It is with great pleasure that ESA announces the winners of the ESA EPIC Health from Space Competition, an initiative designed to spotlight the most promising European space startups applying space enabled technologies to health, life sciences, and biomedical innovation.
The ambition is to help these companies move faster from innovation to real use by connecting them with the right customers, partners, industry players, and institutions. For that reason, the selected winners will be offered the opportunity to showcase their solutions with a dedicated booth during the Health from Space Conference and Exhibition in Cannes, on 24-25 March.
After receiving around 20 candidates, the competition identified the three strongest European teams with credible space enabled approaches and clear potential to generate impact and partnerships in the health and life sciences markets.
The Winners of the Competition
Frontier Space Tech (United Kingdom)
Frontier Space Tech is advancing biotechnology through research and biomanufacturing in microgravity. The company is working to industrialise on-orbit manufacturing and testing via two complementary assets: a large-scale bioreactor and a miniaturised laboratory, SpaceLab. The event in Cannes will prove valuable for the company to engage with two key stakeholder groups: biopharmaceutical organisations looking to run R&D in microgravity, and space infrastructure providers that can support orbital access, operations, and sample return.
Philomec (France)
Philomec develops digital twins of the human body to model physiological stress and is exploring applications in space medicine and astronaut health. Backed by CNES and supported through strong links with MEDES, the company is well positioned to build partnerships with medical and institutional stakeholders. The event can help them structure a clear deployment pathway by engaging research organisations and healthcare authorities, and by identifying clinical partners needed to validate and translate space derived insights into real healthcare applications.
Orbital Paradigm (Spain)
Orbital Paradigm is developing a re-entry capsule that enables biotechnology companies to fly microgravity payloads and recover samples. The event in Cannes is a strong opportunity to increase visibility with the health and biotech community and, more importantly, to connect with potential end users and pilot customers that need microgravity access and sample return for R&D.
Connecting European Space Innovation with the Health Ecosystem
At ESA, the objective is to help European space companies translate their capabilities into real world impact, including in fast growing sectors such as health and life sciences. The Health from Space Conference and Exhibition offers an environment to connect companies with customers, health authorities, research institutions, industry partners, and investors, and to accelerate concrete collaborations.
Through ESA Partnership Initiative for Commercialisation (EPIC) and ESA Business Incubation Centre (BIC) network, ESA continues to support the international visibility and market access of Europe’s most promising innovators, helping them build partnerships and scale solutions that deliver value for Earth while leveraging the unique advantages of space.
The agency looks forward to showcasing these three companies in Cannes and to fostering new collaborations at the intersection of space and health.