GSA has awarded GMV a framework contract for development of GRC

The maximum budget of the fouryear framework contract, including hosting infrastructure development and provision and support to the centre’s operation, is 21 M€.

The GMV-led consortium, also comprising Fore Installatie Adviseurs B.V., the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Veripos Ltd., Fox Crypto B.V, The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the Royal Observatory of Belgium (Observatoire royal de Belgique), CELIS S.L., Eutelsat S.A. and QASCOM s.r.l., will be responsible for development, validation and implementation of the centre as well as subsequent support to operation and maintenance, and hosting service provision.

The GRC’s main building, currently under construction, is located in the Netherlands municipality of Noordwijk. The GRC’s main remit will be independent performance monitoring of the Galileoservices. The GRC will also provide the GSA, responsible for running the Galileo system, with an independent satellite-signal quality assessment system, while also keeping a quality check on the service provided by the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp).

Although the GRC will have its own autonomous working capacity, it is designed to allow collaboration with diverse organizations of the various member states of the European Union, Norway and Switzerland. These external organizations will be able to contribute towards centre operation, providing, for example, additional monitoring and reference products and data. This will help to make the centre more robust and improve its performance, while also furnishing it with specialized technical resources like antennae or specific technical consultancy. Collaboration with these organizations might be either on a continuous basis or ad hoc to suit specific campaigns.