Call for the third edition of the Earth Observation and/or Positioning, Navigation and Timing Use Case Ideas Competition for the Private Sector is now open
Barcelona, 14 January 2026
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.
ESA Phi-Lab Spain portfolio
Winning projects related to 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. ESA 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 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).
- 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 be eligible, submitted proposals must meet the following criteria:
- due to the local funding, the bidding company, at the time of submitting the proposal, must have 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.
To consult the full list of participation rules, please follow this link.
You can find more information about the participation requirements and evaluation criteria here.
