Five cities across Europe use Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) for highly innovative solutions based on satellite data to improve city management and resilience.
Traditionally, satellite data has been used for monitoring weather or disasters, for navigation and surveillance, and for defence and intelligence. Now, the SPACE4Cities project is exploring new horizons by investigating how space technologies can benefit European cities in better managing their urban areas and in preparing for climate change.
It is a city-based project, in which there is close cooperation with companies from around Europe through a PCP process. The project is led by the City of Helsinki innovation company Forum Virium Helsinki (Finland), in cooperation with the City of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Municipality of Guimarães (Portugal), the Regional Development Fund of Attica (Greece), the City of Ghent’s digital innovation and technology organisation District09 (Belgium), Open & Agile Smart Cities network (OASC), and Europe’s leading aerospace cluster Aerospace Valley (France).
Leveraging Pre-Commercial Procurement for innovation
PCP is a useful method for public sector procurers to buy R&D services from several suppliers in parallel, to steer development of innovative solutions not yet present in the market to meet public procurers’ needs, and to test developed solutions.
The PCP process in SPACE4Cities consists of three clearly defined main phases: Solution Design, Prototype Development, and Pilot Preparation & Execution. In each phase, the number of suppliers decreases – from 20 to 10, ending with five winners.
At the same time, the budgets per supplier increase with each phase. Significant budgets are available for suppliers to support their work in each of these phases: a total of €2.87m.
Space-based solutions for city challenges
The companies selected by SPACE4Cities are developing space technology solutions for common challenges in European cities, such as detecting floods and heat islands, reducing traffic emissions, preventing wildfire risks, protecting cultural heritage sites, tracing underground pipe leaks, and monitoring the condition and changes of green spaces, bridges, and roads.
These highly innovative solutions are not yet on the market, but are being developed during the PCP process. In October 2025, the SPACE4Cities team selected ten companies utilising space technology to develop their concepts into working prototypes.
They will receive a total of €900,000 in funding. Seven of these winners are individual companies, while three consist of a consortium of multiple companies. The companies come from France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. More information here.
In July 2026, a winning five out of these ten prototypes will be awarded with development funding of a total of €1,250,000 and the opportunity to pilot in real-life conditions in fifteen European cities, including Amsterdam, Athens, Ghent, Guimarães, and Helsinki. ‘
After the piloting phase, in spring 2027, the solutions are expected to be ready for wider commercialisation and take-up in cities around Europe.
Funding impact
SPACE4Cities runs from February 2024 until July 2027. It is fully funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe innovation programme and the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) and aims to harness European satellite data to solve urban challenges and create more sustainable urban environments.
The project helps cities to become more agile and resilient in order to save resources and combat new challenges caused by, for example, climate change and energy crises. A large emphasis is on improving the understanding of the potential of space-based services in an urban context.
The public sector in Europe is stimulated to use space downstream products: satellite data products and tools to support climate action and cities’ carbon neutrality goals. At the same time, the PCP budgets allow us to boost European SMEs and stimulate innovation.
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Areas of expertise:
- Satellite data
- Space technology
- Urban planning and management
- Pre-Commercial Procurement
- Innovation Procurement
- Climate change mitigation
- Public-private partnerships
