End-to-end Earth observation systems and associated services -

The expected outcomes of this topic will enable flexible satellite Earth-observation end-to-end systems as a strong subject to answer the new trends of a very dynamic market environment with high potential. Competitiveness will be strengthened by enhancing flexibility and reducing costs while maintaining or increasing the performance (e.g. autonomous, reconfigurable, high-capacity systems) and support debris mitigation by system design. The agility to face uncertainties, market evolutions and improving system availability and latency to deliver high-quality experience to end-users should be addressed.

Projects are expected to contribute to one or several of the following outcomes:

• Achieve and maintain the worldwide leadership for Earth Observation system;
• A flexible and competitive end-to-end system demonstration (at the minimum, breadboards realisation and validation on ground, in a representative E2E environment by 2027/28);
• Short to medium term disruptive development and maturation of key technologies (up to TRL 6/7) for high performance Earth observation;
• Contribute to European non-dependence for the development of Earth-observation technologies;
• Contribute to the European Green Deal.

This topic will contribute to develop and deploy global space-based services, applications and data, and therefore contributes to foster the European space sector competitiveness, as stated in the expected impact of this destination.

The areas of R&I, which need to be addressed to tackle the above-expected outcomes are:

1) R&I for Earth observation based on a network of small satellites with innovative capabilities, e.g. high revisit times, high reconfigurability, enhanced autonomy, high spatial resolution, including for video, seizing the full innovation potential of low cost and/or disruptive and sustainable approaches.

2) R&I on Satellite Data Management and Processing including image processing for end-to-end performance improvement (also with regards to power consumption, e.g. using AI, simplification of data management, data fusion, advanced processing units, mass memory) and on infrastructures and networks for ground processing and virtual network functions (e.g. inter-operability, massive data management, cloud processing, cybersecurity).

3) R&I to identify, develop and implement AI in industrial processes means fostering digitalisation (e.g. virtual design, digital twins, virtual testing, simulators) for Earth observation including software validation and verification in order to enhance overall end-to-end system performance, increase efficiency and reduce development and AIT time and costs in order to attain Rapid Development, Production and Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT) processes and operations support in satellite life cycle.

A proposal should address only one of the three areas outlined above, which must be clearly identified. A proposal may operate in different topics/domains/sectors e.g. in the development of pilot and testing applications.

Proposals are expected to promote cooperation between different actors (industry, SMEs and research institutions) and consider opportunities to quickly turn technological innovation into commercial use in space.

Proposals under this topic should explore synergies and be complementary to already funded actions in the context of technology development at component level. In particular, it is expected that projects make use of existing European technologies and/or building blocks at component level contributing to European non-dependence and strengthen competitiveness. Furthermore, proposed activities should be complementary to national activities and activities funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

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