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Why this programme

The need is documented. The capacity exists. Nobody translates between them.

The need

65 armed conflicts in 35 countries in 2025.
Very-high-resolution imagery is dominated by military demand. Peace, humanitarian and development actors lack stable access to data and analysis.

The CAPACITY

European space industry, ESA and universities.
Data providers, analytics startups, ESA programmes and technical universities can build.

The GAP

Early field needs, never become actionable problems.
No one turns early, unclassified needs into validated problems that companies, startups and students can act on before they harden into procurement.

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A PROVEN MODEL

Real problems. Real results.

Hacking for Defense started at Stanford in 2016 and is now taught at more than 100 universities across the US, UK, Australia, Germany and Poland. HSP applies the same method with UNDP as problem owner.

91%

of problem owners implement the team's deliverable

59%

of problems are reframed during the semester

92%

of problem owners sponsor a problem again

_{Source: Common Mission Project UK, Annual Review 2025 (UK programme, 28 universities).}

“If a Satellites for Peace Alliance is to succeed, its greatest innovation will not be technological, but institutional.”
Verhulst & Vibe · Satellites for Peace, Vatican City, June 2026

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THE METHOD

One problem, one semester, five steps

Teams validate the problem with the people who live it before anyone proposes a platform, a dashboard or an Alliance structure.
‍

1

hypothesis

UNDP nominates a need

An unclassified problem with a named owner at the level where the problem is felt.

Contact

UNDP

Job Title

Problem owner

undp.org

Supplies the need, the users and the verdict.

2

Discover

Students Research

Field users, country offices, UNOSAT, partners and data providers. At least ten a week.

3

define

Validated Problem Report

The guaranteed deliverable. Often a different problem than the one first stated.

Contact

"Space related" company

Job Title

uptake partner

undp.org

A company or startup committed to the problem before the semester starts.

4

develop

Concept or MVP

Tests solution hypotheses with the same users. A working test, not a product.

5

demo day

Handover and follow-up

To the uptake partner, then into ESA BIC or ESA Technology Broker.

Contact

DTU Space Ventures

Job Title

programme lead

Marta Pareja Boto

Curates problems, teaches the method, runs demo day and the follow-up.

one cohort, then scale

Focus areas of the course are drawn from the Satellites for Peace conferece co-organized with Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) which took place in the Vatican City in June 2026. The conference had eight sessions. The actual problems are curated with UNDP before each semester.

_{PILOT PROBLEM}

Spring 27

Satellite data and AI for crisis response

How can UNDP's Crisis Bureau combine satellite data and AI to get faster, verifiable insight in crisis and conflict settings?
The pilot semester course takes this as its first problem, validated through interviews with Crisis Bureau staff, country offices and data providers.

Bring a problem, a team or a technology