ERS EO Element 1 Proof of Concept Critical Infrastructure Management – Briefing to Industry (online)

Background

The overall objective of the ERS-EO Programme is both to prepare and accelerate the future implementation of EOGS in a close partnership with EU and to federate initiatives regarding dual-use Earth Observation surveillance systems amongst ESA Member States. Element 1 corresponds to EOGS Preparatory activities.

Element 1 is intended to mature all critical components in preparation for the development of the EOGS system. Its objectives include: consolidating the EOGS system architecture, based on user needs and security requirements from the European Commission (EC); developing key enabling technologies, including industrialization and pre-development actions to ensure European non-dependence and readiness for implementation; validating critical capabilities through in-orbit demonstration (IOD/IOV) to de-risk system-level choices and enable robust definition of the future system; establishing the technical, programmatic, and security baseline for an EU-owned Space Mission Component; and preparing end-to-end Proof-of-Concepts and associated ground-segment elements required to demonstrate future operational value. Element 1 will be implemented by ESA in close cooperation with the EC, as well as other European entities involved in activities in preparation of EOGS. The ERS-EO Declaration envisages a number of end-to-end Proof of Concept activities.

The scope of the first activity is specified as critical infrastructure monitoring as agreed with the EC and the EU SatCen. The scope of the additional end-to-end Proofs of Concept activities is under discussion and will be finalized over the summer period.

Invitation to Tender

The current tender is intended to

• Stimulate innovative combinations of public and private EO systems to support improved and more flexible tasking, response latency, persistence and cross-operator cueing;
• Develop customized workflows connecting satellite operators, non-EO data providers, analytics tool developers and critical infrastructure operators to ensure enhanced capability to detect, characterize, respond to and mitigate emergent threats and anomalies;
• Verify the improvements achievable over current state of the art with respect to emerging threat detection and mitigation action execution for critical infrastructure operators under realistic operating conditions;
• With respect to gaps in current capabilities, elaborate technical approaches for their resolution, verify their impact under representative operational environments and conditions and elaborate a road map for eventual transfer to full operations based on European technology.

For the purposes of this invitation to tender, Critical Infrastructure Monitoring is taken to include maritime infrastructure (port infrastructure, vessels, transit routes, underwater infrastructure), energy infrastructure (generation and storage facilities, transmission and exchange networks, raw materials operations, waste facilities etc), transportation infrastructure security (road and rail infrastructure, transit corridor reliability), natural resources extraction, processing and storage facilities, and key manufacturing and production sites.

Scope of the Briefing

The briefing will summarize the technical content of the approved tender on critical infrastructure management and provide a high-level overview of current planning for future tenders under the ERS-EO Element 1 Proofs of Concept activity line. In addition, the briefing will elaborate requirements associated with the execution of the work, including:

• Expectations associated with the use of the ERS-EO Element 1 Testbed for which an invitation to tender is currently open
• Expectations with respect to completeness of team structure, links to target stakeholder communities, access to both EO and non-EO data collection assets, and target functionalities to be addressed
• Issues associated with industrial operators having an ownership structure that involves non-ESA member state stakeholders
• The relationship between this Invitation to Tender and other Tenders issued under the ERS-EO element 2 activity lines
• Expected overall timeline for additional Proofs of Concept and Phase 2 of the Programme (depending on additional subscriptions)

Annotated Agenda: coming 🔜 

How to participate

The event will take place online on July 01  via the WebEx Webinar platform and it is open to participants from Universities, R&D Institutions, Startups, Value adders, and Industry from ESA Member States and Cooperating States.

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Following the registration, you will receive an automated email including the link for participation. Please, kindly save it in your calendar.

Please find below some basic WebEx Webinar house rules for participants:

• Use your full first and last name and your affiliation when you register. Do not use nicknames
• You will join as attendees and will be muted upon entry. No interaction with panelists is foreseen but via the Chat Panel  during the Q&A session.
• The Webinar is recorded. By joining, you consent to the recording and to the processing of your data as described in the ESA Privacy Notice

For any questions on the organisation: EO4Society.Conf@esa.int

Download the ERS EO Element 1 Proof of Concept Presentation