UC3M coordinates a European innovation and entrepreneurship project in the space sector (Study)

Go2Space-HUBs is a European project within the framework of Horizon 2020, led by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), which is part of the consortium, together with the Madrid Aerospace Cluster (MAC), Europe Unlimited (EUN) from Belgium, Technology Partners Foundation (TECPAR) from Poland, the Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) from Portugal and Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol Foundation (TEHNOPOL) from Estonia.

The objective of Go2Space is to strengthen the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem in the space industry. For that purpose, during the two years of the program, three hubs are being created in Coimbra, Madrid and Tallin, from which different incubation and acceleration programs for space businesses will be developed.

UC3M is in charge of managing the Madrid hub where it is currently working on creation of a specific program to accelerate, during the years of the project, a total of 20 start-ups and scale-ups that carry out their activity in one of the four areas that the program encompasses: space-related projects for a digitalized Europe (Big Data, IoT, Smart Cities and Smart Transport), space-related projects and applications to solve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); space-related projects in defense and security (Cyber, Big Data, Fintech); and spacetech projects.

In the first edition of the HUB-Madrid Acceleration program, which will begin in September, the companies chosen will have access to on-line training and mentoring for three months on issues related to the space market and channels and opportunities for financing. In addition, activities and events at the national and international level will take place, as well as sessions regarding knowledge, management and processing data from the observation platform for the Tierra DIAS Environment. Likewise, the European Space Agency (ESA) Technology portfolio will be delved into, along with work in obtaining European program funding, such as the SME Instrument for innovative projects.

With the startup of Go2Space-HUBs new initiatives are expected to be generated that complement those currently being undertaken at the European level, and foster the creation of applications and solutions that entail growth and commercialization of scalable and profitable solutions.

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