ESA Business Incubation Centre to be opened in Finland

On 30 November 2017, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Aalto University will sign in Helsinki an agreement on opening in Finland a business incubation centre focused on space industry startups. The aim is to generate 50 new businesses in the space sector in Finland.

The ESA Business Incubation Centre will support the objective of Finland’s Space Strategy to raise Finland’s space activities to the world’s top level by 2020. 

- Finland’s goal is to substantially increase the turnover of new business based on space technology. The ESA Business Incubation Centre will strongly contribute to supporting this goal, says Petri Peltonen, Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

Through the channels of influence and programmes provided by ESA, the new Centre will open up contacts with European space technology applications for the Finnish industry and businesses. Moreover, the Centre will support research and education in the space sector. Professor Jan Wörner, the ESA Director General, will visit Finland during the SLUSH startup event.

- The space industry is developing rapidly worldwide, and much has happened in the sector in Finland as well in recent years. With the ESA Business Incubation Centre in Finland, 50 national space technology start-ups will be supported in the next five years, says Wörner.

The ESA Business Incubation Centre will be located in the Aalto University’s A Grid, which is a new community space for startups, to be opened at the Otaniemi campus in Espoo in the beginning of 2018.

All businesses founded in Finland less than five years ago can apply for access to the Business Incubation Centre if they have innovative technologies for the use of space industry or if they use space data or space technologies in their activities. The first application round to the Centre will be launched in early 2018.

Finland has been a full member of the European Space Agency (ESA) since 1995. The key areas of Finland’s Space Strategy are applications intended for the Arctic, the application of open geographic information, raising the level of scientific research and advancing the specialisation of space industry.

Finland’s Space Strategy 
More information about the ESA Business Incubation Centres

Inquiries:
Petri Peltonen, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29506 3662
Dr. Stefan Gustafsson, Programme Manager, ESA, tel. +31 71 565 30 66