CZECH WORKPLACES ARE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE COSMONAUTICS USING INCENTIVE PROGRAMMES
Prague, 17 July 2009 – Czech Space Office announced that within the first call for submitting the project proposals of the Incentive programme for Czech companies, universities and research institutions submitted overall 54 projects. The whole budget, the workplaces are running for, is two and a half million EUR.
“It became apparent, and the amount of submitted designs proves it, that Czech companies, universities and other institutions are interested in a possibility of space research and they want to actively participate. We are happy this is the way of our preparatory support that we had provided to Czech organizations through our seminars, workshops or even personal consultations. To those, who were unable to react to this call or have some specific interests, we recommend to follow our web sites, where we regularly inform about new calls for submitting the proposals”, says doc. Ing. Jan Kolář, CSc., the director of CSO.
The applicants submitted their proposals in following project categories, which had been established after the consultation between CSO and ESA, aimed to meet the goals of the Incentive programme for Czech workplace involvement in programme activities of ESA:
- flight hardware, with the preference to the activities connected with the basic equipment of probes and sensors or to general technologies with the potential to be reused (budget limit of 1,000,000 EUR)
- research and development activities (including feasibility studies) leading towards products (hardware or software), services, technology verification or towards general technologies with the potential to be reused (budget limit of 200,000 EUR)
- preparatory activities (for example: studies, formulations of user requirements, market research) supporting Czech competitiveness in the ESA programmes (compulsory or voluntary) in which the Czech Republic takes part (budget limit of 100,000 EUR)
Other tenders opened even for the Czech Republic were announced in the programmes GMES Space Component (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) and Meteosat Third Generation (a programme aimed to deliver a third generation of Meteosat family geostationary meteorological satellite).
Currently, the Czech applicants can also submit project design intentions within the optional ELIPS (European Programme for Life and Physical Sciences and Applications in Space) programme, which is aimed on research projects on the International Space Station (ISS).