Co-funded Contract: The New Approach in Support of European Space Competitiveness

S. Benetti, C. Elia

The Resolution on the Agency's industrial Policy adopted by the ESA Council at Ministerial Level in Paris in 1997 marked a clear step towards action to improve the competitiveness of European industry in the worldwide space market. In particular, Ministers decided that the technologies developed within the Agency's programmes should be used more extensively to stimulate Europe's industrial competitiveness in commercial markets. A transitional period of three years (1997-1999) was established in which to define specific measures to achieve these objectives and to test them. This article is based on the experience of the authors in the processing of more than 100 industrial proposals in the framework of the ESA Technology Research Programme (TRP).