The third edition of the Earth Observation and/or Positioning, Navigation and Timing Use Case Ideas Competition for the Private Sector is now open 

The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia and the Government of Catalonia are opening the call for proposals for the third edition of the Earth Observation and/or Positioning, Navigation and Timing Use Case Ideas Competition for the Private Sector. The initiative seeks innovative proposals for Earth observation use cases and, as a novelty in this edition, also for positioning, navigation and timing, which the space ecosystem can offer to the Catalan private business sector in the form of satellite-based services.

This call is framed within the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy, promoted by the Government of Catalonia.

The competition will select and fund three use cases applicable to the Catalan territory to promote the use of satellite data and to highlight the benefits that companies can obtain by incorporating data from the Earth observation missions of the Government of Catalonia’s space strategy and from the high-precision, real-time positioning services of the Integrated Geodetic Positioning Service of Catalonia (SPGIC) into their operations.

The aim of the call is to improve the competitiveness of private sector companies by incorporating satellite data technology, thereby fostering the development of solutions and business for companies in the space sector.

The deadline for this call for applications is Thursday, 26 February 2026 at 14:00.

The three selected use cases will receive a cash prize of €2,500 and will be eligible for a subsequent service contract of €67,500 each.

To participate in the competition, you must submit a technical report in PDF format, which must clearly set out the definition of the challenge and the proposed solution; the work methodology; an implementation schedule; the organisation of the work team; the service provider’s capacity, the target users and their degree of involvement in the proposal.

Each bidder may submit more than one proposal.

To be eligible, submitted proposals must meet the following requirements:

• Be use cases based on Earth Observation and/or Positioning, Navigation and Timing technology.
• Be use cases related to one of the following areas: resilience (climatic, critical infrastructure, renewable energy, etc.), support for energy-intensive industries (chemical, textile, paper, etc.), fostering re-industrialisation, tourism or mobility.
• For Earth observation use cases: that they are based on Earth observation satellite data, ensuring their viability, and include data obtained from the Earth observation missions of the Generalitat de Catalunya’s space strategy at the demonstrator level (more information about this data here).
• For Positioning, Navigation and Timing use cases: they must be based on GNSS satellite data, ensuring their viability. The use of SPGIC’s real-time high-precision positioning services as a demonstrator will be considered an award criterion. The SPGIC specifications can be found here and here. 
• Be use cases aimed at the private sector.
• That the bidding company, at the time of submitting the proposal, has a technical office centre with specialised technicians, located within a maximum radius of 200 km of the IEEC headquarters.
• Be use cases applicable to the territory of Catalonia.
• Be operational within eight months of the contract being signed. The project start may be different from the contract signing date if the use case is to be executed on specific dates during the year.
• Include the active participation of the end user.
• Be innovative use cases. Proposals will be eligible if they present solutions based on a new product or an existing product, but which incorporate sufficient changes and adjustments to constitute an innovative solution or one adapted to the specific use case.
• Both the bidder and the end user authorise the IEEC and the Government of Catalonia to publicise the results of the application of the use cases with the participation of both the company or consortium and the end user.

The winning projects in the field of climate resilience may be included in the ESA Phi-Lab Spain portfolio, where they will be presented as services/projects/solutions with information on the developing company to facilitate contact, collaboration and contracting. Phi-Lab Spain, co-funded by the Government of Catalonia through the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy and coordinated by a consortium led by the IEEC, is part of the European Space Agency‘s (ESA) ScaleUp Programme. 

The remaining winning projects will be showcased through the various communication instruments within the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy.

The project’s duration will be a maximum of 11 months, distributed as follows: 8 months for project execution (design, validation and implementation work) and 3 months for dissemination (implementation of the communication actions previously validated by the IEEC and the Government of Catalonia).

From all eligible solutions, the jury members will select the three use cases to be awarded. The evaluation criteria for the solutions by the competition jury will be as follows:

• Alignment of the challenge with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will be considered a positive factor if the challenge can be of use to a large number of end users.
• Degree of technical feasibility, innovation and potential to become a marketable product.
• Use of Catalan infrastructures (data from missions of the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy and/or from the SPGIC)
• Working methodology, timeline and organisation of the working team.
• Company capability in terms of previous experience in similar projects and whether the company is a member of the DCA-NewSpace
• Type of end user targeted by the solution according to the impact it could have in Catalonia, and their degree of involvement in the proposal.

It will be considered an advantage if the company is part of the DCA-Space Community.

You can consult all the tender documentation for the project competition here.