The South African National Space Agency SANSA and the National Research Foundation NRF have announced the latest developments of the New Earth Observation Frontiers Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises Innovation Support Fund Programme NEOFrontiers EISF. A total of eight start-ups involved in space and Earth observation innovations received funding through the ground-breaking programme.
Launched in March 2021, the NEOFrontiers is an innovation funding mechanism designed to drive the growth of the local space sector through increased public investments. It seeks to stimulate collaboration, cooperation and innovation in the public and private South African Earth observation community.
The NEOFrontiers programme is managed by the NRF on behalf of SANSA and implemented with the support of Tuksnovation, the University of Pretorias business and technology incubator.
SANSA launched NEOFrontiers in 2021 through investment by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation DSTI. The first four NEOFrontiers projects were funded in 2022 and another three in 2023.
The 2024 NEOFrontiers call attracted eight brilliant proposals on mining, agriculture, infrastructure development, healthcare innovation, banking and financial institutions as well as disaster risk reduction from successful start-ups
