Space missions are not just for research or space exploration, but in reality a source of data and information which can be exploited into added value services and innovative products such as in tourism, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, planning and many other applications that bring benefits to society.
The STREAM Project event brought over sixty participants consisting of national stakeholders, academics, space-related researchers and foreign visitors, and was intended to not simply introduce the STREAM project, but to also discuss space technology and space based solutions, raising awareness about new niches for economic exploitation, opportunities that can be stronger and actually more effective than what we have positively experienced locally for the gaming sector. The event served as an opportunity to open up to discussions and planning on how Malta can take its action in exploiting opportunities to render space solutions closer to societal needs.
Many funding opportunities targeted to enable use of data from satellites to transform businesses to better serve the Green Deal EU policy and boost the Blue Economy were highlighted. Besides the direct ESA project fundings, other main fundings related to space in Horizon Europe are under cluster 4 entitled ‘Digital Industry and Space’, precisely to maximise the benefits of space for society and the EU economy by encouraging the uptake of space services and data, and addressing technology in order to meet new user needs. The biggest opportunities are in the Digital Europe Programme which is designed to promote digital inclusion, green growth and innovation that creates benefits for the European society; it targets digital talents and technology companies, research institutes and universities. It provides funding of ½ billion Euro in High Performance Computing, another ½ billion Euro in cloud data and AI, 0.3 billion Euro in cybersecurity and 0.2 billion Euro in advancing digital skills.
The STREAM project is intended to launch a prototype service to deliver space data to stakeholders, non-professional users and businesses with a seamless flow of on-demand data without the need of engaging in direct sourcing, extraction and elaborated data processing. Users require such data for information and to sustain and improve their own operations and endeavours. The STREAM system will comprise a digital platform designed to deliver satellite data sources to users through a web-based interface and a smartphone application, and channelling data easily and customised to user needs.
The meeting also served to bring together key local players on satellite research to exploit synergies, capitalise on past project deliverables and generate new larger joint efforts. A number of Space Research Fund completed/ongoing projects participated in the programme taking the opportunity to present results and products that could be merged as a capital for future joint collaborations within a dedicated research group endeavour that is being proposed to benefit together from the most relevant achievements in satellite research done locally.
Key presentations in the STREAM project launch
STREAM Project Concept and Targets
Aldo Drago, Project Leader, Institute of Engineering & Transport, MCAST
STREAM Data Platform
Roberto Drago, Project partner, MST AudioVisual Ltd
Sharing experiences from the ForCoast project for STREAM
Ghada El Serafy and Lorinc Meszaros, Deltares, Netherlands
Viewing and Analysis of satellite data for product development
David Debono, Institute of Information and Communication Technology at MCAST
Exploiting the FME Tool in STREAM
Maciej Markowski, Coastal Cities Living Lab, University of Gdansk
Drones vs satellite images …. Why not both
Steve Zerafa, Institute of Engineering and Transport, MCAST
WaterColours: climatology and operational high-resolution Chlorophyll-a and Total Suspended Matter products from satellite data
Adam Gauci, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Malta
BathMalta: new methodologies to map the seafloor of the Maltese archipelago
Adam Gauci, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Malta
Continuous Assessment of Pollutants & Environment via Satellites (CAPES): AI LULCon
Daren Scerri, Juan Jose’ Bonello, Frank Inguanez, Institute of Information & Communication Technology, MCAST
Geophysics and remote sensing techniques to detect and monitor movement of sediments within the Maltese pocket beaches
Sebastiano D’Amico, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Malta
Satellite-related research at the University of Cadiz
Jesus Gomez-Enri, Applied Physics Department, University of Cadiz
The data sharing platform as a tool for the Baltic Sea monitoring – SatBałtyk System
Alexandra Dudkowska, University of Gdansk