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

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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.