DG DEFIS and the European Innovation Council (EIC) are cooperating closely to foster and grow a competitive and innovative EU space industry. Hence, companies that have been selected by the EIC to receive funding or a seal of excellence will have the possibility to gain fast track access to the European Union’s In-Orbit Demonstration and Validation (IOD/IOV) services and CASSINI Programmes (CASSINI Matchmaking and CASSINI Business Accelerator).
The European space industry is an important contributor to the EU economy. Boosting entrepreneurship, sustaining and fostering a globally competitive and innovative European space sector is a key priority for the European Commission. To this end, the Commission has launched a series of initiatives aimed at supporting the European space ecosystem, enabling the commercialisation of research and innovation, capturing the economic benefits of a fast-growing industry sector, and enhancing EU’s resilience and strategic autonomy.
In-Orbit Demonstration and Validation (IOD/IOV)
The IOD/IOV initiative enables new technologies to be tested in orbit for further technological maturation and to give flight heritage to space tech start-ups.
Two parallel Calls for Expression of Interest are open to gather experiments that could be considered for IOD/IOV actions that cover aggregation, if needed, launch services and operations.
Webinar on IOD/IOV Call for expression of interests
The Commission and ESA are organising an info webinar on Thursday, 11 May 2023 from 14.00 to 16.00 (CET), to present the calls in more details and answer questions from interested applicants.
If you’re interested in attending, register here to participate!
Application is open for:
- IOD/IOV Experiments needing aggregation;
- Ready to Fly IOD/IOV satellites.
The call is open until 15 March 2026 with a first cut-off date on 31 May 2023, 18:00 (CET).
When applying, please indicate that the company has been selected either by the EIC as a beneficiary or has received a Seal of Excellence (SoE).
You can find more information and apply on the official page.
Cassini Business Accelerator & Matchmaking
CASSINI is the European Commission's initiative to support entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs in the space industry, including New Space, during 2021-2027. The initiative is open to all areas of the EU Space Programme, and covers both upstream (i.e. nanosats, launchers, etc. and downstream (i.e. products/services enabled by space data, etc.). CASSINI includes a €1 billion EU seeds and growth fund, hackathons and mentoring, prizes, a business accelerator, partnering and matchmaking.
The main objective of this initiative is to raise the business and market skillset among entrepreneurs and improve access to capital, including the opportunity for SME’s/start-ups to benefit from a 6-month acceleration programme offering business and investment coaching and training.
If your company has been selected by the EIC as a beneficiary or has received a Seal of Excellence (SoE), you can apply to the CASSINI Programmes, namely the CASSINI Matchmaking and CASSINI Business Accelerator.
You can learn more about the Cassini initiative at its official page.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.