On June 30, 2023, in Brussels, the Association of European Space Research Establishments (ESRE), met the European Commission to discuss on future “Space challenges for the EU”.
The Commission was represented by Mr. Cristoph Kautz, Deputy Director of Unit B “Innovation & Outreach” of the General Directorate for Defence, Industry & Space (DG DEFIS), accompanied by Mr. Guillaume De La Brosse, DGDEFIS-B2 Unit, Head and several key officers.
The meeting, as a follow up of a workshop previously held in 2022, gathered almost twenty ESRE and Commission members, among whom CEOs of all the ESRE RTOs.
Further to an introduction of ESRE by CIRA President and ESRE Chair, Prof. Antonio Blandini, DG DEFIS detailed its policies and priorities, along with long terms strategies, addressing the issues related to IRIS2, New Space, Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management, the synergies between space and defence, and the new Strategy for EU Space R&I.
In each of this topic, DG DEFIS remarked the still unvaluable role played by the research and Research Organizations.
This statement was very well welcome by ESRE, which introduced to the Commission its recommendations for a successful implementation of the strategies, claiming for more IOD/IOV missions and related flight opportunities for science and research, highlighting the need to focus on the development of technologies in support of Space Sustainability and raising the attention on the role of test infrastructures as a strategic asset in support of SMEs, start-ups and new comers.
ESRE also offered its availability to provide unbiased, technical hints, thanks to its nature of not-for profit association made of the main European public space research organizations
DG DEFIS hailed the ESRE initiative for the workshop, and invited ESRE to keep on providing recommendations to the Commission.
ESRE and DGDEFIS already planned a third workshop in 2024.
