Start-up tech companies and inventors will get the chance to pitch directly to UK and US military leaders for the $1-million investment to fast-track their ideas for cutting-edge Space innovations.
International Space Pitch Day was launched by UK Director Space Air Vice-Marshal Harv Smyth and is a joint UK-US initiative that aims to find, fund and fast-track innovation and technology that gives advantage to military personnel and operations in the space domain.
The competition is open to innovators and entrepreneurs from all over the world delivered through the UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), assisted by Starburst Accelerator.
It is specifically designed to bolster tech start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and harness the power of their ingenuity and innovation.
The competition will see organisations receive specialist mentoring and training in the hope of securing a coveted place at the first International Space Pitch Day in front of senior UK, US and NATO military leaders at the Defence Space Conference in London in November 2020.
Those organisations who make it through to the International Space Pitch Day will be in contention to secure a $66,000 (£53,000) contract from the judging panel to speed up their innovations and technology.
This year’s competition is seeking solutions to six challenges set by the UK and US Space teams:
- Visualisation of key events and information for combined space operations with allies and commercial partners.
- Understanding current satellite systems relevant to the operations of a particular commander.
- Understanding the present and potential impact of space weather on users across all domains.
- Provision of training against realistic threats and opportunities, incorporating live data, and integrating space across multiple domains.
- Enabling common and user-defined operational pictures to support multi-national space domain awareness and command and control.
- A verification and comparison tool for Space domain awareness, which can take orbital observation data from a variety of sources and in a variety of formats and produce a single, reliable operational picture.
Full details, scope and requirements of International Space Pitch Day and the Allied Defence Accelerator can be found here.
A Virtual Learning Environment for International Space Pitch Day and the Allied Defence Accelerator has also gone live.
Compulsory registration questions for the International Space Pitch Day and the Allied Defence Accelerator must be submitted by midday BST on Wednesday, 19 August 2020.
International Space Pitch Day 2020 proposals must be submitted by midday BST on Wednesday 2 September 2020.
