Hub Bilbao hosts GAIA´s joint working committee.

On November 10th, GAIA held a new Joint Committee in which the new dynamization of the Committees (Information Systems, Electronics, Engineering and Consulting) and its Work Plan for 2024 were presented.

We had collaborators such as @UPVEHU (Basque Country University) and @BasqueAICenter who spoke about the importance of the development of data sovereignty and economy in the Data and Innovation Strategy and the development and application of Artificial Intelligence knowledge.

In addition, @BilbaoEkintza and @bebasquetalent (Bizkaia Talent) addressed  the importance of attracting, linking and retaining highly qualified people in the innovation and knowledge process, we closed the event presenting proposals for collaborative innovation.

From Hub Bilbao we thank the participation of all the attendees whom we were able to greet and exchange views on the new challenges that lie ahead for 2024.

Training on Product Assurance & Quality Assurance (PA/QA) in Space Projects – 2nd edition

Our Hub Coimbra, through Instituto Pedro Nunes, is promoting a second edition of Product Assurance & Quality Assurance (PA/QA) in Space Projects, online, fully delivered in English. This training will happen from 10 to 19 of October 2023.

Main goal of the training is to detail PA/QA roles in space projects, including sharing of experiences, covering all aspects involved.

You can apply here until October 6.

At the end of the training, trainees should be able to:

  • Appropriately characterise the PA/QA role, listing its main tasks and responsibilities;
  • Clearly identify specific aspects of PA/QA role in space industry-related projects;
  • Identify, plan, and implement in a structured manner PA/QA activities;
  • Ensure proper control of PA/QA activities, making use of reliable tools and techniques;
  • Ensure effective interaction of PA/QA roles with clients, suppliers, and other stakeholders;
  • Assess the impact of PA/QA activities on the organisation.

Training will last for 30 hours plus a 1-o-1 session of 1 hour with each trainee, (DGERT).

More details can be found at formacao@ipn.pt.

Training will be delivered by Rui Henriques, with more than 20 years of experience in Quality Control and Management, 14 of those in the Space area; He is a senior professional in quality related roles, in AS9100 and ISO9001 standards (management systems, audits of 1st, 2nd and 3rd party, training, consultancy). Rui holds a degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Coimbra and Post graduate in Space Studies Program from the International Space University. As a consultant, he cooperates with many organisations and industries related to the aerospace sector, on missions such as BepiColombo, Solar Orbiter, Sentinel-3, Sentinel-4, Sentinel-5, ExoMars, EUCLID, JUICE, PROBA-3 and HERA, some of which are already in orbit. His work has been carried out in different types of organisations, from SMEs to international organisations.

Training will also be delivered by Nuno Silva, more than 25 years of experience in software and systems engineering, 20 of those in space and aviation projects at Critical Software; Nuno has extensive experience teaching at different universities, as well as several co-authorships in scientific publications, and a few book chapters related to Software Product Assurance, amongst other related subjects; He holds a PhD in Software Engineering from the University of Coimbra.

Training will also include as Guest Speakers Professor Maria Helena Fonseca de Souza Rolim, Ph.D. and Petrônio Noronha de Souza, PhD.

ESA Space Solutions PT Founders Dinner unites Portuguese Space community for collaboration and networking

Entrepreneurs, startups and industry experts gathered at a vibrant ESA Space Solutions PT Founders Dinner on June 20 to exchange experiences and foster collaboration within the Portuguese space community. This informal dinner provided a platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and the emergence of new projects.

The event saw the participation of 26 innovative Portuguese space startups, represented by 30 enthusiastic entrepreneurs, along with incubators from the ESA BIC Network, the ESA Space Solution Portugal team, and the Intermunicipal Community of Coimbra Region. Désiré Nzengou (EUSPA), Aude De Clercq (ESA – Technology Transfer Programme Office) and Fernando Guerra (ANACOM) were also present to support and engage with the burgeoning space ecosystem.

During the dinner, the importance of sharing experiences, achievements and failures among entrepreneurs was emphasised. The collaborative atmosphere encouraged the community to come together, fostering synergies and leveraging each other’s strengths. Through meaningful discussions and interactions, participants explored opportunities for growth and development within the Portuguese space industry.

The Space Founders Dinner served as a reminder of the collective strength and potential of the Portuguese space community, underscoring the significance of mutual support and knowledge-sharing. The event concluded with participants leaving inspired, equipped with new connections, and ready to embark on exciting collaborations to further propel Portugal’s presence in the global space arena.

Platform to Boost Extremadura’s Science, Technology and Innovation Ecosystem through Talent Management

The generation of new skills for technology companies is being addressed from the requalification of technical profiles from other disciplines towards software development or data management to the adaptation of unskilled profiles to the demands of the current market.

The job search and technological talent attraction platform ‘Extremadura Tech Talent’ https://techtalent.oficinaparalainnovacion.es/ , launched by the Regional Ministry of Economy, Science and Digital Agenda through FUNDECYT-PCTEX, has obtained the distinction awarded by the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE) during its XXI International Conference, which is currently being held in Tenerife.

The award recognises the work of the programme, which was created with the aim of helping Extremadurians who live and develop their professional careers outside Extremadura, connecting their talent with the digital employment opportunities in the region to facilitate their return.

Since it was launched in 2019, there have been more than 700 connections between candidates and job offers in science, technology and innovation from companies in the region. More than 70 technology companies are actively participating in the programme and have already published more than 200 job offers through the programme.

It should be noted that, of the candidates who have participated in ‘Extremadura Tech Talent’, more than 200 are of international origin, showing interest in working in the Extremadura technology sector, and from places such as Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Morocco, Portugal, Argentina, the United States, Belgium and El Salvador.

Companies and entities linked to the Badajoz Hub of the Novexport project have benefited from this platform for the incorporation of talent.

Hub Bilbao organizes “Talent and Technology” workshop

Last May 15th, our 3 sectoral working groups (Electronics, Information Systems and Engineering and Consulting) met to jointly analyze the needs and opportunities in the areas of Talent, Demand, and Technology, and seek innovative collaborations.

Hub Bilbao was present encouraging its companies to participate and share their experience creating a range ofwork of companies in the sector in the search for a sectoral human capital management, more sustainable, collaborative, and adding value for people and organizations

To this end, different Working Groups were formed in order to identify action plans and possible synergies with other sectors.

  • Presentation of Subsectoral Needs – Maps.
  • Presentation of value propositions of the Subsectors – Maps.
  • Dialogue and identification of action plans by working groups.
  • Conclusions of the working groups.

As a result of this day, several initiatives emerged in relation to Talent in which we will continue working over the coming months.

Latest news from Hub Occitanie

Here is a summary of the most outstanding activities of our Hub Occitanie in recent weeks:

METASTARS

METASTARS objective is to promote collaboration between European clusters to support SMEs in the aerospace and defense ecosystem (ASD) and increase companies’ resilience. The project will offer SMEs financial support to develop innovative projects and to benefit from services to adapt to new technologies, to develop or strengthen their green and digital transition, their innovation potential, their internationalization strategy, and the upskilling of their work force.

Want to know more? Click here.

PROTECT

Based on the results of the EU survey “Innovation Procurement of Climate Change services & National Legal Framework” two sets of workshops will take place in March and October 2023.

These two sets of online workshops have been preceded by a general plenary session regarding the challenges in each application domain during the high-level conference in Barcelona. During this session, moderated by CORVERS CEO (Stephan Corvers), the discussions focussed on sustainable and urban communities, in particular on the importance of waste management, which is extremely expensive and usually consists in burying waste, burning waste or transporting waste. Climate services (CS) based on Earth observation (EO) could contribute to provide solutions for these pressing issues which can potentially affect other domains such as Marine and coastal environment and Civil Security and Protection.

More info, here.

CALL OF INTEREST “Innovation and new aeronautical and space solutions for forest fire prevention, control and supervision missions”

The objective of this call is to bring out innovations involving companies and laboratories by confronting them with the practitioners of the prevention and the fight against the forest fires.

More info, here.

New International market Information in our VRC

Our Hub Basque Coast has updated the bibliography recently published in international journals dealing with the economic situation of Latin American countries. Would you like to know more about these interesting reports? Come and check our Novexport Virtual Resource Center!

  • Banking as a service market in Latin America 2023-2027: According to Technavio, the banking as a service market size in Latin America is estimated to grow by USD 4309.74 million from 2022 to 2027. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% during the forecast period.
  • Stagnation deemed worse than 1980s ‘lost decade’: Weak investment, low productivity and inadequate education have condemned Latin America to a period of economic failure even worse than the “lost decade” of the 1980s, according to the top UN economic official in the region.
  • What investors watch out for in emerging markets in 2023: It has been a rough 12 months for emerging markets that have seen more governments stumble into default, currencies suffer and double[1]digit losses in stocks and bonds alike though many investors are optimistic that 2023 could bring some relief.
  • Peru’s political turmoil hits growth outlook: As legal woes mount for Peruvian president Pedro Castillo, his third finance minister of the year has admitted that roiling political dysfunction is damaging the business climate in the Andean nation
  • Global Environmental Sensing and Monitoring Technologies Market to Reach $19.3 Billion by 2030: The global economy is at a critical crossroads with a number of interlocking challenges and crises running in parallel. The uncertainty around how Russia`s war on Ukraine will play out this year and the war`s role in creating global instability means that the trouble on the inflation front is not over yet. Food and fuel inflation will remain a persistent economic problem.
  • Global Solar Panel Recycling Market to Reach $380.8 Million by 2027: The U.S. Market is Estimated at $43.9 Million, While China is Forecast to Grow at 17.2% CAGR.

ESA Space Solutions Centre Portugal celebrated its 8th anniversary Happy Birthday!

The ESA Space Solutions Centre Portugal (ESA SSCP) celebrated its 8th anniversary on January 12th. The anniversary featured a series of activities that lasted throughout the afternoon, including a presentation of the results achieved in recent years and the companies supported.

Founded in 2014, the ESA SSCP is a center of excellence that promotes innovation and technology transfer in space, through collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Portuguese business, academic and governmental community, allowing Portuguese companies to receive technical and financial support to create their businesses using space technology. Over the past eight years, the center has worked on research and development projects that have contributed to the advancement of technology in Portugal and Europe.

The opening session included speeches by João Gabriel Silva, President of Instituto Pedro Nunes, Fernando Guerra, Head of Space Mission Unit Principal Consultant of ANACOM – National Communications Authority, Ricardo Conde, President of the Portuguese Space Agency, and Jorge Pimenta, Director of ESA Space Solutions Portugal.

This was followed by a Microsoft workshop with Inês Marques and an intervention by Roberto Cossu of the European Space Agency (ESA).

The alumni were present at the celebration to share their experience as ESA Space Solutions Portugal incubates, among them Localista, Eptune, GAS EXPRESS, OWL Our Watch Leads, VIBO, Neuraspace, Forja, Activepoin, and Allbesmart. The winner of the ESA Challenge Patent, Allbesmart, was also presented.

ESA SSCP was the first Space Solutions Centre of the European Space Agency to bring together the three technology transfer programs promoted by ESA:

  • ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC), an incubation center that supports Portuguese companies that use space technology in terrestrial applications or intend to enter the commercial space market.
  • ESA Technology Broker, an ESA technology transfer network that provides support in commercializing space technologies in non-space markets.
  • ESA Business Application Ambassador Platform, a network of ambassadors that publicizes programs and supports national projects that aim to improve the lives of people on Earth through the transfer of space technology.

In total, over the past 8 years, the ESA BIC has supported 45 national startups, the ESA Technology Broker has registered 10 successful business support cases, and the ESA Business Application Ambassador Platform has supported 26 small projects.

Creation of a working group for the use of the data download station for SENTINEL 1

Following the presentation on 20 June of the cross-border projects “Early Warning Networks” and “Environmental Monitoring for Civil Protection”, the aim of which was to learn about and analyse the main applications offered by this satellite, such as the study of the physical properties of clouds, atmospheric monitoring, land monitoring, ocean monitoring, meteorological and biological changes, crop monitoring and the monitoring of natural disasters. A working group has been set up to work on the early detection of invasive species.

The group is made up of public entities dedicated to the control of invasive species, research groups from the University of Extremadura related to remote sensing, data analysis, technology centres specialised in the agro-industrial sector, various regional administrations, and private companies in the region of Extremadura.

With the support of Fundecyt-PCTEX, in the framework of Horizon Europe funding, the following topic has been identified: HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV: Invasive alien species. The objective is to be able to work on the development of a cooperative proposal for the detection of invasive species in inland aquatic areas using Sentinel 1 imagery.

The European Commission will allocate EUR 6 million to adequately address the following expected results:

– The establishment of alien species accidentally introduced into the EU environment, minimising and, where possible, eliminating them.

– Establishment of early warning systems to inform stakeholders of the introduction of invasive alien species.

– Effectively prevent the introduction of invasive alien species and systematically manage those already established.

– Support and improve public awareness, literacy and engagement on the monitoring and management of invasive alien species.

According to the European Commission, the call for proposals is expected to open on 17/10/23 and close on 22/02/24.

Companies and entities linked to the Badajoz Hub of the Novexport project will be part of the proposal to be submitted in 2024.

Hub Occitanie Last training Program: Business Development and pitching a technical offer

During last September, Hub Occitanie went back to work with a final training program dedicated to its Start-up to accompany them in developing their Business and pitching a technical offer to investors or customers.

This training program, undertaken by our selected partner Elixir Conseil, was the opportunity during 4 days to accompany 11 smes of our hub, to structure their positioning and improve their pitch for attending national or international events.

The participating companies were: ImaginEarth, Agreenculture, MEOSS, BRL ingénierie, Pangea , H3 Dynamics, Geomatys, Global Smart Rescue, Cognitive design system, Callisto