ESA's Network of Resources

The Network of Resources (NoR) is an ESA initiative that sponsors educational, research, development, and pre-commercial projects. The NoR provides a voucher for up to €5,000 to help users innovate their working practices by using cloud computing services for geospatial data and algorithms.

NoR sponsorship is available for the following project types:

• Academic research, including PhD and master’s thesis projects
• Educational activities
• Non-governmental or nonprofit research
• Pre-commercial development

For more information on the NoR’s mission, see What is the network of resources.

If you are working on a geospatial-related project that doesn’t generate revenue, you can apply for NoR sponsorship.

Conditions of participating in the initiative:

• You can’t download raw data, only processed results.
• You can’t use obtained images for commercial or operational purposes.
• You should comply with the terms of the agreed end-user license agreements (EULAs).

You need to have an email address with an organization domain name to be able to register on the UP42 platform. If you don’t have one, we won’t be able to host you as part of the NoR initiative.

We advise starting the application process no earlier than one month before the start of your project.

Step 1. Explore UP42's offerings

Step 2. Choose geospatial products

Step 3. Apply for sponsorship

Step 4. Create an UP42 account

Step 5. Comply with legal requirements

Step 6. Send us your account ID

1. Go to NoR Portfolio, scroll down, and click Access it here.
2. Click the search box, type UP42, and then press Enter.
3. Review UP42’s portfolio:
   • To see geospatial collections, expand the Collections Overview section.
   • To see algorithms, expand the Service Offering Overview section.

1. Go to NoR Portfolio, scroll down, and click Access it here.
2. Click the search box, type UP42, and then press Enter.
3. On the UP42 listing, click Pricing Wizard.
4. Select a Project Type. Commercial usage isn’t permitted.
5. Choose the Service Offerings that you want to get access to and enter the size of an area or the number of products.
   • Choose data offerings. Note that the download of the original dataset isn’t allowed.
   • Choose processing algorithms that you’ll apply to the chosen data.
   • Choose AlgoHosting services.
6. Provide information on whether your project is an ESA project and whether you’ll co-fund the cost. Click Ask ESA for Sponsorship.

Before filling out the sponsorship form, read the sponsorship guidelines.

1. On the sponsorship form, describe your project in detail.
2. Check the chosen offerings and the requested voucher amount.
3. Export and sign the sponsorship request.
4. Email the signed request to [email protected].

ESA will review your request and report the outcome of the evaluation. The evaluation usually takes a week. After a successful evaluation, we’ll get in contact with you.

Create a new UP42 account and select the Professional plan. You can’t reuse any previously created accounts. If you don’t have an affiliated organization, provide the following:

• Name: use your first and last names followed by an “NoR” suffix.
• Address: use your personal address.

The email from your application should match the account email. If they are different, change your account email to the one you used in the NoR application.

1. Submit access requests for the products you want to access through the NoR program.
2. Read and accept the EULAs of the products you want to access through the NoR program.
3. Read our Terms and conditions. You’ll need to agree with the document because you request access to commercial information from our suppliers through our platform.

1. Open the console.
2. In the upper right corner, click your workspace name → Account settings.
3. To copy your account ID, click .
4. Reply to our email sent earlier with your account ID.

We’ll do a compliance check that may take up to a week. After it’s completed, we’ll allocate credits to your UP42 account and inform you.

The download of the original dataset isn’t allowed, but you can download the result of a processing job.

Can I invite others to join my account?

No. If you have an account created specifically for the NoR program, you aren’t allowed to add new users to your UP42 account.

Can I purchase new credits or use free credits?

No. If you have an account created specifically for the NoR program, you aren’t allowed to purchase credits or use free credits. You can only use the credits allocated to you based on your sponsorship application.

How can I get technical assistance?

To get technical assistance, contact support. Include your UP42 account ID to minimize processing time.

I’m not sure about the timeline of my project. Will I be able to buy data later?

You have 2 years to use your credits from the date of their allocation.

I need to identify specific features in the imagery. Is there a way to preview the data?

For tasking, there’s no way of previewing the data.

For catalog, there are preview images — quicklooks — but they are lower quality. It’s not possible to see detailed features in these previews.

Some of my credits haven’t been used. Do I need to pay them back to the program?

Once your credits are allocated through the NoR program, you can spend them at your own pace. You won’t need to pay back anything, even if you don’t use up all the credits.

The only limitation with regards to credits is that you have 2 years to use your credits from the date of their allocation.