It has been beyond busy in Bremen. The annual expedition for space professionals to Space Tech Expo Europe happened this month – and, soon after, the city also hosted the ESA Ministerial Council Meeting 2025 (CM25), which wrapped up today. New commitments to forge ahead with the advancement of the space industry were announced, thrown in with new collaborations and product launches. The social aspects of the expo were also at the forefront, not least at the Connecting The Curious networking event – organised by NL Space Campus, together with ESA BIC Noordwijk, ESA BIC Northern Germany and ESA BIC Bavaria, among others. Here is a short (photo) report with some highlights of these November event. The photos are courtesy of the indicated social/online channels.
ESA BIC entrepreneurs at Space Tech Expo
A key location on the exhibition floor for many of the ESA BIC entrepreneurs was at the ESA SME and Start-Ups booth and some also stopped by the NL Space pavilion. A number of ESA BIC Noordwijk alumni could be spotted working the exhibition floor, such as the entire team from Spherical Systems. News announced at the fair from Revolv Space was the unveiling of the company’s new solar drive assembly for constellations.
After the event, ESA commercialisation officer Matthew Edwards commented: “Throughout the event I was based at the ESA SME and Start-Ups booth, where 20 ambitious startups pitched their ideas. Alongside this we hosted a full programme of presentations… and the announcement of the 2025 cohort of ESA Rising Stars. We also had a fantastic panel discussion with female space entrepreneurs and presentations from several of our network of ESA Phi-Labs.”
Indeed, it was with great excitement that ESA BIC Noordwijk alumnus Arceon was announced to be in the cohort of ESA Rising Stars 2025 – 20 outstanding European space startups and scaleups were selected by ESA as companies that are advancing innovative technologies and business models, strengthening Europe’s space sector. Congrats to all! Read more here.
Connecting the Curious – Bremen edition
After the busy first two days at the expo, everyone was looking for a chance to unwind. The perfect place was Connecting The Curious, a networking opportunity for meeting up with friends, colleagues and innovative startups and young talents. This event gets busier every year and this year it sure was buzzing! A gallery of shots is shown below (source).
This side event of Space Tech Expo Europe was organised by NL Space Campus along with: BDLI, ESA BIC Noordwijk, ESA BIC Northern Germany and ESA BIC Bavaria, among others. The event was opened by Matthew Edwards and comperes for the evening – Maaike Smelter, Johannes Krohn and Martijn Leinweber – were joined on stage by a long list of entrepreneurs with inspiring pitches. Matthew said of the event: “The energy and buzz in the room reminded me why this vibrant community of entrepreneurs and students is so exciting to be part of.”
ESA Ministerial Council Meeting
The week after the fair, Bremen hosted the ESA Ministerial Council Meeting. The largest contributions in the history of the European Space Agency, €22.1 B, were approved by the end of the session (full news item here) – which included a higher-than-expected contribution from the Dutch government (news on NSO website here).
Also approved in Bremen was ESA’s new programme called ACCESS (Accelerating Commercialisation and Competitiveness for the European Space Sector). The ESA news release states this programme will “ensure that European businesses will continue to benefit from the growth, innovation and dynamism brought by the commercialisation of space.” A total of €1.69 M will go to the part of the programme called ScaleUp, which covers the ESA BICs, ESA Technology Brokers, ESA Phi-Labs and more.
And what timing that the new ScaleUp book highlighting the achievements of all the initiatives under ESA’s space commericialisation network was released in time for the Ministerial. We are thrilled to see the teams from the various Dutch ESA programmes featured in the publication, with the article featuring ESA BIC Noordwijk alumnus Lens R&D featuring prominently. Read more about the book and download the PDF from the ESA site here.
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