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.

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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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Read the full press release via the OpenAtlas website

OpenAtlas’ geospatial expertise transforming satellite data into risk signals

The collaboration, marks one of the first end-to-end EUDR compliance assessments in which the underlying data belongs to, and benefits, the producer organisations themselves. Analysis was conducted via OpenAtlas’ API-based deforestation risk platform, enabling automated assessment at scale against EUDR criteria.

OpenAtlas joined the business incubation programme of the European Space Agency in 2025. As a geospatial intelligence company transforming satellite and Earth observation data into automated supply chain risk signals, the startup’s platform helps companies navigate regulatory requirements.

End-to-end EUDR deforestation risk assessment

The results representing 3074 smallholder farmers and over 2358 hectares of farmland across all five cooperatives – of Busongora in Uganda; Rutas del Inca in Peru; and Rwandaro, TUK and Nyampinga in Rwanda – showed 99.7 per cent of analysed farms classified as low deforestation risk, covering 99.9 per cent of the total area assessed. The assessment demonstrates how producer organisations can generate the geolocation and risk data required under the EUDR, helping maintain access to EU markets while reducing compliance burdens across supply chains.

“We wanted to be ahead of EUDR rather than scrambling when it comes into force,” said Bonnie van Poortvliet, CEO of Gosling Coffee. “Working with Progreso and OpenAtlas felt like the right way to do that, using data that belongs to the cooperatives, not to us, and building something that benefits them as much as it benefits us.”

Service providers help unlock resources to meet regulatory requirements

Harry Marshall, CEO and co-founder of OpenAtlas, comments: “I think the results speak for themselves – smallholder farmers around the world are facing exclusion from the European Union common market not because they’ve done anything wrong, but because they lack the resources and tooling to prove that they haven’t. Harry Marshall, CEO & Co-founder of OpenAtlas.

“This collaboration between Progreso, OpenAtlas and Gosling Coffee demonstrates that EUDR compliance does not have to be something imposed on producer organisations. With the right tools and partnerships, cooperatives can take the lead in managing and owning their data, while buyers and service providers help unlock the resources needed to meet new regulatory requirements,” Harry continues. “We believe that strong data capability in producer organisations goes far beyond compliance, it creates long-term value, resilience and empowerment.”

Collaboration sets new benchmark for supply chain traceability in the coffee sector >>

About the partnership

Gosling Coffee, a Dutch specialty roaster, has sourced from Progreso’s cooperative network in East Africa and Latin America for several years. Progreso has supported participating cooperatives with technical assistance and digital traceability infrastructure. OpenAtlas provided the geospatial intelligence layer – translating cooperative plot data into regulatory-grade EUDR risk signals through its API.

The assessment covered cooperatives in three countries, with all data analysed to date consisting of largely low deforestation risk.

View the full press release via the OpenAtlas website

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Contact:

• OpenAtlas – Harry Marshall (harry@open-atlas.com)

About OpenAtlas
OpenAtlas is an Amsterdam-based geospatial intelligence company transforming satellite and Earth observation data into automated supply chain risk signals. Its API-first platform helps companies navigate regulatory requirements including the European Union’s deforestation regulations (EUDR), with a focus on scalable, data-sovereign compliance infrastructure. open-atlas.com

About Gosling Coffee|
Gosling Coffee is a Dutch specialty coffee roaster sourcing directly from cooperative partners across East Africa and Latin America. The company believes that equal trade in a transparent way is going to make the coffee industry sustainable. With direct contracts between cooperatives and its team and, for instance this collaboration, Gosling Coffee makes a real difference for the farmers they work with. goslingcoffee.com

About Progreso
Progreso is an international development organisation based in the Netherlands that strengthens farmer-owned cooperatives and producer organisations across Latin America, Africa and Asia. Through technical assistance, access to finance, business development services and digital solutions, such as Beyco, Progreso helps producer organisations improve resilience, competitiveness and long-term sustainability. Its approach focuses on empowering cooperatives to create value for their members and play a leading role in sustainable supply chains. progreso.nl

Open call for startups with space business ideas to apply to ESA BIC Noordwijk:

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