The newly designed area, the Spark Hub: Centre for Space Entrepreneurship and Commercialisation, was revealed this week in the Space Business Innovation Centre (SBIC) Noordwijk building. The new area will offer the ESA team a new base to network and meet with partners.
Opened by Niels Eldering, head of Entrepreneurship and Business Incubation in the Commercialisation Services Department of the European Space Agency, he comments: “If you’re interested in doing business relating to space, here’s where you start. We cover all aspects and can give you the right introduction. It is your gateway to the ESA BIC Noordwijk incubator, to the wider ESA BIC network, to the ESA Technology Broker for the Netherlands, to the partners of ESA, to those renting offices here and to everyone in SBIC’s space business community.”
Close contact with the space business community
Established in 2004 under Niels’ management, ESA BIC Noordwijk is the flagship location of ESA’s business incubation programme as its very first location. The incubatees at SBIC sit alongside a mix of other start-ups and established companies. Martijn Leinweber, COO of SBIC Noordwijk and programme manager of ESA BIC Noordwijk, comments: “The Spark Hub is at the heart of the co-working space and will be beneficial for the entire space business community at SBIC, as it will attract new visitors and team members of ESA to spend time here. It will no doubt facilitate opportunities for creating new connections within the wider space business and entrepreneurial network.”
Wider network welcome
The ESA Commercialisation team looks forward to welcoming partners and the wider network to visit the Spark Hub. It is hoped that all the representatives of the ESA BICs around Europe and the brokers will visit the space. This is alongside the companies in the ESA Partnership Initiative for Commercialisation ESA EPIC, which all get their logos featured in the space, with plenty of room to display more as the network expands.
The interior has a universe-inspired carpet design, with acoustic panelling in the outline of Europe on one wall. The various locations of the ESA BIC network will each be indicated on the panel map. A new tradition will be established that when anyone from the ESA BIC network visits the Spark Hub, they can add their location to the map.
Destination for discourse
SBIC is a regular destination for pitches and presentations to inspire innovation. It regularly has visits from the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) Erasmus University and the Community of European Management Schools (CEMS), as well as the Space for Business programme and many others. The Spark Hub will play an important role in maintaining links to the next generations of space entrepreneurs via the local educational establishments to the Dutch space ecosystem.
“Every year we have more than 60 students coming to work with start-ups and utilising patents from ESA and industry. The Spark Hub will be a place where we can both have academic and practical discourse. For sure, this is the place to come if you want to talk and learn about space related entrepreneurship and business,” commented Niels. Before cutting the ribbon to officially declare the space open, he enthusiastically stated: “Spark Hub: I hope it sparks a lot of collaboration and I hope that my team and I will get to engage with the whole community here on a regular basis.”