Donna Lyndsay is the new European Space Agency (ESA) Business Applications Regional Ambassador.

Welcome to new ESA Ambassador – preparing to launch new ideas

This month, we welcome Donna Lyndsay to the team. Donna is the new European Space Agency (ESA) Business Applications Regional Ambassador for South West England and South Wales. She is keen to introduce SMEs supported by SETsquared to the ESA Business Applications funding programme.

As Donna explained, the backing available covers a wide range of specialisms: “The vision of ESA Business Applications is to improve the lives of people on Earth through Space. We make this possible by enabling and supporting businesses in the short-term commercialisation and application of Space data and technology for everyday services. ESA Business Applications has invested 200M euros in over 500 companies to date in a wide variety of sectors, launching over 300 projects, and we offer flexible funding opportunities in the range of £60,000 euros to more than £2M euros for good business ideas that utilise space.”

Donna continued: “My role is to work as one of a new network of UK Regional Ambassadors for ESA Business Applications covering South West England and South Wales. I am tasked with raising awareness of ESA Business Applications in this region and in particular to encourage and support SMEs in accessing the funding, which is aimed at developing new, sustainable services using Space-based technology. This can involve using satellite capabilities such as location, navigation and timing services, satellite communications and Earth Observation as well as human space flight.

ESA want to help support companies developing new services using space based technologies in the South West and South Wales. But I also want to ensure those companies who are considering developing new services get real value from our support. This can be in terms of networking or looking for the right supporting partners, particularly if there are any gaps in knowledge or capacity to deliver the service under consideration. I have worked for SMEs and corporates for many years so fully understand the pains and gains in developing new commercial services.

ESA Business Applications will hold a launch event for the Regional Ambassador for South West England and South Wales on the 9 November 2018 at the Met Office with talks by previous successful applicants and world leading service providers. Please keep an eye on our twitter feed @ESABA_SW  for details of this event.  Space will be limited so I recommend booking early!”

Donna is based at Exeter Science Park and is happy to be contacted to discuss ESA Business Applications on: d.lyndsay@exeter.ac.uk.

Follow @ESABA_SW on Twitter to keep informed about regional workshops, seminars, Kick-start opportunities and open tenders related to ESA Business Applications.

The ESA website also contains additional information and useful links.

Date: 26 September 2018