The STELLAR consortium consisting of Telespazio (FR), F24 (FR/DE), European Emergency Number Association (BE), Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (FR) and Thales Alenia Space (FR) has been awarded the service contract "Emergency Warning Service Demonstrator" by the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS) of the European Commission.
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he Emergency Warning Service (EWS) is a new service of the Galileo programme, put at the disposal of national civil protection authorities for alerting the population in case of looming disaster, including in the cases where the traditional terrestrial alerting systems cannot operate at full capacity or even collapse.
The objective of the STELLAR project is to demonstrate the potential of this forthcoming satellite-based emergency warning service before it is introduced in the European Global Navigation Satellite System (Galileo) infrastructure.
F24 has joined the STELLAR consortium with the aim of contributing with its unique knowledge about crisis management and mass alerting to European and National authorities.
"We are proud to be part of such an important initiative on the European Level. We have accumulated tremendous experience all over Europe and beyond and are keen on contributing to this important platform to support the safety of people in Europe," states Dr. Joerg Rahmer, Spokesperson of the Executive Board at F24.
The selected consortium has been tasked to analyse the operational needs of the EU national civil protection authorities for a Galileo's alerting solution, and to showcase how this service could support them in building up a resilient strategy facing crisis controls. The demonstrations will involve national authorities from the European Union Member States. STELLAR will contribute also to a better understanding of the end-to-end process of delivering warnings and alerts through the Galileo infrastructure and signal-in-space. The project STELLAR is funded in the frame of the EU Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation in Satellite Navigation.
F24 is very active in Research and Development opportunities to provide to its clients the most up to date and efficient solutions. The Galileo initiative will enable F24 to further develop its renowned Public Warning System, extend its multi-channel capabilities and become the first PWS provider in the EU to experiment with the upcoming Galileo Emergency Warning Service.
David Gurle, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of F24 and serial entrepreneur – Perzo, Symphony and Hive – former executive at Microsoft, Skype and ThomsonReuters, states: "Efficient and reliable emergency communication has become one of the most critical tasks in today's world with multicomplex crisis situations challenging governments as well as businesses on a daily basis. The importance of this project cannot be emphasized enough. F24 has proven its role as a true innovator in Emergency Notification and Crisis Management for more than 20 years." ■