ESA/JRC International Summerschool on GNSS
July 13th to 24th 2026
What an Amazing Experience! Thanks to all our Students for the fantastic Summerschool 2026 in Finland!
Stay tuned for the news on the Summerschool 2027!
PROGRAM
Monday July 13, 2026
Arrival of participants
15:30 - 16:45
Registration at Korpilampi Hotel, Espoo, Finland
17:00 – 17:30
Opening by the ESA/JRC Summerschool Organizers & Representative of the host country:
Sakari Puisto, Minister of Economic Affairs of Finland
Laurent Jaffart, Director of Resilience, Navigation and Connectivity
Georgios Giannopoulos, Deputy Director Directorate E: Societal Resilience and Security, Head of Unit E2 - Space, Connectivity and Economic Security, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission
17:30 - 18:00
"Finland hosting the GNSS Summerschool 2026"
Taruanne Lindevall, Senior Specialist in Space Policy, Ministry of Transport and Communications of Finland
18:00 – 18:45
“Space and Europe: A matter of innovation, cooperation and education”
Jean-Jacques Dordain, CNES and former Director General of the European Space Agency
18:45 – 19:15
"GNSS in Finland - from research excellence to resilient PNT applications"
Heidi Kuusniemi, Professor at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
19:25 – 20:00
Meet and Greet at Korpilampi Hotel
Lisa Beaty, Executive Director at the Institute of Navigation
20:00
WELCOME-DINNER, Korpilampi Hotel, Espoo, Finland
Welcome speech by the Sponsor U-blox
Dr. Markus Uster, Head of Business Unit High-Precision and Automotive
Tuesday July 14, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Lecture: Basics of Satellite Navigation 1
Jade Morton, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Lecture: Basics of Satellite Navigation 2
Adriá Rovira Garcia, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
11:45 - 12:00 BREAK
12:00 - 13:15
Lecture: GNSS Radio frequency link
Michel Bousquet, retired from Institut Supérieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), Toulouse, France
13:15 - 14:15 LUNCH
14:15 - 15:30
Lecture: Multi-frequency Multi-system GNSS
Stefan Wallner, Head of Galileo Signal and Performance Engineering Unit, ESA
15:30 - 15:45 BREAK
15:45 - 17:00
Lecture: GNSS Signals
Christoph J. Hegarty, The MITRE Corporation, Boston, MA, USA
17:00 - 17:15
Presentation: ION by Lisa Beaty
20:00 DINNER
Wednesday July 15, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Lecture: GNSS Receivers
Christoph J. Hegarty, The MITRE Corporation, Boston, MA, USA
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Workshop: Lab on GNSS Signal Processing 1
Daniele Borio, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), Ispra, Italy
11:45 - 12:00 BREAK
12:00 - 13:15
Lecture: Ionosphere
Jade Morton, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
13:15 - 14:15 LUNCH
14:15 – 15:30
Workshop: Lab on GNSS Signal Processing 2
Daniele Borio, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), Ispra, Italy
15:30 - 15:45 BREAK
15:45 - 17:00
Lecture: Satellite Communications Systems / Positioning with Communication Systems
Michel Bousquet, retired from Institut Supérieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), Toulouse, France
20:00 DINNER
Women for PNT DINNER
(in parallel)
Lisa Beaty, Jade Morton, Sophie Damy
Made possible by ION - The Institute of Navigation
Thursday July 16, 2026
09:00 - 10.15
Workshop: Lab on GNSS Signal Processing 3
Daniele Borio, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), Ispra, Italy
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Lecture: Differential and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) - Code and Carrier Phase Positioning
Jihye Park, Oregon State University, USA
11:45 - 12:00 BREAK
12:00 - 13:15
Workshop: Lab on Precise Point Positioning (PPP)
Adriá Rovira Garcia, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
13:15 - 14:15 LUNCH
14:15 - 15:30
Lecture: System Engineering - The key to successful projects
David Ibanez Izquierdo, OpSTAR Study Manager, European Space Agency (ESA), Noordwijk, The Netherlands
15:30 - 15:45
Presentation: Gold sponsor
15:45 - 16:00 BREAK
16:00 - 17:15
Lecture: GNSS Remote sensing
Jihye Park, Oregon State University, USA
20:00 DINNER
After dinner by special arrangement:
Workshop: Hands-on: Making Measurements with a GNSS Receiver
Daniele Borio, Sophie Damy, Antoine Grenier and Franceso Menzione
Friday July 17, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Lecture: Towards resilient and trustwothy multilayer PNT
Heidi Kuusniemi, Professor at the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Finland
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Lecture: GNSS Space Service Volume and Deep Space Navigation
Francesco Menzione, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), Ispra, Italy
11:45 - 12:00 BREAK
12:00 - 13:15
Lecture: LEO PNT
Marco Anghileri, Celeste Payload Manager, European Space Agency
13:15 - 14:15 LUNCH
14:15 - 15:15
Lecture: The Future of Ground Segment for Space Systems
Sonia Toribio, Head of the Galileo Ground Segment Management Office at the European Space Agency
15:15 - 15:30 BREAK
15:30 - 16:15
Lecture: Navigation on the Moon
Monica Gotta, Moonlight Navigation Manager, NAV Directorate, ESA
16:15 - 16:30
Presentation: Silver sponsor Safran
Brendan Lehuédé, Space and ground GNSS receivers, GNSS Simulators
16:30 - 17:15
Lecture: Disruptive PNT
José Ángel Ávila Rodríguez, Head of the Future Programmes Office, ESA
20:00 DINNER
After dinner by special arrangement:
Workshop: Hands-on: Making Measurements with a GNSS Receiver
Daniele Borio, Sophie Damy, Antoine Grenier and Francesco Menzione
Saturday July 18, 2026
09:00 - 23:30
SOCIAL EXCURSION:
10:00 - 10:15
Arriving to Yli-Takkulan tila
Introducing the venue and agenda
10:15 - 12.45
First activity:
Group 1 Survivors Ready
Group 2 Raft Expedition
12:45 - 14:00
LUNCH at Barn Attic and Kota
14:00 - 16:30
Second activity:
Group 1 Raft Expedition
Group 2 Survivors Ready
16:30 - 18:30
DINNER at Barn Attic and Kota
18:30 - 19:30
Informal socializing at Barn Attic and Kota
19:30
Time to say goodbye to Yli-Takkulan tila
Sunday July 19, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Lecture: Evolution of GNSS, in particular of the Galileo System
Matteo Paonni, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), Ispra, Italy
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Lecture: GNSS Effects in Civil Aviation
Todd Walter, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA
11:45 - 12:00 BREAK
12:00 - 13:15
Lecture: Satellite-based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) and Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM, ARAIM)
Stefan Wallner, Head of Galileo Signal and Performance Engineering Unit, ESA
13:15 - 14:15 LUNCH
14:15 - 15:30
Lecture: Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication
Sophie Damy, Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission (EC), Ispra, Italy
15:30 - 15:45 BREAK
15:45 - 16:00
Presentation: Silver sponsor
16:00 - 17:15
Team Building: An Introduction to Team Work
Stuart Schofield, Client Director at Mannaz, London, UK
20:00 DINNER
After dinner by special arrangement:
Workshop: Hands-on: Making Measurements with a GNSS Receiver
Daniele Borio, Sophie Damy and Antoine Grenier
After dinner by special arrangement:
Meeting a GNSS professional: EGNOS – a European success story
Didier Flament, former EGNOS Project Manager, European Space Agency (ESA)
Monday July 20, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Lecture: Cyber Security for Civil Navigation
Todd Walter, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Team building: The conditions for team effectiveness
Stuart Schofield, Client Director at Mannaz, London, UK
11:45 - 12:00 BREAK
12:00 - 13:15
Lecture: Jamming Mitigation
Cillian O’Driscoll, CODC, Cork, Ireland
13:15 - 14:15 LUNCH
14:15 - 15:30
Team Building: Minimizing Group Biases
Stuart Schofield, Client Director at Mannaz, London, UK
15:30 - 15:45 BREAK
15:45 - 17:00
Seminar: Panel Seminar on Careers
Paul Verhoef, former ESA Director of Navigation
17:00 - 17:15
Presentation: Young Navigators by Angelika Kochajkiewicz
20:00 DINNER
After dinner by special arrangement:
Meeting ESA's Top NAV Management
Philippe Michel, Head of Strategy, Programmatics & Coordination Office of Navigation at the European Space Agency
Tuesday July 21, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Project: Project Introduction
Paul Verhoef, former ESA Director of Navigation
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Project: Project Introduction
Project Group: Ice breaker activity and sharing ideas
12:00 - 13:00 LUNCH
13:00 – 23:00
SOCIAL EXCURSION and DINNER
13:30 - 18:45
Trip to Suomenlinna island (Bus & Ferry)
War museum and Submarine visit & free time to explore the island
18:45 - 23:00
Helsinki
-
18:45 - 20:00 - Free time to visit the city center
-
20:00 - Dinner at Restaurant "Block by Dylan"
Wednesday July 22, 2026
09:00 - 10:15
Project: Project work
GNSS Summerschool Faculty
10:15 - 10:30 BREAK
10:30 - 11:45
Team Building: Presentation Skills
Stuart Schofield, Client Director at Mannaz, London, UK
11:45 - 13:00
Project: Project work
GNSS Summerschool Faculty
13:00 - 14:00 LUNCH
14:00 - 18:00
Project: Project work
GNSS Summerschool Faculty
20:00 DINNER
After dinner by special arrangement:
Meet the pioneer of all ESA's lunar PNT activities
Javier Ventura-Traveset, ESA Lunar Navigation & Science Manager
Thursday July 23, 2026
09:00 - 13:00
Project: Project work
GNSS Summerschool Faculty
13:00 - 14:00 LUNCH
14:00 - 15:15
Project: Student Presentations on Project Work 1
15:15 - 15:30 COFFEE BREAK
15:30 - 16:45
Project: Student Presentations on Project Work 2
18:00 - 19:15
Project: Awards of Student Competition - Closing of the Summerschool 2026
Members of the Jury:
Jose Angel Avila Rodriguez, Stefan Wallner, Paul Verhoef, Jade Morton,
Adria Rovira Garcia, Sophie Damy, Jihye Park, Todd Walter, Matteo Paonni,
Javier Benedicto
20:00 - 23:00
FAREWELL DINNER at Korpilampi Hotel
Friday July 24, 2026
Breakfast & Departure