Taking research beyond the blue sky

 

At LEITAT we know that sky is not the limit, technology breakthrough has taken man even to the outer space. That’s why we are currently working towards applying our broad technology knowledge and research also to the space sector.

 

Recently over the last years, the space sector has opened its doors to private companies and institutions to dive in. The big governmental agencies (NASA, ESA, ROSCOSMOS, JAXA…) need a way to justify to the public and media all the investment in space technology. And so, technology transfer seems to be a very profitable way to do it.

 

By spin-off, space agencies transfer their space know-how to big companies or SMEs of non-space sectors. Space agencies don’t have neither time nor resources to apply their research to other sectors, therefore, they incur to licensing to transfer their technology. This way they get more value for money (reducing expenses to participant countries and, therefore, to the citizen), and also industrial companies reduce their RTD costs by purchasing existing technology.

 

By spin-in, space agencies take know-how from big companies, SMEs, research centres and universities. Space agencies have a broad expertise about space, but they don’t have any expertise at all in other fields that can be applied to space. By collaborating with other entities acquiring their technologies, space agencies save enormous costs, while the other institutions get more value for money on their research while getting direct expertise on the space sector, expanding their know-how.

 

LEITAT has detected that synergic relation trend and is currently improving its portfolio to dive into the space sector spinning-in to expand our know-how to the final frontier of mankind to bring the benefits here down on Earth.

 

The European Commission also considers space as a key sector to ensure European industrial leadership in the Horizon 2020 framework. 1.7 billion euros are going to be funding space R&D. LEITAT is currently detecting the opportunities of this sector and establishing strong networks to tackle on the next European challenges that are about to come. And that’s because here at LEITAT we always want to take our research even further.

If you want better results, you just need to aim higher.