SME Forum 2020

  • Home
  • /
  • SME Forum 2020

SME Forum 2020

The SME Forum is an annual consultation process for ESA, organised in collaboration with SME4Space, to collect feedback from SMEs and their associations on factors that affect their business environment. The resulting recommendations will feed into ESA’s SME Policy.

The proposed topics this year are:

  • Covid impact on space SMEs
  • access to finance
  • internationalisation and exports

The preparatory process will be:

  • by mid-August, SME4SPACE will send out some floor documents as food for thoughts;
  • Space SMEs and SME4Space Working Members are asked to send initial reactions/contributions on the provided documentations by 1st September;
  • ESA and SME4SPACE will consolidate and condensate the received contributions to be further discussed during online meeting(s);
  • The first working meeting for the SME Forum will be on 11th September with ESA SME Office and all Space SMEs willing to participate. A possible further on line working meeting for SME Forum would be announced in due time;
  • The consolidated positions and contributions will be presented on 9th October in a meeting (participation on invitation only) with Eric Morel, ESA Director of Director of Industry, Procurement and Legal Services (D/IPL) in Paris;
  • post event: we draft conclusions and recommendations to feed into ESA’s SME policy; they will be presented in other fora.

As mentioned above, the First SME Forum Working Meeting will be held on 11th September online with this Agenda.

To participate to the online working meeting(s), to received the floor documents and to be informed on all the evolution of the SME Forum, please register at the following link:
https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/SMEForum2020Registration

SME Forum AGENDA
9th October 2020, ESA HQ Paris/WEBEX (on invitation only)

12:30 – 14:00 Arrival and welcome lunch (for those who will be in person)

14:00 – 14:15  Presentation of the SME Forum, objectives & expected outcome

Eric Morel de Westgaver, Director of Industry, Procurement and Legal Services, ESA

Jens Kauffmann, Head of the SME & Analytics Division, ESA

14:15 – 14:25 Challenges and opportunities for space SMEs in Covid-19 times

Hans Bracquené, Chair of SME4Space

14:25-16:20         Round table: SME feedback on business in ESA (Covid-19, access to finance, exports etc.)

Moderator: Teodora Secara, Industrial Policy Officer, SME Office, ESA

Panellists:

  • Janet Charlton, CEO, JCR Systems, UK
  • Emile de Rijk, CEO, Swissto12, CH
  • David Grünthal, CEO, Misterine, CZ
  • David Henri, CEO, Exotrail, FR
  • Christian Hoffmann, CEO, Geoville, AT
  • Ernst Pfeiffer, CEO, HPS & Speaker on behalf of AKRK, DE
  • Luca Rossettini, CEO, D-Orbit, President of AIPAS, IT
  • Marius Truşculescu, CEO, RISE, Romanian In-Space Engineering, RO
  • Antonios Vavouliotis, CEO, Adamant Composites, GR

16:00-16:30    Conclusions and way forward

Jens Kauffmann, Head of the SME and Industry Analytics Section , ESA

Eric Morel de Westgaver, Director of Industry, Procurement and Legal Services, ESA