Definition of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and criteria
ESA welcomes Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) that want to get involved in activities of the European Space Agency (ESA). Here's how to find out if you qualify as an SME, and how to register your entity and claim your entity’s SME status with ESA.
ESA's SME policy is geared to making it easier for SMEs to flourish in ESA programmes and the space market in general. It improves access to business opportunities, offers training and support, provides networking opportunities, and offers dedicated financial, procurement and industrial policy measures to help SMEs innovate, grow, and integrate into the European space sector.
To benefit from these measures, including special tendering and payment conditions when so defined, SMEs should claim their SME status when registering in ESA’s online system for registration and management of external entities, esa-star Registration.
Which criteria does ESA use to define an SME?
ESA follows the Recommendation of the European Commission 2003/361/EC of 6 May 2003 for the definition of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME).
The main factors determining whether an enterprise is an SME are:
- staff headcount
- either turnover or balance sheet total
| Category | Micro | Small | Medium-sized |
| Staff | < 10 | < 50 | < 250 |
| Turnover | ≤ €2 million | ≤ €10 million | ≤ €50 million |
| OR | |||
| Balance Sheet | ≤ €2 million | ≤ €10 million | ≤ €43 million |
The European Commission states that ‘These ceilings apply to the figures for individual firms only. A firm that is part of a larger group may need to include staff headcount/turnover/balance sheet data from that group too.’
Find further explanations of these SME criteria on the EC website.
Register your entity and claim your entity’s SME status with ESA
Register your entity in esa-star Registration, ESA’s tool for registration and management of external entities. Here companies can claim the status of SME in step 6 of the process via the ‘SME section’.
Chapter 2.4 of ESA's esa-star Registration User Manual contains information about the process.
ESA grants SME status after the data of the candidate company is verified by the Agency.
Once awarded, the status is associated with your entity and will appear in esa-star Registration and in your entity profile in the Space Industry Directory of esa-match.
Update your registration information annually
Generally, any entity registered with ESA is required to update their data on an annual basis. Your entity’s SME status will be reassessed annually based on the updated information provided.
