ESID: a virtual showroom for European space enterprises and products

The European Space Industry Directory (ESID) is a continuation of the well-known European Space Technologies Directory established in 1997. Since then it has expanded to include company information and today ESID presents a valuable online tool for fast product overview and easy identification of potential partners. ESID is accessed from the ESA Industry Web Site.

Companies working with ESA can update the information in ESID themselves, which provides them with a great opportunity to announce new space products development and industrial capabilities online. ESID is made available at no cost to industry and is maintained by ESA.

The new December edition of ESID provides:

• key data on 104 European and Canadian space companies
• a total of 1025 products organised under 120 space systems categories
• advanced search facility for products and companies
• on-line facilities for new space companies to register and be part of the ESID directory
• easy tools available for companies to maintain and update their presentation in ESID

Many more companies are expected to take advantage of this opportunity to promote their activities in the space community. Smaller companies in particular stand to benefit.

Toni Tolker-Nielsen, from ESA’s Industrial Relations Division says, “ESID is the 'yellow pages' for enterprises in Europe when it comes to space. They can easily locate possible product suppliers and browse existing products and is a good reference, fast and easy, when they need to find partners, subcontractors and suppliers. Our objective is to provide a look-up catalogue to components, subsystems, systems and services for space programmes. Eventually it should be possible to 'create your own satellite' from ESID."

Free advertising in a virtual show-room

Registration in ESID is open to all companies in ESA member states. The only restrictions are that products presented on ESID must be produced in member states and that companies are registered with ESA as potential suppliers. Entries from companies not previously involved in the space field are also encouraged.

Tolker-Nielsen continues, "we want to create a virtual show-room in which industry can present what they can do and what they sell. It is important in today’s fast moving society to have simple ways of communicating the latest technological achievements to potential business partners and clients. For many of the smaller companies working with ESA conventional marketing is often too slow and very costly. With this latest version we provide simple tools to let companies keep their data up-to-date, and easy facilities for new companies, certified ESA suppliers, to be included in ESID."

Is your company present in ESID?

The quality and coverage of ESID depends on Industry. ESA supplies the tool but Industry must keep it alive. "This is a great opportunity for companies like ours to show what we are doing with ESA and what we can offer potential clients and partners. We will certainly be presenting our products and expertise in ESID" says Roger Patrick of Terma, a Danish company providing software systems for satellite integration and in-orbit control.

Is your company registered? Go to the industry.esa.int web site and check your ESID entry today.