Call for Ideas

ESA Phi-Lab Sweden, in collaboration with ESA and Vinnova, invites the submission of innovative technological challenges in the domain of AI and Cognitive Cloud Computing that once solved could unlock innovations for already identified commercial applications in the Space domain.

We welcome challenges that are suitable for focused, collaborative problem‑solving and that would benefit from the expertise of Phi‑Lab Sweden.

Special conditions apply.

The call encourages submissions which require novel interdisciplinary collaboration and seeks proposals for challenges that would particularly benefit from tapping into Sweden‘s strengths in research and industry innovation in the field of AI and Cognitive Cloud Computing. If you are a team or organisation that thrives on hard problems, cares about real-world applications, and can flexibly combine research with the development of commercial solutions — this is your invitation.

What we’re looking for:

Proposed ideas may address enabling technologies, application-driven concepts, or integrative approaches spanning multiple domains. Contributions should offer ambitious, high-risk/high-reward advances with clear and commercially relevant impact on future space and terrestrial applications.  

Your idea should:

• Leverage Sweden’s unique strengths in research and industry-led innovation. 
• Encourage interdisciplinary, flexible collaborations — blending top researchers, engineers, and industry experts beyond siloed disciplines.  
• Inspire use-driven research, with clear potential for commercialisation and near-to-mid-term impact.  
• Be grounded in real user needs and practical constraints, while pushing the boundaries of what is currently possible.  

Challenges deemed relevant will be used to prepare a future Call for Proposals, where applicants will be invited to propose concrete solutions with a clear commercial focus.

By submitting your idea, you will be able to:

• Receive feedback from ESA Phi‑Lab Sweden on your proposed challenge.
• Engage with ESA Phi Lab Sweden to understand how its expertise and resources can help you tackle the challenge and to define potential Phi Lab contributions to your solution.

Note that endorsement of your idea does not guarantee inclusion in future calls or influence project selection—it simply indicates interest in your concept.

What happens next?

ESA Phi-Lab Sweden implements a “top-down” and “bottom-up” approach for defining the scope of its research programmes. The Phi-Lab Sweden Advisory Board provides the “top-down” input on relevant topics and challenges of interest, whilst experts from academia and industry are invited to provide their input on what exciting and potentially neglected step-changes are worth pursuing.

The “Call for ideas” is one such invitation to contribute, others include workshops and dedicated presentations to the community. This approach strives to provide ambitious, relevant, and use-driven programmes that not only provide high-value outcomes for ESA and the space community but also for actors not traditionally associated with the field of space research.  

Once the relevant inputs have been collected and considered, ESA Phi-Lab Sweden designs and releases the call for proposals, which is expected to open end of March 2026, with a prospective selection of projects after the summer. Specific participating conditions will apply and will be published along the call for submissions by ESA Phi-Lab Sweden.  

SPECIAL CONDITIONS

This Campaign is open for submissions by participants registered in one of ESA’s Member States, Associate Member States or Cooperating States (link).

Please note that restrictions exist for certain implementation paths, e.g. ESA procurement actions are restricted to entities eligible to do business with ESA (see here).

Additionally, the following general key acceptance factors to participate in this campaign apply:

• The submitting entity needs to address the campaign topic(s) as described above
• Potential for commercialisation – when resolved, have the potential to drive innovative changes for commercial applications in space and on Earth.
• The submitting entity needs to address the constraints and requirements as described above, particularly with respect to the fields and with respect to the integration and leveraging of Swedish capabilities
• All submissions shall be in English
• The entity identified as main author will be the main interface with ESA and needs to have a Swedish affiliation or a proved collaboration with a Swedish organization (industry, academia or public sector).

Submissions not complying with these criteria will not be considered for evaluation.

EVALUATION CRITERIA 

All submissions to this campaign will initially be evaluated based on following criteria and associated weighting: 

• Relevance to the fields of interest described above(25%) 
• Addressing technology challenges of interest for space (25%) 
• Leveraging Sweden’s capabilities (20%) 
• Requirement for novel interdisciplinary collaboration (15%) 
• Potential for commercialisation, if solved (15%) 

You’ll receive email notification if your idea is endorsed after the campaign closes. Note that endorsement does not guarantee inclusion in future calls or influence project selection—it simply indicates interest in your concept.