a vast potential to generate new and innovative applications and services. Activities under the present heading will focus on the use of existing technologies that emanate from previous work programmes throughout Horizon 2020, from Member States and from ESA to integrate them into their work and progress their maturity towards operational use.

Currently most of the EO innovative applications are integrating different technologies. Further developments in the frame of integration of Earth Observation (EO) systems with EGNSS and other technologies are encouraged in order to deliver added value services fully tailored to end user needs. Optimised system architectures have to be defined to fully exploit the potential of synergies/complementary characteristics of the different systems, providing significant benefits in a number of key market segments and operational scenarios.

Moreover, taking into account the wider relevance of EO to all parts of Horizon 2020, proposals addressing application and uptake of EO for the development of innovative applications addressing specific challenges can also be submitted to the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges where related references are included. To that end, applicants to those parts of Horizon 2020 can also access Copernicus data and information (licensing conditions may apply). To render the exploitation of Copernicus more efficient, the Union is putting in place a number of Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) that will start operation in the context of the Copernicus programme in 2018.

 The DIAS will offer access to Copernicus data and information and offers computing resources and tools alongside the data to facilitate working with the data without the need to download it. To maximise the impact of past H2020 initiatives, the Union intends to make all relevant and freely available tools developed under H2020 available within the DIAS environments, helping them to become European 'algorithm factories'. Activities under the Leadership in Industrial Technologies part are encouraged to integrate the DIAS as enabling element in their work.

Widening the use of Copernicus data and enhancing the market uptake of Copernicus services by delivering new applications relying on Copernicus services and Earth observation data. Further evolution of Copernicus by developing innovative solutions to improve services and by exploring mission concepts such as marine service ocean models and CO2 monitoring capability in the context of implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Proposals are invited against the following topic(s):

More information about this call can be found here.