GMES Masters - The New Competition for Innovative Earth Monitoring Services

Today marks the official start of a new innovation competition - the GMES Masters. The European Earth Monitoring Competition calls for new ideas and services making the best use of earth observation data from Europe's flagship programme on global monitoring for environment and security.

With the aim of making the best use of possibilities that come along with global monitoring in the domains of environment and security, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and T-Systems have launched a new competition - the GMES Masters.

Organised by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, the GMES Masters 2011 starts today and encourages students, researchers, entrepreneurs, start-up companies and SMEs to develop market-focused applications from data gathered through the EU-led GMES initiative. Until 15 September 2011 you are invited to submit your applications and business ideas for one of the following five "challenges" via a secure online database at www.gmes-masters.com

• Ideas Challenge
• Best Service Challenge
• ESA App Challenge
• DLR Environmental Challenge
• T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge

The overall winner of the competition - the GMES Master - will be selected among the winners of the Ideas Challenge, ESA App Challenge, DLR Environmental Challenge, and T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge. The GMES Master will receive a cash prize of EUR 20,000.

To learn everything about the new European Earth Monitoring Competition please go to www.gmes-masters.com

For further information on the GMES programme please refer to www.esa.int/gmes or www.gmes.info