Are you an SBIC community member? Get link from Slack to reserve your place!

Will you get involved to benefit from themed sessions?  These events are open to all and will be relevant for space (or non-space) startups or later stage companies!

About the format: A new event series launched in 2026 – the deep-dive sessions – that will take place sporadically throughout the year. These sessions are designed to be in-depth and interactive, offering multiple viewpoints. Each event consists of a short presentation followed by time for extended discussion, with time for you to ask the experts any questions that are relevant to the stage of your startup and your own experience. Each deep dive will have a themed topic. Other recurring events organised by SBIC include masterclasses & partner-in-residence sessions (every month), which are all free for the SBIC space business audience to join. If you have an idea for a theme or topic, please get in touch. Stay updated via the events newsletter.

Gain understanding of space business nuances

To understand the space market, you have to see it from all its angles. How to build your business varies whether you are bringing technology up to orbit, leveraging space data to service Earth or navigating the landscape of ESA projects. Space can be daunting, especially for those entering the market for the first time.

This deep-dive session taking place at SBIC Noordwijk will be delving into the ins and outs of doing business with space. Experts in the industry are brought together to present three different perspectives to give you guidance and insights to take your next or your first step! The sessions will all include a short presentation from the speaker of their background and topic followed by time for a lively discussion.

What you will learn

During this deep-dive session, three experts will approach the topic of talent from different angles:

Upstream:

• For those building hardware and other solutions that will venture out into orbit and beyond. You will learn how to strike the balance between building and selling, validation of your technology to raise its technology readiness level (TRL) and how to choose the best commercial routes.

Downstream:

• For those leveraging satellite data and services to create value on Earth. You will learn how to commercialise downstream in a rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, how to prioritise the right market with businesses, customers or government (B2B, B2C, B2G) and how to scale a downstream business.

Working with ESA:

• For those looking to collaborate with this key industry player, but that may be struggling to navigate the steps to get there. Learn some tips and tricks to improve your chances of winning ESA contracts, how to better identify ESA’s needs and opportunities, and best practices to build a good consortium.

Three perspectives on doing business with space for upstream, downstream and insights on working with the European Space Agency.

What to expect

Join to learn from the differing perspectives, which will be presented in parallel. Participants will attend all presentations, which are designed to be in-depth and interactive offering multiple viewpoints. Each session consists of a short presentation followed by time for extended discussions. Ask the expert any questions about the topic that are relevant to your startup and your own experience. Outline:

• Welcome and information starting at 14:00
  
• 1 theme in 3 perspectives in parallel (30 minutes):
  • 10 min presentations
  • 20 min Q&A with audience
• Each topic is presented 3 times:
  • Participant rotation to get all perspectives
• Event ends at 16:00

There will be a short 5–10 minute break following each topic to allow for participants to move to the next presentation. Groups will be allocated at the start of the deep-dive session at SBIC Noordwijk. The event* is scheduled to last 2 hours.

Reserve your place at this deep-dive session to get practical insights relevant for space startups – who may well be considering joining ESA BIC to develop their business idea – or later stage companies.

GOOD TO KNOW:
The event is open to all. It is free for ESA BIC startups and SBIC community members (check the events Slack channel for your link). If you are not in our community yet, sign up for membership here! Students can get 50% discount when registering for this event. Get in touch using your institution’s email address.

View upcoming events happening at SBIC Noordwijk >>

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Space business support from SBIC Noordwijk

The team at SBIC Noordwijk is on hand to support your space business. The programme – or programmes – that you opt for depends on your current situation. Firstly, to join any programmes in our community, you need that all important space connection. Then, your first port of call we would suggest is the Ignition Programme if you still need to validate your business. This means, in short, that you will check if there is demand for your service or product. We can help you to:

• Dive into the space link;
• Investigate if your solution is feasible; and
• Understand whether it makes sense financially.

This is done through the exclusive access you will receive to experts in the space industry. These connections await you at SBIC! The programme manager is Jacobo Domingo and if you have any questions, book a meeting as soon as possible via here.

At the forefront of this course is the product–market fit, go-to-market strategies and understanding of the needs of potential customers, as well as:

• Startup Mindset: Learn all the ins and outs of building a startup with an open mind in order to learn faster;
• Understand Your Value: Define a problem to tackle, see how others attempt to solve it, identify your unique value;
• Business Validation: Identify a market for your product, learn all the do’s and don’ts, define a revenue model.

Inspiration from previous pre-incubation cohorts

The pre-incubation course is supported by the European Space Agency and endorsed by the Netherlands Space Agency. In 2026, we are back to hosting not one but two Ignition Programme editions in the same year – one prior to the spring and the fall ESA BIC selection deadlines to help you prepare a successful application for incubation at ESA BIC Noordwijk.* The last time we had two editions in one year was in 2022, when Spherical Systems was one of the teams that graduated and then went straight on with all the knowledge that was learned to submit a successful application to ESA BIC that led to incubation by Sep 2022. Read about this particular success story here!

There have been many teams that took the successful path of pre-incubation as a step towards incubation – such as Ecosmic, Marmoris, Revolv Space and Soilspect. There is also the success story of one of the graduates of the spring 2026 edition – Earthexplorer – who is now a fully-fledged ESA BIC incubatee since the start of this month, with other graduates of that cohort preparing to apply by the fall ESA BIC deadline.

The course will refocus your mindset and bring your (potential) customers to the forefront:

• “The Ignition Programme helped us mature our idea into a promising business plan. It offered us validation and proof that we can have the desired impact” – Parya Pasha Zadeh, Marmoris
• “The most useful part of the Ignition Programme is the market validation workshop. When you’re very early stage, you’re still potentially assessing if you have a market and what your customers will really need” – Gaia Roncalli, Ecosmic
• “With so many years working as a business developer, one could think that formulating a startup is easy; it’s not. The Ignition Programme forced me to go out of my daily bubble and dive into the client’s user pains.” – Corné van der Sande, Earthexplorer

Encouragement from some recent Ignition graduates

For some of the spring Ignition graduates who still have ESA BIC in their sights and have already joined as SBIC community members, there was also positive feedback about the course:

• “The Ignition Programme is great, withe energetic mentors and a lot of support and motivation to keep iterating on the idea. It is a chance to focus and really dive into your startup.” – Bruno Endres Forlin, Tuentes
• “For anyone who wants to step into building the next era of space technology, SBIC is the place to be. I have never seen such clarity for building the next era of space tech from here in the Netherlands.” – Mohammad Umar, CaptioCorp

The culmination of the programme on the final day is a pitch competition where the teams can present all they have learned to an audience – and jury – and this is a true highlight of the course. That and, of course, the pizza night that marks the official end of the programme. The winners of the spring 2026 edition of the Ignition Programme was won by Tuentes (discover more here). Will it be your team that wins the next edition? You have to be in it to win it, so apply by 6 August!

GOOD TO KNOW:
1. The programme will be in English.
2. There is no application fee.
3. This is the last edition of the ESA-supported programme during 2026
4. The Friday training sessions will all be at SBIC Noordwijk

Before you apply, make sure to read all the terms and conditions (PDF) that you’ll need to agree to before participating.

*The pre-incubation course is not a requirement for applicants to ESA BIC Noordwijk; however, it is highly recommended.

The post Prepare to succeed by joining the pre-incubation Ignition Programme as a stepping stone to ESA BIC Noordwijk appeared first on Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk.

The next ESA Phi-Lab NL selection deadline will be in fall 2026!

The ESA Phi-Lab Netherlands is part of the European Space Agency’s Phi-Lab network that focuses on maturing technology in response to needs coming from the commercial world. Each Phi-Lab has themed focus areas and creates a sustainable ecosystem for innovation, providing comprehensive support to selected economic operators, including intellectual contributions and a range of services under one roof.

The Dutch Phi-Lab operates an open call for projects and the programme is run by NL Space Campus and SBIC Noordwijk, supported by Netherlands Space Agency and ESA Commercialisation Gateway, along with a dynamic community of partners from the Dutch space ecosystem.

Reducing aviation’s climate impact

This is not the first time Meandair has participated in an ESA commercialisation programme. The company graduated from ESA BIC Noordwijk in 2021 where it focused on developing technology for near-real-time weather forecasting, otherwise known as nowcasting (read the ESA BIC graduation interview). Its nowcasting technology is now a key part of the EO4Contrails project, which is ultimately focusing on predicting – and suggeting routes for planes to avoid – the weather conditions that can cause the contrails to form, thereby reducing climate impact. The trails of water in the form of ice crystals combined with tiny solid particles from burned jet fuel cause a net warming effect that is comparable to that of carbon dioxide emissions of aviation.

“The core focus is to reduce the harmful creation of contrails by operators in the aviation industry. These contrails are only formed when the atmosphere’s humidity and temperature meet certain conditions,” comments Peter Novak, co-founder of Meandair and principal investigator of the project. “We will provide the most up-to-date and accurate weather forecasts about the atmosphere available, so that these aviation operators can easily navigate around these control sensitive areas of the atmosphere.”

EO4Contrails by Meandair and NLR

The project is powered by space data, including satellite imagery and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) radio occulation and aims to deliver a global, near real-time view of atmospheric conditions at cruising altitude – something not achievable with traditional approaches alone. It builds on Meandair’s Nowcasting Weather Engine and reflects a broader shift in aviation: tackling non-carbon dioxide climate effects with actionable, operational solutions.

Alongside Peter, the Meandair team includes Antonin Komenda (Meandair co-founder and technical lead), André Bos (project manager) and Filip Svabik (meteorologist), who knows how to model the atmosphere in such a way that accurate predictions of contrail-prone areas in real-time.

Research to real-world impact

Contrail mitigation can require dynamic strategies to reroute mid-flight based on prediction of where high-altitude contrail clouds are likely to form and persist. The validation of the nowcasted contrails and impact is carried out by the NLR team of David Engler Faleiros, Liesbeth Wijn and Lukas Söffing.

The teams are developing the EO4Contrails project to go from research to real-world impact in the coming months. Under development is a next-generation, real-time weather intelligence system that:

• Identifies ice-supersaturated regions where persistent contrails form
• Combines satellite data with advanced atmospheric models
• Enables smarter, dynamic flight routing decisions

CONTRAILS BACKGROUND: While most people associate aviation emissions with carbon dioxide, contrails can also significantly contribute to global warming. Contrails are the thin, white clouds often seen behind aircraft. Under certain atmospheric conditions, these contrails can persist and form cirrus clouds that trap heat in the atmosphere. Reducing their formation could therefore play an important role in making air travel more sustainable. Solutions like the EO4Contrails project could help airlines better understand and manage their environmental footprint. Discover more

Embedded in the space business community

On how he feels about joining the Phi-Lab programme, Peter says: “For us, it really is a great opportunity to get connected to the whole network belonging to the ESA Phi-Lab Netherlands community. This really makes it for us much easier to reach out to, for instance, a similar research institution abroad or to organise a workshop with our stakeholders.”

Since kicking-off the ESA Phi-Lab NL contract in March 2026, Peter has been back in the space business community at SBIC Noordwijk. Members of both the Meandair and the NLR teams have attended numerous events on campus, including taking the opportunity for cross-fertilisation among the entrepreneurs from two Dutch ESA commercialisation programmes, ESA BIC and ESA Phi-Lab on a tour of ESTEC (pictured below).

Contracted ESA Phi-Lab NL participants can join as an SBIC community member and play a key role in the space business community.

APPLY TO ESA PHI-LAB NETHERLANDS
ESA Phi-Lab Netherlands has a permanent open call for research project ideas in the areas of: Earth observation; positioning, navigation and timing; and secure (laser) satellite communication. The programme accelerates space-powered innovation for a safe and resilient society. Selected research projects will benefit from an innovation seed funding of €200K and receive extensive guidance, support and coaching from academic and commercial experts in their respective fields. Additionally, teams will have access to facilities, workspaces and a network of experts and partners. The collaboration between research institutions and the market segment can yield radical innovations and new, sustainable businesses. esaphilab.nl

Where research breeds innovation for emerging space market!

Discover everything you need to know about the ESA Phi-Lab NL programme.

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