'One giant leap' — investing in space, for the EU's future

The Draghi Report on European competitiveness reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to ensuring that all Europeans can fully enjoy fundamental rights such as prosperity, equality, freedom, peace, and democracy.

Achieving this vision requires a focused effort to drive a sustainable competitiveness. “If Europe is no longer able to deliver on this promise, it will have lost its reason for being,” reads the report.

The report identifies significant opportunities for Europe to enhance its position in emerging technologies and innovation.

While only four of the world’s top 50 technology companies are currently European, and no EU-based company with a market capitalisation exceeding €100bn has been established from scratch in the last 50 years, this outlines the region's potential to foster a more dynamic and entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The growing reliance of European entrepreneurs on foreign venture capital and markets highlights the global demand for European talent. With stronger support systems within the EU, these innovators could be better positioned to scale their ventures domestically. Notably, nearly 30 percent of Europe’s ‘unicorns’ — startups valued at over $1bn [€960m] — have achieved remarkable success, demonstrating the region's capacity for significant growth and innovation.

This gives Europe a unique opportunity to reassert its global competitiveness.

That opportunity is space. 

European Union as a space powerhouse 

When it comes to the new space race, the European Union already has its best foot forward. With the support of the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), working closely with the European Commission and partners, the EU has established itself as a space powerhouse, with capabilities that are among the best in the world.

In the field of satellite navigation, Galileo, the European Union’s very own Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) programme, provides the world’s most accurate and secure positioning and timing information, while the Galileo High Accuracy Service is more precise than any other GNSS, including the GPS (US) and Beidou (China). 

On the earth-observation side of the equation, Copernicus, the European Earth Observation (EO) programme, offers the world’s most comprehensive EO data, including for environmental monitoring, disaster management and security. As a result, according to the EUSPA EO and GNSS Market Report, Europe now owns a 41-percent share of the global EO market. 

Clearly, the EU has carved out a strong competitive position within the global space industry in the areas where it has invested.

This is particularly true when it comes to the downstream market, which includes any application, device or service where space technology and/or data is a significant enabler or key to the application’s functionality.

For instance, according to our market report, European companies account for a world-leading 44-percent of all EO revenues, with the European EO industry covering more than a third of the global processing market. 

Revenues from the GNSS downstream market are predominantly generated by companies based in the US and Europe. While the US maintains the largest portion of the market at over 30 percent, Europe comes in at a close second with a 25-percent market share.

Europe performs particularly well in the road, maritime and agricultural sectors. Several European companies are global leaders in the manufacturing of GNSS components and receivers for road and maritime applications and the development of the system integrators used by the agricultural industry.

Don’t let a big opportunity slip away

All this puts European companies in an envious position to compete within the ever-growing GNSS and EO downstream markets – markets that, according to EUSPA research, are expected to see nearly €590bn in revenue by 2033. 

This a huge opportunity for Europe, one that will be materialised through continuous investments of the European Union in space. and while there is a clear need for public investment supporting space-related research and development, investing in R&D alone is not enough. European space companies also require ready access to finance. 

Let’s write a successful story, together 

EUSPA has played — and continues to play — a big role in supporting innovation through several initiatives funded by the EU and delegated to us. For instance, under European Commission delegation, EUSPA offers a wide range of funding opportunities, including the very successful CASSINI activities, hackathons, innovation prizes, and Business Incubation Centre (BIC) and Horizon Calls.

Our Fundamental Elements is an R&D funding mechanism designed to support the development of innovative chipset, antenna and receiver technologies that industry would not yet invest in on its own initiative. In doing so, the programme helps accelerate the integration of European GNSS into market-ready devices and solutions.

In addition to funding, many of these initiatives come with additional perks like mentoring, business support and incubation. We are also well-known across the industry as a leading source of critical market intelligence, one that is regularly relied upon by policymakers, entrepreneurs and major corporations. 

Beyond market intelligence, companies can leverage EUSPA’s expertise throughout their entire product development process, from finetuning an idea to prototyping and testing it and even getting it ready for commercialisation.

Thanks in part to initiatives like these, EUSPA has built a sizeable ecosystem of start-ups and SMEs, all leveraging the benefits of EU space data and services. In fact, to date, an estimated 1,000 companies have received support from EUSPA, with many using this support to secure new investments.

Take for example Orbital Matter, a Polish start-up, with significant growth since participating in CASSINI.

The company has developed an in-orbit 3D printing solution to make the manufacturing of space infrastructure components faster and more cost-effective. Recently, Orbital Matter secured €1m in financing to demonstrate their solution in a microgravity environment and to explore novel use cases for their technology.

VorteX-io, a French start-up using Earth Observation data to precisely measure key hydrological parameters also participated in the CASSINI programme. The company announced that it had secured €2.9m in capital.

In aviation, Skypuzzler was created to address the number of drones and other unmanned aircraft that is making flying that more challenging.

The Danish company, winner of the 2024 CASSINI Challenges Product Track and its €10,000 prize, has developed an integrated Digital Air Traffic Control (iDATC) solution that leverages Galileo's precise geo-positioning and High Accuracy Service, enabling drone operators to respond to unforeseen events in real-time.

Or I could also mention Arkadia Space, a Spanish company specialising in orbital propulsion, which has made significant strides thanks to the Cassini Matchmaking initiative.

The company has successfully designed, developed, and launched a cost-effective propulsion system that utilises green propellants. Recently, Arkadia Space secured €2.8m in seed funding, which it intends to use to enhance its R&D efforts and perform an in-orbit demonstration of its technology.

Continued investments in space – and security 

Not only do companies that are funded by Europe stay in Europe, their technology and know-how stay too. They are also creating jobs and their own ecosystem of suppliers, all of which contribute to European competitiveness. 

But we need to do more.

In addition to investing in space-based companies, we need to continue to enhance the EU space programme that their success depends on. Here, EUSPA continues to add new services and solutions, such as the Galileo High Accuracy Service and EGNOS Safety of Life Assisted Service for Maritime Users. Together with the EU Commission, we’re also preparing new ones, such as the Galileo Emergency Warning Satellite Service, amongst others. 

In addition to investing in space companies and in space infrastructure, the EU has also been investing in the security of its space assets.

After all, as the Draghi Report correctly points out, security is a precondition for sustainable growth – and in today’s era of geopolitical instability, such security cannot be taken for granted.  

The good news is that here the European Union is ahead of the curve. For example, the EU had the foresight to see society’s growing dependency on satellite positioning and instead of relying on other countries’ positioning systems, the EU built Galileo, which now provides an accuracy superior to any other GNSS systems.

The EU has made space a key component in its security and defence with the same sense of foresight.

This concept is enshrined in the EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence, aiming to protect Europe’s space assets, defend its interests, deter hostile activities in space and strengthen its strategic posture and autonomy. It is also the driving force behind the EU’s investment in such new, security-oriented space infrastructure as the GOVSATCOM, IRIS² and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) components.

As the security gatekeeper of the EU Space Programme, EUSPA looks forward to working with the European Commission, and supporting the priorities of improving European Union competitiveness, strategic autonomy and security in space.

To do so, we will continue to play a leading role in the implementation of the EU Space Strategy for Security and Defence, work that includes co-facilitating the EU Space Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (EUSpace ISAC), operating the Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) Front Desk, procuring the GOVSATCOM Hub, and helping ramp up the IRIS2 programme. 

EUSPA is also well positioned to support the commission’s commitment to enhancing the capabilities of the EU Space Programme — including Galileo and Copernicus — to provide special governmental services designed to meet Europe’s evolving security needs.  

A giant leap for Europe

Clearly, the challenge of creating a competitive Europe is a big one. But it is by no means an impossible one. As the Draghi Report makes clear, the EU can achieve a lot by “taking a large number of small steps”.

From managing the Galileo and EGNOS programmes to developing markets for Copernicus services and data, coordinating user-related aspects of the GOVSATCOM programme, overseeing the security accreditation of the entire EU Space Programme, supporting the development of innovative European products and applications and champing their market uptake, over the past 20 years EUSPA has taken a lot of small steps for EU competitiveness. 

But add them together and what you get is one giant leap for the European Union’s future.