Intern in the Commercialisation Department

Our team and mission

The Commercialisation Department is responsible for identifying and incubating new space start-ups and businesses with a commercial and competitive potential and setting up the environment to enable these businesses to commercialise their products outside the perimeter of ESA programs, including training, access to finance and provision of IOD/IOV opportunities.

The ESABIC & ΦLabNet Office represents a visible contribution to ESA’s entrepreneurial effort to boost green and digital commercialisation. By tapping into Europe’s enterprising communities, the office is expeditiously extending the reach of European commercial space into the global economy and society at large. In particular, the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) focuses on supporting entrepreneurs and early-stage start-ups using space related technologies and/or data. 

The ESA BICs and Technology Brokers focus on three main objectives: 
1. Addressing real customer needs 
2. Diversifying space as a business (NewSpace)
3. Focus on acceleration of commercial growth 

The origins of the office go back to the early 1990’s where it was known as the Technology Transfer and Promotion Office. In 2003, Business Incubation was added to its already existing technology brokering activities. In 2021, the office was reorganized into the ESA Commercialisation Department and in 2022 maintaining a commercialisation network of 25 main ESA BIC hubs, 8 Technology Brokers and 1 Φ-Labs in over 80 different locations across ESA Member States. At the heart of the network, the ESABIC & Φ-LabNet Office implements the activity through a common approach towards business incubation, brokerage and Φ-Lab commercialisation. Technical support, a consistent funding mechanism and standardised procurement guidelines are a key part of this approach.

For further information visit our web site: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic: Analysis of start-up companies supported by ESA Business Incubation Centres - finding the future "moon shots"

The European Space Agency (ESA) has a network of ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) across Europe. Each year around 200 start-ups with a space related business idea are selected for incubation. The ESA BICs help these start-ups to develop and grow their businesses. ESA routinely collects information about the incubatees and alumni of ESA BICs. So far this has mainly been done to evaluate the entire portfolio of start-ups in terms of field of activity, revenue, employment and investments. To develop a better understanding of which kinds of early-stage start-ups have the highest growth potential, it would be useful to examine start-ups from their initial applications to their post-incubation activities. Such an understanding could help the ESA BICs in their selection of applicants and increase the probability of supporting high-potential start-ups ("moon shots"). Ultimately it may influence how ESA BIC start-ups are selected for incubation in the future.

As an intern, your tasks will be to:

• Process and analyse data from start-ups on a portfolio level
• Propose a way to estimate the growth potential of start-ups in order to support the selection of start-ups for the incubation programme
• Identify opportunities for further automisation of ESA BIC data collection and data processing
• Provide advice and support to ESA BICs on data management
• Prepare presentations and reports on findings
• Perform other assignments based on operational needs of the team

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

Education

You must have student status and be enrolled at university for the entire duration of the internship. You should preferably be in your final or second to last year of a university course at master’s level in a technical or scientific discipline.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.

You are required to have knowledge and skills in one or several of the following areas:

• Statistics
• Data analysis
• Economic Key Performance Indicators for high-tech start-ups
• MS Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint
• Statistical software (e.g. R)