‘핏포스타트’ 우주로 가다
룩셈부르크 정부 산하 기관 룩스이노베이션에서 혁신적인 스타트업 발굴 및 지원을 위해 2015년도에 출시된 ‘핏포스타트’ 프로그램에서 처음으로 우주 분야에서 활발한 5개의 스타트업에 맞춤형 지원을 제공한다. 또한, 선택된 회사들은 룩셈부르크 우주국 데이터 센터에서 제공하는 지구 관측 데이터에 접근 할 수 있게 된다.
‘핏포스타트’ 프로그램은 유럽 진출을 원하는 ICT 초기 스타트업 기업들에게 성공적인 유럽 비즈니스 기회를 제공하기 위한 스타트업 발굴, 육성 프로그램으로 최대 150,000 유로 지원 가능한 프로그램이다.
Since 2015, the Ministry of the Economy in collaboration with Luxinnovation has been offering an intensive coaching programme with funding of up to €150,000 for start-ups active in the ICT sector. It is organised twice a year, each time over a period of 4 months, and hosts between 10 and 15 companies during each session.
20 companies will be selected during the Selection & Graduation Day on 3 October, including 10 ICT companies, 5 healthtech companies and 5 space companies.
After a successful first pilot programme in the field of health technologies (healthtech) at its 7th edition in the autumn of 2018, Fit 4 Start is now opening up to space and more particularly to the downstream sector of value-added applications and services developed from space-based data combined or not with data from other sources, whether airborne, in-situ or from social networks.
For this Fit 4 Start #9, 20 companies will be selected during the Selection & Graduation Day on 3 October, including 10 ICT companies, 5 healthtech companies and 5 space companies.
Premium access to the LSA data center
Luxembourg was the first country in the world with the United States of America to pass a law authorising the commercial exploitation of space resources in 2017. A year later, the country launched a space agency to support the industrial development of this sector, the Luxembourg Space Agency.
In May, it inaugurated a data centre dedicated to space observation data. “A first step to facilitate access to space data with the aim to stimulate new services provided by Luxembourg as a hub for commercial space in Europe,” said its CEO, Marc Serres.
A first step to facilitate access to space data with the aim to stimulate new services provided by Luxembourg as a hub for commercial space in Europe.
This data centre contains data from the Sentinel 1 and Sentinel 2 Earth observation satellites of the European Copernicus system. Start-ups selected for the Fit 4 Start Space programme will benefit from premium access to this data centre. They will also be eligible for an access request to the “data lake” of Spire Luxembourg. These are specific features that give this acceleration programme a unique character.
This new offer for start-ups shows the willingness of this country located in the centre of Europe to position itself in a rapidly developing and highly coveted niche. More than a hundred companies in the space sector, particularly from Japan and the United States, have already chosen Luxembourg. The existence of a solid legal framework, the openness of government and the rapid growth of its ecosystem are the main attractions.
Photo: Luxinnovation/Marie De Decker