Network of Resources (NoR)
The increasing size of available satellite mission data sets, together with Information Computer Technology (ICT) advances has resulted in a paradigm shift. Data do not need any more to be downloaded by the user to their local machine for further processing, on the contrary it is the user who can find the data and process them in cloud environments hosted by ICT providers with expandable processing capabilities. The Network of Resources (NoR) is an ESA initiative to facilitate the use of cloud environments by users, building on and enlarging the previous OSEO (Open Science for Earth Observation) call.
The NoR call aims to support research, development and pre-commercial users to innovate their working practices, moving from a data download paradigm towards a ‘bring the user to the data’ paradigm, considered essential for maintaining competitiveness of European data exploitation. The NoR Portal provides an ever increasing portfolio of innovative operational platform and cloud services operated by actors from participating countries¹. Usage of these resources shall accelerate the achievement of scientific goals and the sharing of the results, or to approach the digital information market quicker and in an easier sustainable way.
The NoR will provide successful applicants with a voucher for the selected services, allowing free-at-point-of-use consumption for research, product development and up to pre-commercial demonstration. Vouchers must not be used to support any commercial revenue flows, for which the same services can be ordered on the NoR on a commercial basis, outside ESA support.
Available resources
Two types of resources are available on the NoR portal for which NoR has sponsorship agreements in place:
- an EO Resource Tier Layer which consists of cloud infrastructures with collocated data and provides the ‘back-end’ functionality where users can host their tools, algorithms and services.
- a front-end Platform Services Layer composed of the platform capabilities which provide enhanced functionality to the users and ease the access and use of EO datasets or provide support services.
Please create a shopping cart as part of a proposal submission. Please contact the help desk if any support is needed.
Procedures
The applicant is requested to submit their request via the links below and an ESA-SSO account. During the submission process the applicant is invited to choose (where available) the required resources via the NoR portal. The portfolio of the portal is in continued evolution. A NoR helpdesk (contact details available on the NoR portal itself) is available to support the applicant in the selection of the needed services. In case the services are not available please simply specify what is requested during the application process.
The proposals will be reviewed by a panel of reviewers who will assess the merits of the proposed project against the following evaluation criteria:
- eligibility and priority of the applicant;
- accordance with the specific objectives of the opportunity;
- merits of the proposed projects and probability of follow-on;
- appropriate and cost-efficient use of granted resources.
Following submission, each proposal will be reviewed considering the eligibility and the priority as specified above. ESA reserves the right to propose sponsoring of alternative resources for successful applicants, if these are considered to be a better use of ESA funds.
The applicant will be informed by email with the outcome of the evaluation (acceptance/rejection or request for modifications). ESA reserves the right to fund a proposal only partially² or to reject the proposal without further justification.
Submit a request to receive sponsorship via an ESA EO Sign In account:
- Submit a request to receive sponsorship for a Resource Tier Service
- Submit a request to receive sponsorship for a Platform Service