ESA VDES Arctic System Study

The ESA VDES Arctic System Study is a Danish co-funding call under the Ministry of Higher Education and Science's cooperation with ESA. It supports a Danish-led system study in ARTES 4S on satellite-based VHF Data Exchange for Arctic needs, including Greenland, with Danish industrial and academic primes at the center. The call set aside EUR 425,000 for the study, with a separate EUR 1.275 million reserved for possible follow-on validation and demonstration work if the study leads to a go decision. The study can run for up to nine months and was opened through ESA's Open Space Innovation Platform. Eligibility is narrow. The lead must be Danish, non-Danish subcontractors must come from eligible ESA countries, and the proposed work cannot overlap with existing ESA or national activity already awarded to the consortium. That makes it a focused route for space and communications teams with a specific Arctic use case and a clear technical case for public-private follow-on work.

Each grant below is a distinct funding opportunity with its own eligibility, scope, and deliverables.