POSITION – a GNSS Horizon 2020 project realized in Poland
The first Horizon 2020 project coordinated by a Polish entity was initiated on 1st of January in the GNSS field. The project is called POSITION. One of the main Horizon 2020 themes is the development of European space sector, including it’s practical applications for various markets.
Part of activities realized under Horizon 2020 will focus on utilisation of two European satellite constellations: Copernicus and Galileo. The total budget reserved for space sector projects under Horizon 2020 exceeds 1 billion EUR.
Among first accepted space-theme projects in Horizon 2020 one is coordinated by a company from Poland. This project is called POSITION.
POSITION (POlish Support to Innovation and Technology IncubatiON) focuses on the support of the development of Polish GNSS applications. The project attempts to follow the predicted trend of GNSS sector development in Europe, especially in the field of commercial applications. It is important from the Polish perspective, where so far very little GNSS applications have been created, but at the same time this country is considered to be the largest unexplored European hi-tech market. Project POSITION aims at changing this situation.
POSITION is a ”Coordination and Support Action” – type project, which is to be realised by two partners: a Polish investment fund Black Pearls VC and a German specialist company SpaceTec Partners. Their joint goal will be to support at least ten promising projects utilising GNSS and prepare them for market entry.
So far Polish commercial entities, including SME, have not been very active in pan-European R&D projects. It is also probably one of few projects, in which an investment fund takes a leading role. Thus, the project aims at providing a sustainable outcome, which will have an impact on the GNSS market.
It is predicted that thanks to POSITION Polish technological projects will be more often introduced to the market. This means support to practical utilisation of existing and upcoming Polish R&D projects.
Project POSTION was accepted under the Galileo-4-2014 theme. The coordinator of POSITION project is dr Krzysztof Kanawka. POSITION will last for two years, until December 2016. The project website will be launched soon.
As of February 2015, there are 12 Horizon 2020 projects led by a Polish leader. Five of them are commercial companies, seven are national R&D institutes.
Photo credit: CC flickr.com by Ian Carroll