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

The companies and proposals selected in the third edition of the Earth Observation and/or Positioning, Navigation and Timing Use Case Ideas Competition for the Private Sector have now been announced. The competition sought innovative proposals for Earth observation use cases and, as a novelty in this edition, also for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), which the space ecosystem can offer to the Catalan private business sector in the form of satellite-based services.

The initiative is coordinated by the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), in collaboration with the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC), and is framed within the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy, promoted by the Secretariat for Digital Policies of the Ministry of Business and Labour of the Government of Catalonia.

The awardees of this third edition of the competition are:

• SPASCAT (FLUVIA project: Fluvial Intelligence and Alert system)
• MOAI Analytics (ELOI 2026 project: Earth-based Logistics & Observation for Industry 2026)
• Lobelia (VialNAT project: nature-based solutions monitoring service for infrastructures in Catalonia)

Among other requirements, it was essential that the submitted cases were applicable to the territory of Catalonia and included the active participation of the end user.

For Earth observation use cases, the call also required the inclusion of data obtained from the Earth observation missions promoted by the Government of Catalonia. For Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) use cases, the inclusion of data from the real-time high-precision positioning services of the Catalan Integrated Geodetic Positioning Service  (SPGIC) was optional.

In this way, the three selected use cases will serve to promote the use of satellite data and highlight the benefits that companies can obtain by incorporating these data into their operations.

The three cases will receive a cash prize of €2,500 and will be eligible for a subsequent service contract of €67,500 each. You can review all the details on the public procurement services platform.

In addition, the winning projects in the field of climate resilience will be included in the ESA Phi-Lab Spain project portfolio. 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. 

Below you will find a brief description of each of them.

FLUVIA (Fluvial Intelligence and Alert system) proposes integrating Earth observation data as an operational tool to monitor water quality at river intakes and mouths on the Llobregat and Besòs rivers, linked to drinking water treatment plants (DWTP) and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Leveraging the coverage of these data, the objective is to develop virtual sensors, detect anomalous patterns and create complementary alert systems for adverse events such as uncontrolled discharges. Using multispectral imagery, the system will assess key parameters such as turbidity, chlorophyll (an indicator of eutrophication) and dissolved organic matter. This solution responds to a real demand from the company Aigües de Barcelona, the end user involved, which needs to continuously and globally supervise the entire river stretch to improve the resilience of its infrastructures.

The ELOI 2026 project (Earth-based Logistics & Observation for Industry 2026) proposes an automated system based on Earth observation technologies and Artificial Intelligence to monitor, in a frequent and non-invasive manner, the volume, mass and quality of scrap metal stored outdoors in the metallurgical sector. Unlike current methods (manual estimations, drones or expensive sensors), this solution leverages high-resolution satellite data and multispectral imagery to provide advanced indicators such as oxidation processes, which are key to decision-making. Although it will initially be deployed in Catalonia, it has been designed to be scalable and transferable to other regions. The solution will optimise inventory management, material flow traceability and supply chain monitoring, among others. The company CELSA is the end user of this project.

For its part, VialNAT (‘Nature-based solutions monitoring service for infrastructures in Catalonia’) will use satellite technology to assess the status of critical infrastructures in Catalonia and the impact of the applied nature-based solutions (NbS). This will optimise their maintenance and reduce field inspection costs. Through a digital viewer integrating Earth observation data, the solution will be tested in two main applications: the predictive maintenance of infrastructures (using landslide, fire and flood risk indicators to anticipate failures) and the monitoring of NbS associated with civil works (evaluating plant vigour, soil moisture, etc., to facilitate resilience analysis against climate risks). This monitoring will provide quantifiable and traceable metrics for technical decision-making and territorial planning. The project involves the company Romero Polo as the end user.