#T-TeC is dedicated to students and researchers from around the world with the aim of
promoting technological innovation in the Space industry to the young generations
 The Space-dedicated Open Innovation contest this year will have as stage the Italy
Pavilion at the Expo 2020 Dubai exposition

Today sees the launch of the third edition of #T-TeC, the Telespazio Technology
Contest, an Open Innovation initiative that for the first time will be open to students and researchers from
universities and departments worldwide and this year will experience a key moment at Expo 2020 Dubai.
With #T-TeC, Telespazio and Leonardo aim to promote technological innovation within the space sector
among the young generations, enhancing the value of their ideas and insights and imagining with them
the technologies that will make a mark on our future. The 2021 edition coincides with the sixtieth
anniversary of the foundation of Telespazio, a company that has made innovation its hallmark and that
has always striven to discover the pioneers of the future, an attitude that is as true today as on its
establishment in 1961.
This initiative is one of the activities promoted by Leonardo for Open Innovation: a sharing of innovation
that has taken on a key role in promoting new ideas and opportunities, with a long-term vision set out in
the Be Tomorrow – Leonardo 2030 strategic plan.
For the 2021 edition of #T-TeC, teams of students and researchers will challenge each other in four
technological macro-themes of great importance to the present and future of the space sector: “Space
Exploration”, “In-Orbit Servicing”, “GeoInformation Applications and Platforms”, and “Space Situation
Awareness & Space Traffic Management”.
A panel of judges made up of representatives from Telespazio and Leonardo, industry experts, and
representatives from a number of space agencies will select three winning teams who will be awarded
€10,000 (1st prize), €6,000 (2nd prize) and €4,000 (3rd prize). The judging panel will also select four
special mentions, one for each macro-theme in the competition, and will assess the possibility of funding
the most promising ideas with research contracts or working collaborations.
To mark the week that Expo 2020 Dubai will be dedicating to Space, participants in the contest will have
the chance to connect with the Italy Pavilion to ask questions and seek advice from Leonardo and
Telespazio’s team of experts, who will be meeting Emirati start-ups and university academics for the
occasion. From there, #T-TeC will continue until 14 November, the closing day of the contest, when the
stage of the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai will again be the setting for the award ceremony in
December.
Leonardo is among the sponsors of the Italy Pavilion and will take part in Expo 2020 Dubai by bringing
some outstanding examples of space technology to the event, including an atomic clock and the drill of
the ESA ExoMars 2022 mission to Mars. The company will also set out its vision for the future of
aeronautics as represented by the AW609 technology, the tiltrotor that will revolutionise vertical mobility