***Applicable only for companies which have already submitted the OP. The companies which have undergone through the positive evaluation of the Outline Proposal, will be invited by the ESA Technical Officer to proceed to the second step, which will be the submission of the Full Proposal using the ESA-star portal (esa-star Publication) by 31 January 2024.***
In the upcoming Announcement of Opportunity, economic operators are invited to propose either a Feasibility Study or a Demonstration Project addressing the theme of: Structural Monitoring and Risk Modelling
KEY FOCUS AREAS
Buildings and Infrastructures and Urban Area are exposed to an increasing number of events determined by anthropic activities (e.g., heavy load vehicles, construction works, environmental pollution) and natural hazards (e.g., earthquake, climate changes, heavy rains, hydrogeological instability); these could compromise the health of structures, including their static and dynamic behaviour under certain condition, with direct consequences on the stability, functionality, accessibility, service operability and safety of the building, which in some very unfortunate case has brought to loss of life.
With this is clear, how the approach towards the Structural Health Monitoring combined with a systematic risk assessment, can gather critical information which are essential for all value chain activities including planning, construction, operation, optimisation, safety and service resilience of structures. These services are extremely valuable for a number of end-user and stakeholders, including: municipalities, building owners and operators, infrastructure network managers, engineering firms, environmental agency, service network operators and smart cities.
Structural Health Monitoring and Risk Modelling systems include a number of elements which include use cases, data model, risk managing processes, system concept, technologies, in-situ sensors and satellite technologies. Managing this complexity requires a structured, secure means of communicating, encompassing the integration between satellite communication and terrestrial communication infrastructure (5G), to ultimate share information across spatial area in timely manner and ensuring reliable connectivity. Designing, deploying and managing these types of services for a series of users and applications requires to consider trade-offs such as system functionality/complexity and interoperability versus the cost of deployment and operation, which should be taken in account in the business modelling.
In response to the aforementioned high-level scenarios, 4 main use cases have been identified and further characterised in collaboration with the end-users (e.g., municipality of l’ Aquila, municipality of Torino):
- i. Structural Health Monitoring of buildings and road infrastructures,
- ii. Utility Network Infrastructure monitoring,
- iii. Risk Modelling and Geotechnical analysis,
- iv. Evaluation of Environmental Impact of construction work and infrastructure operation.
VALUE OF SPACE
The proposed ideas must use satellite or space-based data as well as 5G technology.
- Satellite Communication: Satellite communications might play a role in providing connectivity for remote structure/infrastructures sites (e.g. rural and remote areas). Could play and essential role as back-up connectivity to terrestrial communications.
- Earth Observation: Optical HR/VHR images provide observation capability with high accuracy resolution of the structure/infrastructure and contingent area; it enable a series of functionalities such as vegetation monitoring, change detection and post-event assessment capability. Satellite Radiometric measurements provides: Altimetry mission mapping (e.g., in land waters build hydrology models); topography models which detect the status and evolution of earth surface. SAR data and related interferometry data series analysis provides accurate (e.g. to mm) monitoring of the earth surface movements which could evidence risks of landslide, deep seeded gravitational movements. Atmospheric satellite missions provide measurements of the pollution levels including (e.g., presence of dust particles, CO2 ,NO2) across the area-of-interest.
- Satellite Navigation: GNSS enables PNT functions, which are deemed instrumental, as for example, for geo-localisation of in-situ sensors, tracking/registering oscillation/tilts of structures/bridges to ultimately support dynamic and static analysis. Navigation functionalities are deemed essential for traffic mappings and heavy-load vehicles stress analysis to determine the capabilities /criticalities of road and bridges. GNSS also enables geo-tagging of environmental and weather parameters to enable analysis, nowcasting and forecasting capabilities. GNSS allows tracking and route optimisation of vehicles during construction works delivering key information to ultimately minimise environmental impact and standard level of liveability across the area of interest .
WHAT WE LOOK FOR
We offer funding and support to companies, both for business case assessment and for the development of new, space-based services related to intelligent transport. Our offer includes:
- Technical & commercial guidance;
- Access to our network and partners;
- Use of the ESA brand for your service.
- Zero-equity funding as summarized in the table presented below:
| ACTIVITY | ESA PROJECT FUNDING (UP to % of ELIGIBLE COST) | ESA CO-FUNDING LIMIT |
| Feasibility Study | 50%** | Max ESA price: 200k Euro |
| Demonstration Project | 50%** | Max ESA price: 1M Euro |
** ESA will bear up to 50% of the project cost, and the remainder has to be financed by the tenderer and/or other partners through private and/or public sector direct or indirect co-financing.
- SMEs (i.e. enterprises fulfilling the criteria defined in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 (2003/361/EC) or as updated) involved in Feasibility Studies or Demonstrations Projects, may be funded by ESA up to 80%.
WHAT WE SEEK
We are looking for teams that have identified an attractive sustainable opportunity with real potential for engaging customers. Motivation, business experience and domain expertise are all important features. We want to hear about your sustainable ideas that involve either space technology or space data. For this call, companies residing in the Member States which have subscribed the programmes ARTES 4.0 BASS GPL or ARTES 4.0 5G SPL will be eligible to apply. See the details and information on how to obtain letters of support from National Delegations in the funding scheme paragraph.
Funding Scheme
The Agency will admit for evaluation only (Outline and Full) proposals from a bidding team composed of a company and/or organisation - be it as Prime or Subcontractor - residing in any of those states that subscribe to the Programmes under which you wish to submit your proposal:
i) for the ARTES 4.0 BASS Generic Programme Line : Business Applications. To date, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have subscribed.
ii) for the ARTES 4.0 5G Strategic Programme Line: Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Canada have subscribed.
The applicable funding level of the individual prime- or subcontractors is subject to authorization by the involved National Delegation(s). Therefore, bidding teams are requested to obtain a Letter of Authorization from all their national delegations before submitting a Full Proposal.
For Italian entities, it is NOT required to contact the National Delegation (ASI), because ESA has been delegated by ASI to interface with the Tenderer in the whole stage of the bidding process.
The Full Proposal will need to be submitted before 13:00 CET on 31 January 2024.
HOW TO APPLY
There are two steps involved in applying to this call:
Step 1: Outline Proposal (completed)
The first step requires the submission of an Outline Proposal through the OSIP system. See link below:
Open Space Innovation Platform - OSIP - Campaign: ESA BASS - 5G for l' ART - Structural Monitoring and Risk Modelling by 13:00 CEST on 09 June 2023.
The Outline Proposal Template, either for a Feasibility Study or for a Demonstration Project can be downloaded from the link: Documents | ESA Business Applications.
Step 2: Full Proposal (via esa-star, only for companies which have received a positive response/evaluation from the submission of the Outline Proposal)
Following notification by ESA on the acceptance of the Outline Proposal, the Tenderer may decide to prepare a Full Proposal using the provided template. Only Full Proposals supported with a “Letter(s) of Authorisation of Funding” (AOF) from National Delegations covering the Full Proposal will be admitted for evaluation. The Full Proposals shall be delivered via “esa-star”.
To submit the Full Proposal on “esa-star”, the following steps are applicable:
- Register your team on esa-star today! If your team is made up of more than one company or organisation, each member will need to register.
- Visit esa-star publications and search for this opportunity to download the official tender documentation. Official documents will include proposal templates, a draft contract, and additional information about this opportunity. This opportunity is featured through the Fixed Call 5-50007/23/NL/AF.
- Create a ‘Bidder Restricted Area’ using your login credentials.
- Use the official documents to prepare your proposal.
- Reach out to your National Delegate and request a Letter of Authorisation.
- Submit your proposal via esa-star before 13:00 CET on 31 January 2024.