Italy-Frascati: Research and development services and related consultancy services

The intended tender shall establish a worldwide benchmark for the access to Sentinels data.
ESA operates and distributes data from Sentinels 1, 2, 3 (land) and 5P through terrestrial networks and makes data available to all users on the Sentinels Open Access Data Hub (scihub.copernicus.eu), as well as to dedicated user communities on dedicated hubs (i.e. CopHub, IntHub and CollHub), via powerful application programming interfaces (https://scihub.copernicus.eu/user guide/5APIsAndBatchScripting). In addition, 4 Data Access and Information Service (DIAS) contracts are being started by ESA to provide access to Sentinels data through highly scalable cloud computing environments.
ESA constantly monitors and reports about the performances of the access points under its own responsibility. However, the user experience may depend on other factors (e.g. local connectivity and infrastructures conditions) that cannot be directly related to the hub performances.
The current activity aims at establishing an independent, geographically characterized benchmark from the “user perspective”. This shall be achieved by accessing Sentinels data from different locations in Europe and beyond, and by systematically recording the corresponding performances. The obtained results shall be carefully analysed with respect to the statistics obtained locally at the data access points and also with respect to analogous access experiences from notable third party sites providing similar services (i.e. EO data discovery, view and download). The obtained benchmarks shall be described in an effective way in view of future possible open releases. In order to safeguard the independency of the exercise, bidders shall show substantial absence of potential conflicts of interest with respect to Sentinels data distribution.
This iITT will be found in EMITS under the following reference numbers AIRN number 18.18I.06 and AO number: 1-9372.
This Invitation to Tender will be published by the European Space Agency (ESA). It will be open exclusively to economic operators which have their registered office in an EU Member State or Iceland or Norway.
The European Space Agency (ESA) will make the entire ITT package (Cover Letter, Statement of Work, Special Conditions of Tender, Draft Contract) available on its tendering website (EMITS http://emits.sso.esa.int/emits/owa/emits.main), and on its dedicated Copernicus server (https://copernicus-emits.esa.int/).
In order to access the ITT Package from EMITS, a tenderer must be registered as a potential ESA tenderer. Any potential tenderers wishing to register with ESA as a potential Tenderer is requested to complete the online questionnaire on the “esa-star registration” website: https://esastar-emr.sso.esa.int. While the registration process is underway, tenderers may access the ITT Package through ESA’s dedicated Copernicus server, which is accessible at: https://copernicus-emits.esa.int/
Tenderers are informed, however, that before submitting a proposal they must at least have completed the “lightRegistration” as described in the following “esa-star” Registration Manual:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/business_with_esa/CG-EM-ORR-S-16_End_User_Manual_v1.2.pdf
Further information on the registration process can be found on the Industry Portal pages available at:
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/How_to_do/esa-star_Registration_Process.

73000000 - Research and development services and related consultancy services