The UPC’s Baix Llobregat Campus will host the business incubator ESA BIC Barcelona for three more years
The UPC’s Baix Llobregat Campus in Castelldefels will host ESA BIC Barcelona for three more years to accelerate start-ups based on innovative space technologies or infrastructures. The incubator will continue to be located in the RDIT building of the Parc UPC with the support of the Government of Catalonia, the Mediterranean Technology Park, the Baix Llobregat County Council, the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and the Barcelona City Council.
May 05, 2022
The business incubation centre ESA BIC Barcelona will continue operation on the Baix Llobregat Campus of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) in Castelldefels after being selected again by the European Space Agency (ESA). The acceleration programme is promoted by the Government of Catalonia, the UPC and the Mediterranean Technology Park (PMT), and supported by other regional institutions: the Baix Llobregat County Council, the Barcelona Provincial Council, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and the Barcelona City Council.
The programme has a total budget of 1.8 million euros, a third of which (600,000 euros) will be provided by the Government of Catalonia within the framework of the NewSpace Strategy for Catalonia. It will lead to the incubation of 21 space companies over 3 years: 18 will be co-funded by ESA and the Government of Catalonia and 3 will be 100% funded by the latter. The programme aims to produce, attract and retain research talent, to support the Catalan research system and to boost innovation.
The incubator is open to entrepreneurs and to companies less than five years old who aim to create products or services by using space technologies or data, or to develop space solutions. It will offer early-stage entrepreneurs a six- to eight-month acceleration process with mentoring, training, technical and commercial advice, and financial incentives to support them all the way through to product launch. The new companies incubated at ESA BIC Barcelona will have access to a wide range of space technologies for developing new applications and to the technical and scientific knowledge of the ESA team and the University. They will be given up to 1,000 m² of office space—for common areas, coworking spaces and other modules—in the RDIT building of the Parc UPC.
ESA BIC Barcelona is one of ESA business incubator centres (ESA BICs), spread over Spain and Europe. ESA Technology Transfer and Business Incubation Office initiated its business incubation centres in 2003 to foster new start-ups and spin-offs by giving them access to ESA knowledge and technology and by incubating them in science and technology parks throughout the European Union.
ESA BIC Barcelona’s activity started in 2014 on the UPC Campus in Castelldefels. It was the very first ESA BIC in Spain. In its first four years, until 2018, the centre selected and incubated 27 companies. Those companies have already successfully developed and implemented several products, services or applications for industrial purposes in both the local and international market, and have been a source of job creation. They are related to drones, satellite communication technologies, data compression processes and renewable energies. Some of them are Aistech Space, Dapcom Data Services, Dares Technology, e-Stratos Geosystems, Hemav, Rokubun and Tinkerers.