Representatives of 630 companies and organisations will meet later this month at ESA’s Industry Space Days 2006. The conference, organised every two years, is an opportunity to find out about the latest trends and business opportunities, have face-to-face meetings and initiate fruitful industrial partnerships.

Industry Space Days 2006 (ISD2006) is “a major forum for all space actors”, says the chairman of the ISD organising committee, Michel Courtois, ESA’s Technical and Quality Management Director.  

ISD2006 will take place from 29 to 31 May at ESTEC, the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. This is the fourth time that ESA has organised this event which brings together institutional actors, SMEs, small and large system integrators, product suppliers and service providers.

The event will highlight the expertise of SMEs and the role they can play, and will help those involved in the space industry to identify industrial strategies within the sector as well as tomorrow’s business opportunities. “ISD2006 aims at improving the involvement of SMEs in space activities and fosters cross-fertilisation between the different actors in the whole space sector,” Courtois adds.

To date, 630 companies and organisations have registered to take part in this event, representing the most important space players within Europe. They include 371 SMEs, 152 larger industrial groups, 36 institutions, 21 networks, 30 research laboratories and 20 national space agencies. For the conference some 6000 face-to-face business meetings have been arranged.

ISD2006 is part of the global project SINEQUANET (Space Intelligence Engineering and Quality Network) initiated at the end of 2005 by ESA and co-financed by the EC.

“SINEQUANET will use engineers and other experts to support SMEs, with the purpose of helping them improve their skills, lower their entry barrier to space and foster their competitiveness in the space and non-space markets. Once fully operational, SINEQUANET will make a valuable impact on the SME sector”, says Nora Bougharouat, Head of ESA’s SME Unit and the instigator of the project.

Monday 29 May is open to the press representatives. Those interested may contact the ESA Communications Office at ESTEC:

ESA Communications Office ESTEC
Tel: +31.(0)71 565.3006
Fax: +31.(0)71 565.5728