An Irish team of entrepreneurs has been named one of the 11 winners of a competition held by the EU’s Agency for the Space programme (EUSPA).

Altiwave was selected as one of the winners of Track 1 of the #myEUspace competition. The team developed satellite-derived regional wave heights for the marine energy sector. They had to turn their idea into a prototype.

The competition was open to innovators and entrepreneurs across Europe. The competition’s 11 winners were split between Track 1 and Track 2. The latter involved the teams turning their existing prototype into a product to launch it on the market.

Competitors were challenged to develop and commercialise applications that use data and services from the EU Space Programme.

Each project used Galileo or Copernicus satellite data to inform their projects. Some of the tools developed by the other winning teams included location-based services, smart mobility, geomatics and smart agriculture.

The competition was first launched last September as part of the European Commission’s Cassini initiative. Cassini is the name of a €1bn European space fund which focuses on space innovation and start-ups. The plan for Cassini was laid out at last year’s European Space Conference as part of the EU’s €13.2bn space budget.

The winning teams were announced at an event in Prague to celebrate Entrepreneurship Day. The event was held at EUSPA’s headquarters. As part of the event, 43 teams had the chance to give an elevator pitch in front of some of Europe’s top venture capitalists as well as the director-general of Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space, Timo Pesonen.

Pesonen is in charge of the European Commission’s activities in the defence industry and space sector.

“The applications presented today during the Entrepreneurship Day at EUSPA are solid proof of what can be achieved when we mix entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and EU Space data,” according to Pesonen.

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