ESA BIC Bavaria engages international audience at AGIT 2012
Earlier this month, ESA Business Incubation Centre Bavaria made a series of presentations and met the global geographic information system community at AGIT 2012, the convention for applied geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg.
Having expanded early this year from its Oberpfaffenhofen headquarters by adding two branch offices in nearby Nuremberg and Berchtesgadener Land, ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Bavaria welcomed around 1000 attendees to its AGIT stand.
“For ESA BIC Bavaria, this year’s AGIT provided an excellent platform for engaging with the international geographic information system (GIS) network,” reports Lars Holstein, project manager at the business development association Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft Berchtesgadener Land (WFG BGL).
“Our Satellitennavigation Berchtesgadener Land network and GIS-Cluster Salzburg have committed to establish a synergetic, cross-border cooperative relationship between Berchtesgadener Land and the university city of Salzburg.
“In doing so, we hope to draw innovative companies to the region while supporting new topics and combinations of knowledge.”
As a local partner, WFG BGL offers assistance to entrepreneurs seeking to start companies at the branch office Berchtesgadener Land.
ESA’s Business Incubation Centres and WASP-Logistik
ESA BIC Bavaria presented ESA’s business incubation initiative, focusing on the centres in southern Germany.
Coordinated at European level by the ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO) and in cooperation with local partners, the seven BICs throughout Europe promote and support the foundation of companies commercial using space technologies and systems in non-space applications and services.
A prime example of an ESA BIC incubated company is German WASP-Logistik GmbH, which has developed an integrative online platform for lumber logistics.
“The GPS satellite navigation system has already made today’s logistics management easier, and Galileo will provide for even more reliability in the future,” explained Ursula Fendel, software consultant at WASP-Logistik.
“Thanks to the possibility of seamless navigation on public roads and forest paths, handling transports and dispatching will soon be much easier.”
WASP-Logistik GmbH was one of the first start-up companies to enter incubation at ESA BIC Bavaria’s new branch office in Berchtesgadener Land, where it now also receives local support from WFG BGL.
Innovation near Bavarian–Austrian border
With ESA BIC Bavaria’s expansion, up to 20 start-ups now have the choice of three incubation locations, with local partners offering financial assistance and technical expertise.
Located at the technology centre Techno-Z Freilassing, the branch office Berchtesgadener Land is also close to Salzburg in Austria.
“The productive environment gives the entrepreneurs at ESA BIC Bavaria’s branch office in Berchtesgadener Land the opportunity to take advantage of the expert network of the Satellitennavigation Berchtesgadener Land initiative and the region’s highly sophisticated infrastructure, which includes the Galileo test range GATE,” emphasises Frank Salzgeber, Head of ESA TTPO.
In addition to the support from ESA, start-ups at Berchtesgadener Land can also receive support from the Free State of Bavaria, the local bank Sparkasse Berchtesgadener Land and WFG BGL, as well as from Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO), the company operating ESA BIC Bavaria on behalf of ESA.
ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO)
The main mission of ESA's Technology Transfer Programme is to facilitate the use of space technology and systems for non-space applications, and thereby also further demonstrating realising the benefit of the European space programmes to the citizens.
ESA TTPO is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for the transfer of space technologies and systems, including the incubation of start-up companies at ESA business incubation centres and related funding.
The office has transferred over 260 technologies since the programme start and is supporting directly and indirectly around 100 new start-ups a year. TTPO has also initiated as a limited partner the Open Sky Technology Fund, a €100 million venture fund which invests in start-ups using space technology.
For more information on TTPO, please contact:
ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office
European Space Agency
Keplerlaan 1
2200 AG, Noordwijk
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 71 565 6208
Email: ttp@esa.int
Web: www.esa.int/ttp
