Space to Have Your Say

Through its new Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) the European Space Agency (ESA) has turned to a new resource for shaping future activities: ideas from European researchers, businesses and the general public are now being welcomed to respond to space-related challenges and open calls.

ESA Director General, Jan Wörner, comments: “Through OSIP we hope to build and nurture a community of space technology enthusiasts, enabling people to inject their insight into the ESA and collaborate smoothly with ESA experts to contribute to the future of the Europe in space.” OSIP will challenge users to propose new ideas to address specific problems in form of thematic campaigns. The site currently hosts two such public challenges, both linked to the oceans, as well as a channel to submit ideas for co-sponsored research.

"Space is endless; there's always room for great ideas,” says ESA’s Discovery & Preparation Officer, Moritz Fontaine. “Whether it is individuals who wish to support space research, or companies interested in beginning a new partnership with ESA, we invite people to share their ideas via this new site, so that we can transform the best suggestions for cutting-edge research and technology quickly into new activities.”

The two inaugural challenges on OSIP are;

- calling for novel ideas on ways of achieving the currently impossible task of detecting and tracking marine plastic litter from space

- and for ways of enlarging the effective area of autonomous shipping – today heavily reliant on satellite navigation – into heavily-trafficked ports requiring precision navigation as well as the high Arctic, where satnav is rendered less reliable.

Another OSIP channel calls on ideas for research projects without a specific theme. These novel space-related research proposals would be co-funded by ESA. While the two campaigns have deadlines, the channel is open ended with rolling evaluations and selections.

For more information visit www.ideas.esa.int