ESA Portugal Space Solutions Center celebrates 8 years – Notícias de Coimbra
ESA Space Solutions Center Portugal (ESA SSCP) will celebrate its 8th anniversary, on the 12th of January, at 2 pm, in building D of Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN).
Founded in 2014, ESA SSCP is a center of excellence that promotes innovation and technology transfer in the space area, through collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Portuguese business, academic and government community, allowing Portuguese companies to receive technical and financial support to set up their businesses using space technology. During the last eight years, the center has been working on research and development projects that have contributed to the advancement of technology in Portugal and Europe.
The anniversary of ESA Space Solutions Center Portugal will be celebrated with a series of activities that last throughout the afternoon, including a presentation of the results achieved in recent years, as well as the new companies supported.
During the celebrations, visitors will also visit the new facilities of the ESA Space Solutions Center Portugal. The IPN was extended to an incubator, with an increase in area equivalent to 4 thousand square meters and an investment of more than one million euros.
The ESA SSCP was the first Space Solutions Center of the European Space Agency to bring together the three technology transfer programs promoted by the ESA: the ESA Business Incubation Center (ESA BIC), an incubation center that supports Portuguese companies that use space technology in terrestrial applications or those intending to enter the commercial space market; the ESA Technology Broker, an ESA technology transfer network that supports the uptake of space technologies into non-space markets; and the 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, ESA BIC has already supported 45 national startups, ESA Technology Broker has registered 10 successful cases of support for companies and the ESA Business Application Ambassador Platform has supported 26 small projects.