The webinar was on March 27th at 2 p.m. CET 

The online event took place on March 27 at 2 PM CET and brought together participants from various companies and organizations from all over Europe. The webinar began with a welcome from Alberto Bichi, executive director of EPSI who did an agenda overview. He thanked the representatives of ESA – Elena Razzano and Antonio Rodenas. Alberto presented the scope of work of EPSI and the network of organizations and shared how it contributes to sports innovation in Europe. 

Then the representatives of ESA took the floor and presented the funding call “Space for Olympic Games”. Antonio Rodenas talked about the scope of the call and the responsible department from ESA that manages the call. He also mentioned some upcoming funding opportunities ESA will launch in the near future. 

After that two EPSI members presented their concepts for projects that might be related to ESA’s funding calls. The first one was “Smart Active Rural Areas” presented by Quique Alcantara from Igold Group. He shared how an increase in sports and physical activity can increase the well-being of people in rural areas and make those areas more attractive. He also mentioned how sports can contribute to the economic development of rural areas. This would solve the problem of the reduction and aging of the population in these areas of Europe. Mr. Alcantara referred especially to the many opportunities that space technologies can provide to rural areas. 

After that Tim Kermans from Forward Sports. He presented his concepts for the “European Sports Connection Initiative” and how space technologies can contribute to this. 

At the end of the webinar, there was a Q&A session with all participants. The representatives of ESA answered questions from the audience and invited people to apply for the funding call.