Eastern Europe witnesses a surge in space innovation
The space sector is rapidly expanding into multiple aspects of our daily lives, creating opportunities for commercial space activity for everyone. Despite EU efforts to support space innovation, NewSpace in Europe needs to catch up with global competition. Space clusters can boost entrepreneurship, but their concentration in Western Europe leaves Eastern Europe’s potential untapped. The EU-funded InnORBIT project was established to empower innovation intermediaries, such as space clusters and digital innovation hubs, with practical and easily replicable solutions to set up and manage sustainable local initiatives supporting space innovation. “Our goal has been to stimulate the growth of entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups, and support the development of their space-enabled solutions by empowering innovation intermediaries. In particular, we targeted regions with a high potential for contributing to space commercialisation, such as Eastern Europe,” notes Apostolos Tsolakis, project coordinator on behalf of Q-PLAN.
Capacity-building and business support programmes
InnORBIT achieved its objectives by co-designing and developing capacity-building and business support programmes. These programmes provided innovation intermediaries with the necessary knowledge, skills and resources to organise and implement sustainable local initiatives for promoting space innovation. “InnORBIT’s capacity building programme provided innovation intermediaries with tailored services, including one-to-one sessions for selecting suitable space initiatives and self-paced training through massive open online courses on our e-learning platform,” describes Tsolakis. It also covered assistance in planning resources and activities for local space initiatives, as well as support and advisory services during the training phase. In parallel, the offered business support programme provided business and technical mentoring, and promoted awareness about EU space support programmes and initiatives such as Copernicus, Galileo and DIAS. Furthermore, it provided hands-on support for accessing finance and funding opportunities, and facilitated the organisation of matchmaking events, demo days and networking activities.
Support to innovation intermediaries
InnORBIT has played a critical role in enhancing the space sector, especially in Eastern Europe. The project has engaged with over 30 multidisciplinary innovation intermediaries across 13 European countries, and offered training to 26 organisations. This resulted in the deployment of 28 local space initiatives that supported over 1 200 start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs in space-related application areas. “The engagement of these intermediaries has resulted in a steady stream of space initiatives in various early-stage regional niches from Eastern Europe. This is an important project outcome considering that several initiatives are planned to continue even after project completion,” notes Tsolakis. “The focus has been on building their capacity to support space entrepreneurs, raising awareness and expanding their ecosystems through local space initiatives. The latter include, among others, space coffees, hackathons, student competitions/challenges and improvements to university curricula.”
Support to space entrepreneurs
InnORBIT has also led to the establishment of 31 new start-ups intending to introduce additional products and services to the market. “We have nurtured the commercialisation of 50 scalable and cost-efficient solutions related to space technology. Various platforms and events guided entrepreneurs from the ideation stage to successful ventures in the space industry,” highlights Tsolakis. An exceptional example of this support has been the feedback provided to 19 start-ups/scale-ups at the 1st InnORBIT Space Track and 2nd InnORBIT Space Track events. These companies had the opportunity to present their innovative solutions to a wide audience of investors, industry experts and guests. “This would not have been possible without our partners: SpaceTec Capital, Tech Tour Global, Startup Europe Network, ROMSpace, Corralia and Algebra University College," stated Tsolakis.
Keywords
InnORBIT, space innovation, start-ups, eastern Europe, local initiatives, support programme
