Φ-lab Challenges is dedicated to organising cutting-edge innovative challenges in partnership with esteemed partners and sponsors. These challenges not only promote the growth and engagement of the Φ-lab community, but also provide a platform for researchers and talented innovators to showcase their work and make a tangible impact in solving some of society’s most pressing challenges.
By leveraging transformative technologies like AI, ML, Quantum Computing, and others, and utilising Earth observation, we aim to exctract valuable insights and information to drive positive change for human prosperity.
Φ-lab Challenges is an initiative of ESA Φ-lab implemented by a consortium of private companies and startups composed of Novaspace, Planetek Italia, Sinergise, GMATICS and EarthPulse.
Opening soon
Check out the ChallengeThe ESA Φ-lab together with KP Labs, Bias Variance Labs, Telespazio, and the Silesian University of Technology, invite AI researchers, developers and EO enthusiasts from around the world to a new exciting Challenge.
Opening for participants on 27th February 2026, the new ClearSAR-Track 1 Challenge will have you work on AI-based methods to detect and mitigate radio frequency interference (RFI) in Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR data.
Check out our Challenge page already today, get prepared and join us soon, when we launch our new Challenge!
New year new Challenges
Our team wishes all of you a very happy, joyful, and calm new year. Well, of course we also wish you a bit of excitement though: This year we will have new exciting, educational and impactful Challenges for you. Join us, to hone your skills, win great prizes, and make real-life impacts. More info coming soon 🙂
Revisiting and expanding on the #HYPERVIEW challenge!
With HYPERVIEW2, we’re challenging researchers, engineers, and data scientists to explore new ways of making AI interpretable and explainable for satellite data processing, space operations, and Earth monitoring.
After successfully identifying our first batch of winners, we have now opened the Challenge again as a permanent Challenge for anyone interested to further hone their skills!
#HYPERVIEW2
Re-opened as a permanent Challenge!Open challenges
AI for Earthquake Response
When disaster strikes, time is critical. With this challenge, the ESA Φ-lab and the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ invite you to develop AI models that can rapidly detect earthquake damage using satellite imagery – helping emergency teams assess destruction faster and act where it matters most. Bring space, AI, and impact together to support real-world crisis response. […]
EASi Workshop // HYPERVIEW2
The new HYPERVIEW2 Challenge is implemented as part of the Explainable AI in Space (EASi) workshop, that KP Labs, ESA, and the Φ-Lab Challenges team are organising as part of the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), which is hosted in Bologna, Italy from 25th–30th October 2025. […]
PANGAEA
PANGAEA is a new evaluation and benchmarking protocol that covers a diverse set of datasets, tasks, resolutions, sensor modalities, and temporalities. This challenge is open-ended, giving participants the flexibility to explore, experiment, and iterate on their models over time. Alongside the open challenge, we’ll be launching regular Data Sprints – short, high-impact tasks that run for about two months each and focus on specific use cases within the PANGAEA dataset. These sprints will come with their own goals, deadlines, and prizes. […]
Encouraging Interaction
ESA Φ-lab challenges
ESA Φ-lab Challenges, an initiative from Φ-lab of ESA’s Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes, strives to bring the worlds of AI and EO closer to encourage interaction and collaboration.
Artificial Intelligence
When large amounts of data is captured by remote sensing devices on EO satellites, our computers and AI algorithms can be used to help us solve problems. They can learn to recognise patterns and find correlations that humans would otherwise miss.
Earth observation
EO data allows us to gather global information about our planet Earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems via satellites carrying remote sensing devices.
Funded and initiated by
Implemented by
