EISI - ESA Initial Support for Innovation
ESA Initial Support for Innovation – or EISI – is a more agile and responsive way to access ESA programmes. It provides funds for projects in which both ESA and the company, university or research institute carrying out the project would benefit from the respective knowledge and experience gained through the project.
Most Discovery & Preparation activities respond to a direct need from ESA and are closely followed by an ESA Technical Officer. Taking place under the standard ESA intellectual property rights regime, they involve formal reporting and completing detailed forms.
EISI is here to make things easier for risky projects that may not have a direct or obvious return on investment for an existing ESA programme. The overall aim of the scheme is to support European industry in building up skills in particular domains, and in doing so, prepare the European space sector for the future. The focus of EISI is to support knowledge and skill development, rather than to achieve specific results.
Compared to ESA’s usual funding schemes, EISI is more grant-like and hands-off, putting more responsibility in the hands of industry and academia and less in the hands of ESA. Whilst EISI-funded projects are followed loosely by an ESA colleague, reporting is less formal, and the company, university or institute carrying out the project will not necessarily share the generated intellectual property rights with ESA.
How to start an EISI contract?
For ideas proposed through the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) – either under the Open Discovery Ideas Channel or a specific Discovery Campaign – the decision on whether they should be funded via EISI will be taken based on an internal assessment of all selected and novel ideas. You cannot directly propose an idea as an EISI activity.
There is no financial or scheduling difference between ideas funded via EISI or through a standard contract, but some differences with respect to possible interaction with ESA and requirements for the proposal will be considered. ESA will guide you through this process and hopes that this additional option will better support projects and future-proof Europe for a competitive new space age.
