Space for Sustainable Industry and Digital Business Transformation Contest

Opening date: 22-09-2026. Closing date: 04-11-2026

The Opportunity

ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) is launching a Contest to connect companies developing space-enabled services with leading industry challenge owners.

The call focuses on specific operational and innovation needs identified by Coca-Cola, P&G, Galp and Tomorrowland/Love Tomorrow across water resilience, security and enterprise risk, renewable energy, sustainable manufacturing, consumer insight, temporary-city operations, mobility, logistics and immersive experiences.

The Contest offers companies a unique opportunity to rapidly prototype and validate their solutions with leading industrial organisations acting as both challenge owners and potential prospective customers. Winning teams will gain direct access to participating corporate partners to test their solution against real operational needs and accelerate the path towards commercial adoption.

The Challenges

Applicants are invited to respond the published challenges specified by by Coca-Cola, P&G, Galp and Tomorrowland/Love Tomorrow by proposing a six-month Proof-of-concept Study.

The challenge topics include but are not limited to:

• water resilience

• environmental stewardship

• digital twins

• immersive experiences

• sustainable logistics and supply chains

• consumer insights

Follow the steps in the How To Apply section to access the full list of challenges. For your application for this Contest to be considered, it is compulsory to respond to one of these challenges directly.

If you are planning on applying, please be sure to contact your National Delegation at your earliest convenience, as you will require written authorisation from them to benefit from this funding.

Value of Space

Earth observation can provide wide-area, repeatable and independent information on water availability, drought, dust transport, land use, vegetation, biodiversity, infrastructure condition, natural hazards, facility access, transport corridors and environmental change. Commercial and Copernicus data may be combined with non-space datasets, AI, change detection and predictive analytics to turn observations into decision-ready services.

Satellite navigation can support positioning, tracking, geolocation and time-referenced analysis of people, vehicles, assets, infrastructure, observations and interventions. This is relevant to mobility and logistics, renewable-asset operations, temporary-city management and location-aware experiences.

Satellite communications and hybrid connectivity can connect remote, mobile or temporary sensors and assets, provide resilient backhaul, and support operational access where terrestrial connectivity is limited, disrupted or congested.

Space-derived technologies and expertise developed for human monitoring, closed-loop life-support, water recovery, resource-efficient processing, digital twins and constrained operations may also be transferred to consumer insight and sustainable manufacturing challenges.

Who can apply?

To be eligible for funding, your team must be based in one of the following countries: Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.

Potential Tenderers are strongly advised to contact the National Delegation(s) of the countries where their industrial partners (Prime and Subcontractors) are located as soon as possible. A Written Authorisation for ESA funding from the National Delegation(s) is required for the Full Proposal.

The activity should build on a credible technical starting point, integrate relevant space assets, and test the most important technical, operational and business assumptions through a focused Proof-of-concept. Solutions should provide clear value to the challenge owner while showing potential for repeatability, wider market adoption or further commercialisation.

Application process

This is a competitive funding call, for which applicants will need to submit a Full Proposal. Following evaluation, selected applicants will be invited to pitch their solution to a jury, including representatives from ESA and the corporate challenge owners.

Winning teams will be offered a Cooperative Agreement to implement the proposed Proof-of-concept Study.

To get started with the application process, register you company on our esa-star system, which is where you will submit your Full Proposal. Once you are registered, you can login to esa-star publication to download the official tender documentation.

Webinar

Watch a recording of the event that took place on 16 September to find out more about BASS, the funding call and the use cases.

Downloads

Appendix 5 - List of Challenges.docx

Unlocking Space Innovation for Sustainable Industry and Business Transformation - Introduction.pdf

Unlocking Space Innovation for Sustainable Industry and Business Transformation - Coca-Cola use cases presentation.pdf

Unlocking Space Innovation for Sustainable Industry and Business Transformation - Galp use cases presentation.pdf

Unlocking Space Innovation for Sustainable Industry and Business Transformation - P&G Use Cases presentation.pdf

Unlocking Space Innovation for Sustainable Industry and Business Transformation - Love Tomorrow Use Cases presentation.pdf