Sources of public funding for a space startup

Companies working with space technologies have more options to get public non-equity funding. What are the possibilities?
Published on 2nd December 2020

ESA BIC – European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre

European Space Agency (ESA) supports startups via its network of ESA BIC. This is good solution for young companies that want to work more on their space related idea or product. ESA BIC provide funding that can be used on development of the product. The funding is between 25 000 to 50 000 EUR.

Calls published by European Space Agency

ESA supports various topics ranging from feasibility studies on new service using Earth Observation data for natural resources management up to development of new propulsion for Mars missions. The information what ESA wants to fund is published using calls. You need to register first over here, and then you can find all the open calls on the EMITS webpage. At this moment there are 133 open calls.
The call are usually open for few months with strict deadlines at the end. The funding can range from 10s of thousands up to 10s of millions EUR.
There are opportunities even for starting companies. It is worth checking out at any stage of your company.

European Union Level – Horizon Europe

Lots of funding opportunities will be available under Horizon Europe. This will be a support scheme, under which there will be a lot of calls available. It will support Space as well as Innovation. It will be launched at the beginning of 2021.

Local (state) funding

Each state supports new business. There is no universal page that would collect all the available opportunities. It is needed to do research in your own country. Usually there is business support agency, that can help you with this if you get in touch with them.

If you have questions or need help with finding the correct source, feel free to get in touch