Space for Good: Special Report – June 2021
Funding Initiatives
At
the end of March 2020, ESA announced the first of a number of funding calls to address challenges caused by the pandemic by taking advantage of space products and services.
The first three projects chosen for funding through ‘Space helping UK on COVID-19 and other pandemics’ were:
Drones to deliver medical supplies and samples from a hospital on the mainland to remote locations, including islands, in Scotland.
‘Space in response to the COVID-19 outbreak’ was launched in
An app for charities and organizations
collaboration with the Italian Minister for Technological Innovation and
to support young people’s mental
Digitalisation, with the support of the Italian Space Agency and other
health and wellbeing in Bristol.
countries, and focussed on health and education. Over 120 outline proposals were received from 16 countries in just a few weeks. Another ESA funding initiative in mid-April addressed the requirements of the National Health Service in the UK in collaboration with the UK Space Agency.
An app using space data analytics to identify ‘hidden’ communities that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19 due to poverty and/or age.
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