South African Space Agency Wants To Develop Space Startups

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The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) & DigitalGlobe have teamed up to launch the South Africa Earth Observation Challenge.

SANSA Earth Observation drives and coordinates South Africa’s Earth observation efforts to sustainably benefit all South Africans in an earth-friendly manner. Its objective is to collect, assimilate and disseminate Earth observation data to support South Africa’s policy-making, decision-making, economic growth and sustainable development initiatives.

SANSA and DigitalGlobe believe there is significant scope to increase the use of earth observation applications in both the public and private sphere, within South Africa.

Help grow the South African Space Industry

“We’re looking for passionate participants who can leverage DigitalGlobe and SANSA resources to build geospatial solutions supporting these initiatives,” the agency said on the Challenge website.

“Participant teams will have two months to transform Earth imagery into a meaningful context and actionable insight for sustainable global development, business growth, and geospatial intelligence.

“This will lead to a range of benefits, both in terms of commercial competitiveness as well as societal benefit,” the agency said.

In order to achieve these outcomes, SANSA and DigitalGlobe are searching for novel uses of earth observation data gathered by satellite.

DigitalGlobe is the world’s leading provider of high-resolution Earth imagery, data and analysis.

Ideas should be connected to the following themes in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals such as sustainable cities and communities, understand the impact of climate change, and food security, etc.

“This is a unique opportunity for innovative individuals and organizations to play a major role in how we measure and evaluate progress and inform the path to get to food security, good health, environmental sustainability, resilient communities, and universal human rights,” the agency said.

Qualifying submissions will receive:

  • free access to GBDX Notebooks where you will develop and run your project
  • access to business development training and mentorship
  • facilitated introductions to key decision makers with potential clients, partners and investors
  • potential access to global markets through DigitalGlobe
  • Ongoing incubation and acceleration support for space industry entrepreneurs

Submissions are opened until 30th September 2018, and the jury will review the entries and select the five winning projects to be rewarded between 5 November and 7 December.

To apply, click here https://saeochallenge.com/