More Italian space spin-off

This was the result of the Memorandum of Understanding signed last week by ESA, the Italian space agency ASI and Regione Lazio, the administration of the Italian Lazio region.

The objective is to continue the successful business incubation initiative between ESA and BIC Lazio initiated in 2005, which ASI joined in 2011.  

Together with ESA, ASI and Regione Lazio, ESA BIC Lazio will jointly foster space technology transfer and applications of space systems in the Italian Lazio region, particularly in the framework of the implementation of Lazio’s Smart Specialisation Strategy within the frame of the EU Horizon 2020 programme.

In the time frame 2016-2018, ESA BIC Lazio will support at least 10 start-up companies established in Lazio, each provided with up to €50,000 seed funding. ESA and ASI will provide up to 80 hours of technical support to each start-up.

A continuation is foreseen for additional 10 companies in the time frame 2018-2019 but to be confirmed by end 2017.

The centre will also promote the Space Technology Transfer demonstrator opportunity, to be confirmed by the parties by June 2017, and support up to 3 demonstrator projects per year, each to be funded by up to €20.000.

ESA BIC Lazio will also facilitate potential synergy with the ambassador platform of ESA's Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) Programme for its ARTES activities, through the Italian arm of the ambassador platform, recently set up with the Hypatia consortium.

ESA BIC Lazio was started in 2005 and has fostered over 20 start-ups in Italy to date.

One of the start-ups is Raptech which provides turnkey supervision control and data acquisition solutions specifically designed for industrial monitoring. The solution is successfully used to monitor energy production in photovoltaic systems and wind turbines, energy flow in factories and environmental parameters in cryogenic chambers. 

Another successful BIC Lazio start-up is Airgloss, “the Air Quality Keeper”. It is an innovative solution aimed at monitoring and improving indoor air quality. The capability to simultaneously detect and identify multiple harmful air contaminants combined with extremely short response times, make Airgloss a key element for improving air quality in closed environments. Airgloss is already successfully targeting international markets and will present their solution at CES in Las Vegas in January 2017, a great way to increase their international visibility. 

Under the agreement, ESA BIC Lazio and its start-ups will also be supported by KET-LAB (Key Enabling Technology Laboratory), a set of multidisciplinary laboratories to support R&D activities of small and medium enterprises formed through a partnership consortium between Hypatia and ASI.
The objective of KET-LAB is to raise SME competitiveness and to create international partnerships.

ESA Business Incubation Centres

Started by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme in 2003, the business incubation initiative has now grown to 16 centres in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Czech Republic, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland, fostering over 130 new companies yearly and creating high-tech jobs throughout Europe.

The initiative profits from space technology and expertise to generate new businesses and jobs in Europe, which also boosts local economies and Europe’s competitiveness. Thanks to these start-ups and their entrepreneurs, leading-edge technologies and expertise from Europe’s space programmes are used to create smarter terrestrial applications.

More on ESA BIC Lazio here.