Technology Transfer Road Show visited Caen, France

The event was organised by ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO), the European Business & Innovation Centre Network (EBN) and Synergia, the economic development agency for the Caen region, in the frame of the European Space Incubators Network (ESINET), a thematic component of the EBN's network focusing on space technology spin-offs to other sectors.

The road show visiting five European cities is designed to promote and support entrepreneurs and SMEs in their application of space systems and technology to non-space sectors of industry, also covering questions of how to obtain funding and financial support.

Bruno Naulais from ESA's TTPO and manager of ESA’s Business Incubation Network presented the opportunities available to entrepreneurs, start-up companies and small and medium sized companies (SMEs). Detailed information were presented on how technology transfer in practical terms is organised with ESA TTPO’s network of technology brokers, selection criteria to access available space technologies for transfer and the contractual and logistics aspects for entrepreneurs and start-up companies to participate to ESA's Business Incubation initiative.

In the afternoon face-to-face business meetings were arranged between participating companies, ESA's TTPO and its French technology transfer broker Nodal. These meetings focused on the specific possibilities and needs of the individual companies, how they best can work with ESA TTP and its network of technology transfer brokers, and the specific relevant options for funding.

Positive feedback of participants

Companies participating in the roadshow event in Caen found the event a useful tool to gain insight into space-to-nonspace technology transfer, its organisation and its funding opportunities for SMEs and start-ups: "The event was very well organized with dynamic presentations and thanks to the personal meetings, I had several good advices," said Emmanuel de Bressy, CEO of Kalibee, a producer of advanced electronics boat equipment.

Likewise, Georges Lamy au Rousseau, CEO of StarNav, a start-up company from the Normadie Incubation centre in Caen, was pleased with the knowledge gained in the Cean roadshow session: "The presentations were very interesting and fruitful as well as the direct face-to-face meetings."

"Our first road show in Auch and now this one in Caen were great successes. The local stakeholders were very pleased to have ESA visiting them, since the Caen area, in Normandy, is not a usual place to host an ESA event. We managed to get in contact with a number of small companies which until today did neither know ESA very well, nor the prospects in using available space technologies in non-space applications and the different funding opportunities”, emphasised Bruno Naulais.

"The participants were especially interested in success stories, financial matters and the type of technologies which could be useful to their businesses. In addition, the interest in the funding opportunities provided by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme and by EC initiatives such as NAVOBS+ and KIS4SAT was considerable."

The Technology Transfer Road Show will visit three more European cities in 2008:

• 5 June 2008: Varna, Bulgaria, hosted by the Space Research Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (SRI-BAS)
• 16-18 September 2008: Stevenage, the UK, hosted by Hertfordshire BIC (UK)
• 12 November 2008: Legnano, Italy, hosted by Euroimpresa-Italy

For more information please contact www.esinet.eu or Vera Barracho, EBN, telephone +32 2 761 10 81, email vba@ebn.be, or Bruno Naulais, telephone +33 71 565 4711, email bruno.naulais@esa.int

ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO)

The main mission of the ESA TTPO is to facilitate the use of space technology and space systems for non-space applications and to further demonstrate the benefit of the European space programme to European citizens. The TTPO is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for the transfer of space technologies including the incubation of start-up companies. For more information, please contact:

Technology Transfer Programme
European Space Agency - ESTEC
Keplerlaan 1, P.O. BOX 299, 2200 AG, Noordwijk
The Netherlands
Office: +31 (0) 71 565 3910
Fax: +31 (0) 71 565 6635
Email: ttp @ esa.int
Website: http://www.esa.int/ttp

Names and abbreviations:

• EBN: European BIC Network is a network of 160 Business Innovation Centres (BIC) in 21 European countries
• NAVOBS+: A specific support action funded by the Space Research and Applications Unit of EC's DG Enterprise and Industry. Its aim is to help more SMEs enter the realm of innovative services downstream, the so-called GMES Core Services.
• KISS4SAT: European Innovation Platform for Knowledge Intensive Services in the Satellite Downstream Application Sector