Castellón Airport presents the aerospace business incubator project at the ‘Valencia Digital Summit’

The signing of the contract between Aerocas and the ESA will mark the beginning of the program, which will boost 12 business projects related to space.

Castellón Airport presented this Friday at the ‘Valencia Digital Summit’ the project to establish a business incubator of the European Space Agency (ESA-BIC, European Space Agency Business Incubator Centre) in the Valencian Community, an initiative that will promote entrepreneurship in the aerospace sector.

The event featured various presentations by sector agents, where details of the project promoted by the Valencia Regional Government, through the public company Castellón Airport (Aerocas), in collaboration with the Valencian space consortium ValSpace, were elaborated. Additionally, the initiative has nearly 40 collaborating entities, including business and professional organizations, universities, technological institutes, and companies.

The Director General of Airports of the Department of Environment, Water, Infrastructures and Territory, Vicente Martínez Mus, highlighted in his speech that the launch of the ESA-BIC “will be an important stimulus for the development of the aerospace industry in the Valencian Community.”

“On the one hand, it will play a driving role in attracting and generating talent. On the other hand, it will help entrepreneurs turn their space-related business ideas into commercial companies,” he explained.

The Director General of Airports emphasized that the ESA-BIC project “opens a window of opportunities for the development of the aerospace sector in the Community and is aligned with the Generalitat government’s commitment to entrepreneurship, knowledge, talent, and innovation.”

Vicente Martínez Mus emphasized the role of Castellón Airport, “which will become a space of opportunity for innovation and the development of new space-related technologies.”

The ESA-BIC project has been approved by the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, within the framework of the European Space Agency’s incubation center program.

The technical team in charge of the project has already completed the procedures required by the European Space Agency, so the next step is the signing of the contract with the ESA, which will mark the start of the business incubator’s implementation.

The program will have an initial duration of three years and will support a total of 12 business projects. The objective is to support the birth and consolidation of aerospace sector start-ups, as well as the transfer of innovative solutions from space technologies to other sectors.

The ESA-BIC project is promoted by Castellón Airport, but its influence covers the entire territory of the Valencian Community. With this objective, a nodular model has been proposed, with three territorial centers, one for each province.