About Partner’s Organisation & TERRA Role

Can you briefly introduce your organisation — mission, expertise, and core activities?

Bi2S is a start-up company established in Cyprus working on big data, machine learning and predictive analytics in the IoT domain. Bi2S’s vision is to support businesses in optimising their operations by introducing intelligence and raising alarms when necessary. The Bi2S team mainly consists of experienced engineers with a strong scientific background in algorithms, machine learning, data management and ICT technologies. This allows them to better understand new technologies and innovative techniques and adapt their solutions to several application domains such as agriculture, health, telecommunications, transportation, earth observation and the environment.

What motivated Bi2S to join the TERRA Horizon project? What specific role or responsibilities does your team have within TERRA?

TERRA is a technology project with strong socio-economic objectives that fits well within Bi2S’s goals and activities. In TERRA, Earth Observation technologies are used for pollution and flood monitoring, while security concerns are also considered. Through the project, Bi2S not only offers its technical expertise but also aspires to gain new knowledge and forge new partnerships that will lead to new commercial products.

Bi2S leads Work Package 2 of the project and undertakes several technical tasks that focus on new technology development and research and innovation activities. Therefore, the role of Bi2S in the project is two-fold: it acts as the contact point between a network of stakeholders (end-users) and the rest of the consortium, while also designing and developing essential technical components for TERRA.

Which TERRA work packages or key activities are you primarily involved in?

The company is involved in the following activities of the project:

• Leadership of WP2 – TERRA requirements, specifications and architecture, and coordination of technical and end-user requirement formulation. Bi2S also collaborates with the rest of the consortium to define a unified architecture schema for TERRA, capable of facilitating the platform’s functionalities.
• Significant contribution in WP3 – Intelligent platform development and task leadership in T3.1 – Data collection protocols and interfaces. In WP3, Bi2S designs and implements the data collection protocols of the platform and contributes to the design of AI algorithms and the implementation of the Big Data management architecture.
• Contribution to WP4 – Platform integration and validation, in which the technical components will be thoroughly tested and integrated into a cohesive platform.
• Participation in WP5 – Demonstration activities, where the project’s use cases showcase the impact potential of TERRA in operational environments.
• Contribution to WP6 – Outreach activities, exploitation and impact creation, in which Bi2S disseminates the project’s outcomes to industry stakeholders and its network of collaborators.

TERRA’s Mission & Bi2S Contribution

How would you describe TERRA’s main mission to someone unfamiliar with the project?

Today’s satellites generate a vast amount of data, especially the SENTINEL-1 and SENTINEL-2 missions of the EU. Such data originate from Earth Observation activities and include anything from image-based information to numerical measurements regarding meteorological events. As a result, a question arises regarding where and how to store and process all this information.

At the EU level, Copernicus paves the way towards solving this challenge. Copernicus is the European Union’s Earth observation programme that delivers free, open-source data and services to monitor the Earth’s environment and enhance security. It uses satellites (Sentinels) and in-situ sensors to provide insights on land, marine environments, the atmosphere, climate change, emergency management, and security for global benefits.

TERRA comes into play to exploit data and services stemming from Copernicus and provide real-world solutions to tangible problems. For this reason, TERRA develops novel AI algorithms, image processing techniques, digital twins and advanced visualisation modules, and provides services for water pollution analysis, harbour security, soil erosion and flood prediction.

Bi2S contributes to this effort by developing the necessary technologies and data structures to support TERRA’s services. It lays the foundations for AI models and provides expertise to efficiently process large volumes of data. Apart from the design process, Bi2S ensures that TERRA’s AI models and Digital Twins can function with different data types, formats and modalities. This objective will ensure that TERRA remains functional even when Copernicus introduces new service types or updates existing ones.

Innovation & Technical Impact

What advanced methods, tools, or technologies are you using in TERRA? What do you see as the most groundbreaking or unique contribution your organisation brings to the project?

• Multimodal data management: Bi2S builds a framework that stores and manages large volumes of multimodal data. These data will be directly usable by the TERRA platform and will feed TERRA’s intelligent components.
• AI models for pollution assessment: Bi2S contributes to TERRA’s AI models that simulate, assess and predict water pollution levels in rivers and coastal areas using satellite data.
• Data fusion and satellite data enrichment: Bi2S co-designs a module that fuses data from different Copernicus services and enriches them with new information originating either from field measurements or from local data silos.
• Open innovation and research valorisation: Bi2S develops and implements open-source components that will be freely available to the public, fostering knowledge transfer and enabling broader adoption of TERRA technologies. This approach promotes transparency, encourages community-driven improvements, and supports the project’s commitment to maximising societal impact by making advanced Earth Observation tools accessible to researchers, SMEs, and stakeholders beyond the consortium.

Real-World Use and Use Case Impact

How is your work being tested or applied in real settings?

Bi2S’s work will be tested and validated through TERRA’s demonstration activities in WP5, where the project’s use cases showcase the platform’s capabilities in operational environments.

Our multimodal data management framework and AI models will be applied to four critical real-world scenarios:
• water pollution monitoring in rivers and coastal areas
• harbour security assessments
• soil erosion detection
• flood prediction

The data collection protocols and interfaces developed in T3.1 will integrate satellite data from Copernicus SENTINEL-1 and SENTINEL-2 missions with in-situ sensor data from field locations.

This integration will be tested in real geographical sites where end-users (coordinated through our WP2 leadership role) will evaluate the platform’s performance against their operational needs.

Can you describe a use case where your results might directly help stakeholders?

One particularly impactful use case involves water pollution assessment in coastal areas and rivers. Through the AI models co-developed by Bi2S, TERRA can simulate, assess and predict pollution levels using satellite imagery combined with enriched local data.

For environmental agencies and coastal management authorities, this means monitoring water quality across vast areas without relying solely on expensive and time-consuming manual sampling.

For example, when a pollution event occurs (such as industrial discharge or agricultural runoff), the TERRA service can be invoked for the relevant area. The data fusion module combines Copernicus satellite observations with local sensor readings and historical data to provide a comprehensive pollution assessment.

The system predicts how pollution will spread based on currents, weather patterns and topography, enabling authorities to issue timely warnings, allocate cleanup resources efficiently and make evidence-based decisions regarding beach closures or fishing restrictions.

Have you seen early indications of impact from your TERRA activities?

In TERRA we are already observing promising indicators of impact across multiple dimensions. From a social perspective, engagement with the end-user network has revealed strong interest from public authorities who currently lack cost-effective tools for continuous environmental monitoring.

Economically, the scalable architecture being developed demonstrates potential for significant cost savings compared to traditional monitoring methods. Satellite-based assessments can cover hundreds of square kilometres at a fraction of the cost of field surveys.

Environmentally, flood prediction capabilities could provide communities with longer advance warning times, potentially reducing property damage and saving lives.

Additionally, ensuring that TERRA remains adaptable to new Copernicus services means that its monitoring capabilities will improve continuously as satellite technologies evolve.