Civil Security from Space

Europe is facing increasingly significant challenges including humanitarian crises, natural disasters as a result of extreme weather events, cybercrime and geopolitical instability. We need to act swiftly to protect European citizens and ensure prosperity. The Civil Security from Space Programme will support industry active across Telecommunications, Earth Observation and Navigation disciplines, with the objective of developing the necessary integrated tools to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of response efforts.

ESA has created a multi-disciplinary programme that aligns ESA with European stakeholders’ needs, to propel the integration of Europe’s competencies and assets into monitoring, mitigating and resolving civil security and crisis events.

ESA CSS Programme

Space is Open for Business

 

Civil Security Challenges

The World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Risks Report puts extreme weather events and cybersecurity failures among the most prominent current and future challenges the world is facing, ahead of any other economic, environmental or geopolitical risks.

In the same direction, the recent sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) raises awareness on the escalation of climate-related risks as well as their interaction with non-climatic risks “creating compound and cascading risks that are more complex and difficult to manage”. There is a need to act swiftly to further protect Europe’s citizens and institutions, and to support critical infrastructures. 

Space in Support of Civil Security 

ESA’s Civil Security from Space Programme (CSS) aims to foster the use of space-based solutions, which help save lives and livelihoods and enable civil security players to act swiftly to support humanitarian responses, law enforcement, safety and emergency events, anywhere, at any time and for the benefit of everyone.

The CSS Programme offers European industry the opportunity to boost the use of space and deliver the necessary tools to address the challenges of civil security and crisis management. The civil security from space programme contributes to space-based crisis management through ESA's proposed 'rapid and resilient crisis response accelerator' – one of three initiatives to accelerate the use of space to respond to societal needs. 

ESA CSS Programme Objectives

Addressing the needs of civil security and crisis management requires end-to-end solutions that rely on the following:

  • Sensors that collect data for situation awareness; 
  • A communications infrastructure that distributes the data to the right recipient in a swift and secure manner; 
  • Processing capabilities that exploit the vast amounts of data and extract value-added and actionable information.

Relevant information needs to be put into the hands of civil security and crisis management leaders, who are responsible for taking appropriate actions to mitigate against and respond to any situations which put European citizens at risk. 

Framework for Space-Based Solutions

The CSS Programme offers a framework for the development of such solutions through supported activities with the following key features: 

Responsive 

Enable an autonomous and proactive response to civil security and crisis events for the mitigation, support and resolution of unfolding events, through mechanisms allowing civil security and crisis management entities to take action and go beyond the simple monitoring of events.

Smart

Foster the use of multiple systems with embedded intelligence, all collectively contributing to the collection, distribution, transformation and delivery of data in a tailored and user-friendly way.

Interoperable 

Ensure the transparent integration of space and non-space solutions, fostering interoperability for the delivery of an extended set of civil security and crisis prevention, mitigation and response applications.

Secure 

Provide a solution that is resilient by design, trusted and secure, thus ensuring critical functions and operations in all situations.

Scalable 

Be flexible to facilitate future proofing and capabilities growth with the adoption of new technologies, contributing systems, applications and services, and the implementation of new operational and collaboration models. 

A vision for 2035: a federation of systems

The vision for 2035 of the Civil Security from Space programme to foster the creation of a unified, secure, resilient, responsive and smart network for civil security players.

Beyond the opportunities in technology/system/application/service developments, the CSS Programme aims to foster the engagement of the civil security and crisis management user community, ensuring that European priorities are addressed.

In addition, the CSS Programme recognises the need to deliver interoperable industry solutions to enable the creation of a federation of multiple systems. This would ensure wider industrial participation and the possibility of addressing new use cases, benefitting from the scalability of the solutions, and the continuous improvement of services with new and advanced capabilities. This approach is also expected to stimulate growth opportunities and create incentives for the user community to adopt the proposed solutions, thus benefitting from the diverse supply chain of compatible technologies and services. 

Become a partner of the ESA CSS Programme 

Through the CSS Programme, ESA is open to collaboration with end-users, industry, organisations, commercial and institutional players, governments, initiatives, and international entities. We are open to exploring how national activities, commercial solutions, already developed assets/capabilities, up-and-running or future planned projects, funding mechanisms and any other contribution can be partnered together with the CSS Programme.

We are looking for partners and offer the following ways to work with us:

  • Partnership Projects – New Innovative development activities 
  • User Consultation Group – Identification of priorities and incubating business opportunities 
  • Industry Association – Fostering interoperability through adoption of standards 
  • Collaboration Partners – Working with partners on joint initiatives 

How to work with ESA CSS

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