An international organisation comprising 20 member-states, the European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA designs and implements the European space programme, including the development of space technologies and satellite infrastructure for the use of navigation, telecommunication and earth observation, the promotion of European industries, and the endeavour to find out more about our Earth, our solar system and the universe we are living in.

The mission of ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO) is to facilitate the use of space technology and space systems for non-space applications and to the benefit for European citizens. The office is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for transferring space technologies, which involves, for example, the incubation and funding of start-up companies.

The European Satellite Navigation Competition is a great source of innovative business ideas in virtually every field of industry. In it, the ESA Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO) finds and supports new ideas for the commercial use of space technology, thus launching new businesses in Europe, especially in the downstream market of GNSS applications. Among the innovative ideas for satellite navigation applications from previous years are a system that reports flooding in real time, a corporate application for tracking carbon footprints, and commercial location-based services.

ESA is looking for innovative ideas that can be immediately implemented and quickly nurtured into profitable businesses via the creation of a start-up company at one of the seven ESA's Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) or other incubators in the European Space Incubators Network (ESINET).

• The winner should thus be willing to create a start-up (if they have not already) and apply to an ESA BICs or one of ESINET's member institutions for incubation.
• The winner will receive a cash award of EUR 10,000.