Innovation support
ESA’s Business Incubation Centre (BIC) in Darmstadt will receive new multi-year funding and expert consulting support, enabling ten new start-ups annually to optimise their commercial endeavours.
In a joint effort between ESA, DLR and the German State of Hessen, the new funding and support services will enable numerous new value-added space- and navigation-focussed start-ups to enter incubation between next year and as late as 2019.
The news was announced at a signing event today at ESOC, where Thomas Reiter (at left, in image above) was joined by ESA’s Franco Ongaro, Director of Technical and Quality Management (speaking at podium), Florian Rentsch, Hessen State Minister for Business (standing in centre), and Frank Zimmermann, Managing Director of cesah (at right).
The expert consulting services will be provided by ESOC, co-located with ESA’s Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Darmstadt, which was founded in 2007 and is managed by a private company, the Centrum für Satellitennavigation Hessen (cesah).
