The deadline for submissions is extended until 20 August 2021.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has launched a new Call for Proposals for the “Acceleration of EGNOS Adoption in Transport”. The objective of the Call is to foster EGNOS uptake in the European aviation, maritime, inland waterways and railway sectors. The deadline for submissions is 19 July 2021. An informative webinar on the call will be held on 23 April; to register, click here. For more information on the call, click here.
A core mission of the GSA is to support European Union objectives and achieve the highest possible return on EU investment in space in terms of benefits to users and economic growth and competitiveness. This is the motivation behind the new Call, which aims to foster EGNOS adoption in transport by enabling users to get equipped with GPS/SBAS-enabled terminals, and supporting Air Navigation Service Providers, airports/heliports, maritime authorities and rail stakeholders in implementing and testing EGNOS-based operations. The budget for the Call is EUR 3,000,000 with the possibility to extend to EUR 10,000,000 depending on budget availability.
EGNOS in aviation
In the aviation sector, implementation actions will include approaches benefitting from Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance 200 (LPV200) service level, PinS LPV procedures and low-level Instrument Flight Rule (IFR) routes in Europe, as well as other advanced operations such as Required Navigation Performance (RNP) routes using SBAS or other operations that help aviation to become more sustainable .
It will also consider pilot cases on advanced navigation operations benefitting from EGNOS, assessment of new operational scenarios, such as implementation in aerodromes with limited infrastructure and activities promoting the use of EGNOS for other communication and surveillance applications in all phases of flight. The result of this activity will be a wide scale operational implementation of EGNOS-based operations across European airports and airspace users.
By rail and water
In the maritime and inland waterways sector, applications will target the deployment of shore station equipment that enables the transmission of EGNOS corrections over IALA and AIS stations. On the end user side, the activity aims at increasing the use of terminals on board vessels. It also targets the operational introduction of EGNOS in port operations, such as the development and use of EGNOS-capable Portable Pilot units to assist local pilots in the safe navigation of the piloted vessel.
Finally, in the rail sector, the action aims at facilitating the introduction of EGNSS in safety-critical applications. On one hand, it will enable demonstration of EGNSS-based train localisation safety for future inclusion in the ERTMS, by installing the necessary equipment in pilot lines. On the other, the action will enable early EGNSS operational introduction in rail signalling by focusing on non-interoperable railway lines.
An informative webinar on the Call will be held on 23 April; to register, click here. The webinar will cover possible application areas, current trends in the targeted segments as well as the participation rules and detailed instructions to applicants.