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Veneto Stars challenge: “space data for agri-food”

Veneto stars is a Space Data driven challenge promoted by the Veneto Region in Italy and open to European residents. The aim of the challenge is to select, award and exploit innovative ideas focused on AGRI-FOOD that can be relevant for the region.
AGRI-FOOD is intended as the broad range of elements characterising the AGRI-FOOD arena/industry, ranging for example (not exhaustive list) from aquaculture to land management, from sylviculture to smart harvesting, from yield optimisation to autonomous device.

Veneto stars twofold objectives are to boost the interest of the European young generation for Space Data and promote the use of Space-connected applications in the Region. The core of the challenge is composed of three steps:
  • SELECT and invite to pitch in Venice the 10 best ideas/concepts submitted through an online form
  • AWARD the best advancement from ideas/concepts to mock-up/prototype during the finalists pitch session at the Veneto Space
    Meetings (15 - 17 May 2023)
  • EXPLOIT the winner mock-up/prototype by hosting the winning team for a period in Veneto to learn, develop, enhance and apply
    their prototype to a real context.
​The challenge is open to teams composed of fresh graduates, students, and young professionals aged 18-25, resident in EEA + Switzerland. Teams can be made of min. 2 and max. 7 members.

The VeneToSTARS challenge covers a five months period and is composed of:

Submission: teams can register and submit their ideas/concepts from 1 February 15 March (23:59 CET).

Select: ten ideas/concepts will be selected and the correspondent teams notified before 1 April 2023 (23:59 CET). The selected teams will have the opportunity to pitch during the Veneto Space Meetings 7 in Venice (15-17 May 2023) and meet, among others, investors, end-users, and stakeholders.

After receiving the notification, each team shall communicate to the organisers the name of max. 3 members by the 15th of April who will be sponsored by the Veneto Region to attend the Veneto Space Meetings and pitch their mock-up/prototype i.e. advancement of the idea.

Veneto Tour (14-17 May 2023): The selected teams will be invited to discover the Veneto Region and get free access to the Veneto Space Meetings. Potential activities include, but are not limited to, visits and lecturers at universities (e.g. Padua, Venice etc), presentations to innovation centres and incubators, experts, Venture Capital funds etc. A detailed program will be delivered to the selected teams before the trip.

Veneto Space Meetings will gather professionals from SMEs, multinational organisations, governments, space corporations, space agencies, academicians and space technology providers. The event will be a unique opportunity to showcase your products and capabilities to an international audience of buyers and procurement professionals with budget authority to spend.
In the context of the Veneto Space Meetings, teams will have the chance of exposing themselves and presenting their ideas to a selected jury (AWARD phase).
Travel and lodging expenses will be covered for a maximum of 3 members per team.

Award: within the official program of the Veneto Space Meetings, the 10 winning teams will pitch their idea in front of a jury composed of experts and stakeholders’ representatives that will select the overall winner of the competition. The overall winner will be selected according to the advancement of the idea/concept versus a mock-up/prototype that has occurred from the notification date (1 April) to the pitching session (16 or 17 May). Special mentions can be applied to some teams.

Exploit (September 2023): the winning team will be invited to spend one week in Veneto Region in September 2023. A maximum of 3 members will be covered expenses. A tailor-made program will be designed to favour meetings, coaching and advisory activities to further advance the prototype and maybe run a pilot test in a real environment thus interacting with interested stakeholders.

Deadline 15 March 2023.