Request Open: August 4, 2025 1:25 pm — September 9, 2025 12:00 am (25 days left) (AoE)
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) invites interested member organizations to respond to the Call for Participation (CFP) for OGC’s Testbed-21 initiative. OGC Testbed-21 is a collaborative effort to rapidly prototype, design, develop, and test solutions to location-related challenges. Funded participation is available. Responses are due by September 9, 2025. A Bidders Q&A Webinar will occur on August 8, 2025.
OGC Testbed-21 will explore the following tasks:
- Data Quality for Integrity, Provenance, and Trust
- GEOINT Imagery Media for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance for OGC Testbed-21
- Conformance Testing Tool Development
OGC Testbed-21’s sponsors are offering selected participants a unique opportunity to recoup a portion of the expenses associated with the development, engineering, and demonstration of the outcomes.
OGC Testbeds are open to proposals from organizational members only. If you’re not yet a member but are interested in participating, we’d love to hear from you — learn more about membership and how to get involved here
While working on the aforementioned tasks, participants will collaborate to create mechanisms that improve the representation of Data Quality in Integrity, Provenance, and Trust (IPT) frameworks; facilitate the development of the GEOINT Imagery Media for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (GIMI) specification; and advance the development of conformance testing tools for GIMI.
OGC Testbed-21 provides an outstanding opportunity to engage with the latest research on geospatial system design, concept development, and rapid prototyping. The Testbed series provides a business opportunity for stakeholders to mutually define, refine, and evolve interfaces and protocols in the context of hands-on experience and feedback. The outcomes of the OGC Testbed-21 initiative are expected to shape the future of geospatial ecosystems and Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for many years to come.
The Sponsors of OGC Testbed-21 include OGC Strategic Members the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). OGC is grateful for the industry leadership displayed by their sponsorship, as well as their help shaping the vision for OGC Testbed-21, their active guidance of its activities, and their support of the work of its participants.
There are several benefits to participating in the OGC Testbed series, for example: access to funded research & development; reduced costs, reduced risks, and shorter lead-time when developing new products or solutions; closer relationships with potential customers; a first-to-market competitive advantage on the latest geospatial innovations; influence in the development of global standards; partnership opportunities within OGC’s global community of experts; and broader market reach via the recognition that OGC Standards bring. Further, exceptional demonstrators may be selected for ongoing support and public showcasing beyond the Initiative period.
OGC Testbeds provide a unique opportunity to explore how interoperability could be optimized within specific contexts. Combining technologies in a single initiative, and bringing several organizations together, creates an environment that closely resembles the interoperability challenges faced in real-world situations. Consequently, Testbeds bring about synergetic effects by facilitating collaboration among several sponsors and experts from member organizations. These initiatives aim to advance open standards that make geospatial information more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR).
The full Call for Participation (CFP) for OGC Testbed-21 is available from the links below:
Applications to participate close on September 9, 2025. A Bidders Q&A Webinar will be held at 03:00pm – 04:00pm UTC on August 8, 2025.