Space critical equipment for EU non-dependence

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Reinforcing EU strategic autonomy by reducing non-EU dependencies on critical space equipment and related technologies across their entire supply chain;

• Providing unrestricted access to critical space equipment and related technologies relevant for EU space missions;

• Developing or regaining capacity to operate independently in space by developing resilient critical space equipment and related technologies supply chains, relying on EU supply chains and/or trustable and reliable supply chains not affected by non-EU export restrictions;

• Enhancing competitiveness by developing products and capabilities reaching equivalent or superior performance level than those from outside the EU and compete at worldwide level;

• Opening new opportunities for manufacturers by reducing dependency on non-EU export restricted technologies.

Scope:

Unrestricted access to state-of-art space equipment and related technologies is a pre-requisite for the EU space industry responding to EU space missions. However, especially for some families of equipment, the available solutions in EU do not meet the current high-performance space requirements and alternative products, sourced from outside EU, are either affected by non-EU export control with extra territorial applicability, that limit the access, re-export or raise challenges in terms of trustable supply chains for the implementation of EU space missions with a security dimension.

Within the frame of this topic it is expected to finance and implement development projects aiming at maturing critical space equipment with the final goal of lowering the dependency from outside EU, establish a long-term sustainable supply chain and support EU strategic autonomy in the space sector. The selection of the supply chains shall reflect this objective. Therefore, the supply chain shall preferably be built fully based in EU and when this can only be achieved partially (i.e. because of lack of current EU capabilities that cannot be developed within the project), services procured from outside EU shall nevertheless ensure that the overall supply chain will remain trustable and not affected by non-EU export control. The latest scenario is subject to the approval of the granting authority.

The list of space equipment and related technologies relevant for this topic will be selected based on needs related to strategic institutional programs, inputs from relevant European stakeholders and the EU Observatory of Critical Technologies. It will be proposed in 2026 and validated with the HE delegations.

Space is a low volume market affected by a dynamic industrial landscape compared to the terrestrial market therefore, technological spin in and/or bilateral collaborations should be enhanced between European non-space and space industries. Furthermore, proposed activities should be complementary to national activities and European space agencies. Complementary activities should be clearly identified, described and the proposal should report how the complementarity is ensured.

Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 6 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.