ESA Grand Challenge
Highlight
The ESA Grand Challenge is the competition that sets ambitious goals to accelerate the development and application of space technologies, spurring new business models and pushing the boundaries of current market capabilities.
Scenario
The space sector is evolving, fostering collaboration among governments, industry, and society, including through novel challenges. This era offers opportunities to accelerate space technology adoption and create innovative business models.
The ESA Grand Challenge invites leading companies navigating paradigm shifts to propose groundbreaking challenges that could reshape the industry.
Solution
Adopting an open innovation approach, ESA Grand Challenge brings together players from diverse industries to develop new disruptive solutions and catalyse the creation and exploitation of unforeseen spin-off businesses.
The competition provides participants with access to ESA's technical expertise in the in-orbit manufacturing industry and the opportunity to collaborate with industrial leaders such as Caracol AM and D-Orbit. It offers a monetary prize for the successful completion of a specified challenge.
Outcomes
- Successful completion of Metalysis ESA Grand Challenge, which saw the winning team, Malt, develop innovative techniques for future lunar settlements. This challenge attracted over 30 international teams and resulted in two patentable technologies.
- Strategic scouting led to diversification of the prize portfolio, expanding the ESA Grand Challenge's reach and potential for groundbreaking innovations.
- Enhanced challenge design process, implementing a methodology that incorporates feedback from past participants and sponsors.
G-nous role
Since 2016, G-nous has supported the European Space Agency in various aspects of the ESA Grand Challenge, including scouting for new potential sponsors, targeting and recruiting competing teams and managing the competition's stages.