A synergy between the Ministry of Education and the European Space Agency (ESA) to use space and satellite technologies in favor of innovation and digitization in schools. In the interest of female students and all the protagonists of the world of education, to support inclusion, integration, dialogue between cultures.
With this goal, the Ministry and ESA launched the joint initiative "Space-based innovation and digitalization for the school of tomorrow". A project to invite European companies in the sector to propose ideas for the development of services based on digital innovation integrated with space and satellite technologies.
The initiative is part of the implementation of the Memorandum of Intent between the Ministry and ESA and the related Strategy, presented in a dedicated event day on May 31st.
The common objectives defined by the Memorandum are, over a three-year period: to promote innovation in education and experiment with new solutions to develop traditional learning tools; technologically support schools that have had to resort to distance learning due to the epidemiological emergency; experimenting with new didactic environments and learning processes shared with educating communities, to increase growth opportunities and promote social inclusion; share and capitalize on the experiences acquired through the activities undertaken in implementation of the Memorandum.
"Space-based innovation and digitalization for the school of tomorrow" is divided into three calls, in which economic operators will be asked to propose projects to apply space and satellite technologies to three sectors: "Sports for everyone","social inclusion","digital learning".
The call for the first call, the one dedicated to Sport, is open until 30 June 2021. The aim is to collect proposals aimed, for example, at organizing online sports competitions, including international ones, to encourage comparison between different cultures. But also to combat discrimination, guaranteeing sporting activity for students with disabilities, poor people or residents in areas without physical sports facilities. Or, to allow outdoor and safe physical activity, thanks to geolocation, or in virtual or augmented reality. The proposals will be evaluated by the MI-ESA Commission from 16 July and, at the start of the 2021/2022 school year, next September, the call for the selection of the schools that will be called to be part of the experiment will take place.
For all three calls, to achieve the purposes described in the Memorandum - also through the institutional partnership between ESA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) - Announcement of Opportunity (AO) will be launched for small and medium-large companies or start-ups interested from time to time, which will be able to propose experiments, using space resources integrated with other technologies and on the basis of the objectives to be achieved jointly identified by ESA and MI.
ESA will pay up to 50% of the cost, up to a maximum of € 1 million. To the extent that the activities will be carried out by universities and / or research institutes with no commercial interest in the proposed product or service, or by micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, these activities will be funded by ESA up to 80% , depending on the level of funding authorized by the national delegation (s) concerned.
The ideas that will be considered suitable will be tested in the field, with the so-called “pilot tests”, at the schools which, respecting their autonomy, will show that they are interested in verifying the applicative effectiveness of the proposed solutions.