Gravity Challenge 02 finalists announced along with increased global expansion
The Gravity Challenge 02 award recipients were announced on Tuesday evening this week and affirmed at yesterday’s 10th Australian Space Forum, with an astounding 14 teams invited by challenge providers to progress into the Gravity 02 Scale phase. In many cases this means clear pathway to commercial outcomes for stakeholders and innovator solutions to the challengers’ problems will now be tested in real life.
**Full list of winners featured here
A few highlights over the past six months include:
350% growth in Gravity’s innovator cohort with more than 300 teams
13 challenges from impressive brands across Australia and the UK
90+ mentors and presenters
50+ innovation submissions in response to the Gravity 02 challenges
25 finalists who entered the Gravity 02 Accelerator, and;
14 finalists from across Australia and the UK invited to join Challenge providers as part of the Gravity 02 Scale phase
At yesterday’s 10th Australian Space Forum, the Premier of South Australia, the Hon Steven Marshall MP, announced Gravity Challenge 03 will undergo even further international expansion to nine other countries in 2021, due to the collaborative success between Australia and the UK with Gravity 02, and to the drastic increase in engagement with the program.
Moving forwards, the Gravity program will not only involve compelling big brand challenges from Australia and the UK but also participation from challenge providers and world-class space-tech innovators from Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania.
Professor Catherine Stoddart, Chief Executive, Department of Health, Northern Territory Government, said, “the quality of the Gravity Challenge innovators in Australia and the UK has been outstanding and I look forward to seeing our pilot programs come to fruition across the Northern Territory and throughout other rural and remote areas in Australia. Supporting this program has allowed us to connect with global innovators and work towards our goal of being a world leader in the delivery of remote health through collaboration, excellence and innovation.”
Rosie Jonas, GRAVITY Program Manager, Senior Manager, Deloitte, said, “Watching the Gravity program go from strength to strength has been incredibly inspiring, even in the face of such a challenging year. Most people don’t realise that some of the world’s most wicked problems can be solved using space data. And we are doing just that with this program. We are bringing together some of the brightest and most innovative minds from around the world to tackle the big issues facing the public and private organisations today.”
Alex Bird, UK Space and Gravity Challenge, Deloitte, said, “Joining the Gravity Challenge programme in the UK has been a fantastic experience, creating many business opportunities for innovators in both the UK and Australia that would have otherwise not existed. The economics of space are changing. Space data is easier to access and cloud technologies are lowing the cost to process data at scale. There is also fantastic ambition in the sector. Gravity Challenge is providing a great mechanism to capture demand from challenge providers, quickly link that demand to innovators and then make innovation happen. We are very much looking forward to the future expansion of the programme and the opportunities this will bring.
Byron Riessen, Co-Founder of the Gravity Challenge, Principal, Deloitte, said, “Seeing such a rapid expansion of our program over just two years is amazing. We never thought we’d get so much interest, or success, from the program in such a short time, but here we are. I can’t wait to see where Gravity 03 leads us, but I know it will be towards more solutions to the big problems facing our world today.
“We would like to give a special thanks to the organisations who submitted their challenges. They are all forward-thinking organisations that have asked us to use space data and space capability to solve high-value, real-world problems affecting their organisations, our communities and the planet. “
About the Gravity Challenge
The Gravity Challenge brings together Challengers (businesses, government agencies and universities) and Innovators (start-ups, entrepreneurs and SMEs) to collaborate and create solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges. Space technology can have significant economic benefits on both the Australian and UK economies, from job creation to large-scale commercialisation.
The Gravity Challenge runs across a nine-month duration incorporating 4 phases: Recruitment, Innovate, Accelerate and Scale.
Gravity Challenge focuses on the following industry sectors:
Mining and Energy Resources
Defence, Security & Military
Agriculture & Meteorology
Banking & Insurance
Telecommunications & Connectivity
Health & Life Sciences
Transportation, Logistics & Smart Cities
Travel & Tourism
Recruitment for Corporate Challengers and Innovators opens in December 2020.
For more information on the Gravity Challenge program, visit: https://gravitychallenge.space/