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BAYWA Smart Farming Challenge - Copernicus Masters

As the global population continues to grow every year, so too does the demand for agricultural products. To continue feeding the world without damaging the environment is one of the greatest challenges faced by society, and can only be achieved by increasing the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural production. BayWa invites submissions that look to tackle this challenge by combining satellite data with other data sources in an innovative and commercially viable way.
BayWa is particularly interested in new ideas that combine satellite data and Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning. Furthermore, BayWa is looking for new ideas that support the following application fields:

  1. Pasture Management
  2. Early Crop Disease Identification in Agriculture and Horticulture
  3. Yield Prediction in Horticulture

Do you have a Smart Farming idea that doesn’t fit the above? BayWa encourages you to enter it as well!

The Copernicus Masters is designed to support the development of Copernicus-related entrepreneurship by eliciting and rewarding projects and business ideas that make use of Earth observation data primarily generated under the Copernicus programme. The Copernicus Masters 2020 is calling for proposals between 1 April and 30 June 2020 in different categories (“the Challenges”) and (“the Prizes”).


BayWa SMART FARMING CHALLENGE

Application DeadlineJune 30, 2020
TypeEntrepreneurs
SponsorBayWa
GenderMen and Women

Benefits of BayWa SMART FARMING CHALLENGE

  1. Cash Prize: EUR 5,000
  2. Mentoring: Mentoring package from BayWa, FarmFacts and Vista, including support with scientific and commercial expertise, developing a go-to-market strategy, and identifying sales channels
  3. Baywa Sales Platform: Access to BayWa sales platforms and customers through NEXT Farming
  4. Access to Networks: Access to BayWa agri-business and agri-organsation networks
  5. Firld Trails: Access to field trails in multiple countries (if eligible)
  6. Satelite Data: Possibility to access EUR 10,000 worth of commercial datasets from the Copernicus Contributing Missions in the Copernicus Data Warehouse (financial support by EC)
  7. Extra EUR 10,000 Cash Prize if your concept gets selected as Copernicus Masters 2020 Overall Winner

Requirements for BayWa SMART FARMING CHALLENGE

Criteria

Submissions to the BayWa Smart Farming Challenge will be evaluated against the following criteria:

  1. Innovation: Does the solution demonstrate a new/novel approach to Smart Farming?
  2. Earth observation: Does the solution use Earth observation data to bring added-value to end-users?
  3. Technical Feasibility: Can the technical element of the solution be used in a commercial context?
  4. Commercial Viability: Does the solution have real market potential?

Enterprises, scientific institutions, and individuals of legal adult age are entitled to participate in the Copernicus Masters 2020. Applications will be accepted from anywhere in the world, except for the Copernicus Master European Commission (EC) Challenges and the Copernicus Prizes. To participate in those, any applicant must be a natural or a legal person of an EU Member State or EEA, ENP, South/East countries or other countries with which the EU has space dialogues and cooperation: USA, Canada, Latin America, Africa, Gulf Cooperation Countries, Kazahstan, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand.

 

Selection Process

The expert teams of each Challenge and Prize will select, at their discretion, their own winning idea. In addition, one overall winner of the competition 2020 will be selected by an international experts team amongst all Challenge and Prize winners, under the supervision of a legal counsel. The Organiser and the Partners shall assume no liability whatsoever for the outcome of the selection process. This outstanding entrant will be awarded a cash prize to the value of EUR 10,000.
The awards ceremony for the Overall Winner 2020, the Copernicus Prize winners, and the Copernicus Masters challenge winners will take place in late 2020 (exact date and place tbd).

Application Deadline

June 30, 2020

How to Apply

Interested and qualified? Go to BayWa on copernicus-masters.awardsplatform.com to apply

The competition will be organised and carried out exclusively in English via a secure online idea database accessible at www.copernicus-masters.com. Registration at this site is required to create a user account, which may then be used to submit innovative business ideas to any of the Copernicus Masters Challenges and additionally to any Copernicus Prizes. When creating an account, participants will be asked to provide contact details, which the Organiser will use to inform them of all matters related to the Copernicus Masters and any other issues the Organiser deems relevant to participants in the competition. After registering, participants will receive a confirmation link they can use to log in and enter their details.
To start your submission, participants will be required to choose the Challenge & Prize to which they would like to submit a proposal and answer all of the mandatory questions in an online questionnaire.
The following specification clarifies the procedure to apply:

  1. Participants can ONLY select one Partner Challenge and, with the same entry, additionally choose ONLY one Prize Partner if they desire
  2. It is possible to enter more than one idea using the same personal account, but participants may not enter the same idea for different Challenges & Prizes

New Challenges and Prizes may be added while the competition is underway. Any additional Challenges and Prizes will be announced on www.copernicus-masters.com, which will always reflect the most current status.

Participants must submit their idea and complete the mandatory sections of the database no later than 11:59am hrs. CEST on 30 June. Only those ideas that contain all the mandatory information will be considered for evaluation. Ideas will automatically enter the evaluation phase when you hit the submit button in the database. Participants will receive a notification of submission from the organiser. However, participants can still edit their entry at any time until the closing of the database. In that case it is important to again click the submit button to make sure your latest version goes into evaluation. The entry will then be submitted to a dedicated panel of experts appointed to the chosen Challenge and Prize. Each of the experts tasked with evaluating the ideas submitted will be required to commit to a non-disclosure agreement with the Organiser before the ideas are put forward for evaluation.

The evaluation of the ideas is an anonymous process. Each idea will receive its own identification number. During the evaluation process, the experts will only be able to see this ID. In each Challenge and Prize, however, a small number of finalists may be invited to deliver a personal pitch or participate in a phone interview. This will, of course, require disclosure of the participant’s name, but he or she will already have been nominated as a finalist at this stage.

By participating, participants acknowledge that their contact details will be passed on to the respective Challenge sponsor and Prize sponsor to which they have registered their idea/solution, after the database has been closed and the winners chosen. This partner may then contact participants to determine whether they are interested in moving forward with the ideas submitted.

For more details, visit Copernicus masters website


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