On 25-26 January, CSIL participated in the 14th European Space Conference, a high-level conference gathering European space domain stakeholders from the public and private sector. The conference hosted dynamic and thought-provoking debates and exchanges around the theme “A New Era for European Space: Turning Vision into Action”.
The event was an occasion to take stock of the programmes and frameworks established in the last few years – notably the EU Space Programme. It also featured first-hand insights into new priorities and initiatives – from the EU Secure Connectivity initiative to the European Alliance on Space Launchers to Destination Earth. The European space sector faces several challenges and opportunities to reinforce Europe’s strategic and defence positioning, push the boundaries of science and research, and provide data and services for the Green and Digital transition.
During the conference, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton also launched the Cassini Seed and Growth Funding Facility, a €1 billion EU space investment fund to support start-ups in the space sector and crowd-in European private investors.
For years, CSIL has been developing and applying sound methodologies for the assessment of the socio-economic impact of big science, research infrastructures, space policies and has gained in-depth knowledge of the space sector and space industry. For example, CSIL is currently involved in the STARS*EU project and has contributed to an in-depth study to build an aggregated view of the Space Economy. In the past, we have investigated the feasibility and impacts of including societal criteria in the procurement activities of EU space programmes and contributed to the EU policy development process with the report Space Market Uptake in Europe, published by the European Parliament in 2016.
Photo credit: FelixMittermeier from Pixabay.