“Satellite navigation is an essential element of modern mobility and a key technology, particularly in the age of a data-driven economy. This is exactly where the Galileo Masters competition comes into play. It provides a public platform to the creative community, in order to help promising business cases turn into solutions that are commercially mature and generate added value for business and society.” explains Thorsten Rudolph, CEO of AZO Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, the initiator and organiser of the Galileo Masters.
27 more business cases and Challenge winners were recognised during the Awards Ceremony in Marseille by high-ranking industry and institutional representatives, such as the European GNSS Agency (GSA), the European Commission (EC), the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI). In addition, 20 partner regions across the globe awarded the best competition entries.
Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), said, “The Galileo Masters has once again proven to be a very effective promotional, scouting and support mechanism for new European GNSS applications. The GSA is proud to celebrate its 10-year cooperation in this useful initiative. The new applications inspired by this competition constantly advance the growth and use of European GNSS technology and help ensure that EU investment in space delivers real benefits to citizens.”
With its 10-year commitment, the GSA has made a significant contribution in forming the Galileo Masters into the most successful ideas competition for satellite navigation in Europe. The Galileo Masters (former European Satellite Navigation Competition) is the leading network for satellite navigation. It annually awards the best services, products, and business ideas using satellite navigation in everyday life, spurring the development of respective market-driven applications and continuously searches the most outstanding business cases related to GNSS, in line with the EU Space Strategy. By fostering entrepreneurs and startups, the innovation competition has the long-term objective of strengthening Europe’s competitiveness with high-tech space solutions on the global scale. Additionally, AZO established Europe’s first E-GNSS Accelerator programme, funded by the European Commission (EC). This programme offers the top three pitching startups access to dedicated incubation programmes at their preferred incubation centre of the Galileo Masters network all across Europe worth EUR 180,000.
The Galileo Masters 2018 Awards Ceremony took place in front of an international audience during the European Space Week 2018 in Marseille, France. Next year’s Galileo Masters submission phase will start on 1 April 2019.