PEGASE
Provision of Expertise to GSA And Support to Enabling activities

The Galileo programme has been facing a very intense period during FP6 with more than 70 R&D projects being funded. Moreover a significant number of issues have been addressed through the setting up of advisory groups and numerous activities have been initiated on the international scene.

With FP7, Galileo R&D activities have entered a new cycle, with new R&D projects and new issues to be investigated. Considering the diversity of R&D projects funded under FP7 and the wide variety of issues to be addressed, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) had to maintain its capacity to appoint independent experts able to monitor projects or provide suitable advice in a short timeframe.

Moreover, at a time where the R&D budgets allocated to the European GNSS programme were decreasing, it was vital to maximise the exploitation of the results achieved, the benefits that could be expected from the existence of numerous GNSS-related initiatives in the European Regions, and the dissemination of knowledge among the concerned actors.

This proposed Coordination and Support Action (CSA) addresses the issues mentioned above through a series of activities tailored to the needs of the GSA and of the European Commission.

Description

The achievement of the first two objectives relies on a network of experts established under a former FP6 project and maintained through PEGASE. Experts from this network are selected with the GSA and appointed by PEGASE upon request either to act as Galileo First Call Project Advisors and review projects’ progress and deliverables, or to participate in Advisory Groups.

As far as the achievement of the third objective is concerned, several activities have been implemented within PEGASE.

Technology transfer activities consist in elaborating a Manual of Good Practices for Successful Technology Transfer and in providing a methodological support to the Focused Innovative Projects funded by the GSA for the elaboration of their exploitation plans.

PEGASE proposes to help SMEs of the GNSS community identify the strategic partners they need for their development through networking activities, which include a ‘venture academy’ event dedicated to SMEs.

In order to strengthen links with the regions, a Regional Advisory Board involving three European networks (NEREUS, ENCADRE and ESINET) has been established which will produce guidelines for a better coordination with GNSS regional initiatives. Information on GNSS regional initiatives will also be collected and made available online through the web portal developed by the project.

Objectives

Considering the needs of the GSA and of the European Commission, three main objectives have been assigned to PEGASE.

The first objective is to provide GSA and European Commission Project Officers with adequate support for the management of the R&D projects resulting from FP7 Galileo First Call. This support includes technical review activities of the individual projects (e.g. participation in milestone meetings, review of deliverables) as well as consultancy on the domains addressed by these projects.

The second objective of PEGASE is to put expert knowledge at the disposal of the GSA and the European Commission in order to provide them with on-request advice and guidance in, potentially, all the fields related to Galileo and EGNOS.

The third objective is to support the successful performance of a set of ‘enabling’ activities identified as key success factors. These activities include technology transfer, exploitation of R&D projects’ results, coordination and collaboration with national, regional and local Galileo/EGNOS-related initiatives, information exchange and promotion of Galileo and EGNOS.