Today, 3rd September 2019, Mr. John Halligan T.D., Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, is leading eight Enterprise Ireland supported companies and seven public bodies on a visit to ESRIN, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) centre for Earth Observation. Minister Halligan was welcomed to ESRIN by Jan Wörner, Director General of ESA and Josef Aschbacher, Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN. The visit will focus on maximising business opportunities for Irish companies and driving greater awareness of ESA’s Earth Observation programme, and the opportunities it presents, among public bodies. Engagement with ESA’s Earth Observation programmes is in line with the National Space Strategy for Enterprise 2019-2025 and supports the ambitions of Future Jobs Ireland.
During this visit, Minister Halligan announced that three Irish companies have been awarded co-funding under ESA’s Earth Observation programme, with a total value over €1.5 million. Two of these companies secured co-funding through Ireland’s investment in the InCubed programme, which supports industry to develop new commercial Earth Observation based products by providing rapid co-funding. mBryonics, a Galway based company which specialise in photonics, has secured co-funding of €800,000 under ESA’s InCubed programme to support the development of a software defined optical transport network to deliver very high throughput Earth Observation data downloads. The system addresses the issue of cloud blockage that has previously prevented reliable high capacity optical data downlinks. The project aims to validate hardware and software for the commercial roll out of an optical network service. A second company, Skytek, Dublin, has achieved co-funding under ESA’s InCubed programme for €470,000. Building on their Marine Aggregate Tool (MAT), Skytek received InCubed funding support to develop an advanced application to allow insurers to assess the real time scale of cargo in ports, hence, enabling them to effectively manage risks. The application is based on advanced analytic techniques such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Davra, Dublin, has also secured 50 percent co-funding for a €570,000 project to develop an integrated satellite and distributed ground sensor system to monitor mining Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) in remote locations.
While announcing the contracts during the visit to ESRIN, Minister Halligan congratulated the companies on their success, saying;
I am delighted to be announcing more contracts between Irish companies and the European Space Agency. I am particularly pleased that these contracts will support our companies to strengthen their capabilities in the field of Earth Observation, enabling us to achieve the goals of Ireland’s National Space Strategy for Enterprise, 2019-2025, in addition to supporting the aims of Future Jobs Ireland, which places a focus on embracing innovation and technological change, transitioning to a low carbon economy and developing talent and enhancing skills in areas including big data analytics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Additionally, Minister Halligan announced that Maynooth University, in collaboration with ESRIN, will soon launch a €500,000 Stakeholder Engagement and Identification of Priorities Earth Observation Prototype Services project. Under this initiative Irish companies can receive funding to pilot solutions for information needs identified by public sector partners.
Welcoming this announcement and the ESA support, Minister Halligan said:
I encourage relevant companies in Ireland to identify potential opportunities for collaboration with public sector partners, and moreover, to work together to show that satellite derived data can provide timely information, important for supporting the delivery of many public service monitoring and control activities.
Tom Kelly, Divisional Manager, Innovation and Competitiveness, Enterprise Ireland said:
This visit to ESRIN is an important step in Enterprise Ireland’s continuing drive to support companies as they seek to take advantage of the international business opportunities that exist in converting satellite derived data into commercially valuable information. The focus of this particular visit is understanding how this data can be used to monitor the effects of climate change and supporting climate action as Ireland has an important role to play in this. It’s an exciting time for Earth Observation in Ireland and we look forward to continuing to work closely with our national players, the European Space Agency and the European Commission to realise the ambition set out in the National Space Strategy for Enterprise.
Ireland’s investment and participation in ESA’s Earth Observation programmes affords Irish industry and public bodies with the opportunity to seize commerical opportunities in market areas such as smart agriculture and planning; develop capabilities in strategic skill sets such as Big Data analytics; and to contribute to the development of solutions to global challenges, such as climate change mitigation and food security. There are already several Irish companies engaged with ESA’s Earth Observation Programme. Techworks Marine recently started a €600,000 project with ESA named CoastVal to validate Sentinel 3 data captured over Dublin Bay. This involves the design and build of a bespoke buoy that captures ocean and climactic condition at the same time as Sentinel-3 passes overhead. Early results indicate an excellent matchup between the in-situ CoastVal data and the Sentinel-3 data.