The European Space Agency (ESA), through its InCubed Ambassador for Italy powered by STAM, brought together key stakeholders in Rome for the annual event “Co-create. Connect. Innovate. – Shaping new project ideas between space & non-space industries”.
The event aimed to foster collaboration between Earth observation (EO) actors and non-space sectors, supporting the development of commercially viable solutions by aligning technological capabilities with market needs and industrial challenges.
Bringing together space and non-space communities
The event brought together more than 100 participants from across the EO domain, industrial, innovation and investment ecosystems, creating a space for dialogue between space and non-space organisations.
From ESA’s perspective, the day showed the value of the InCubed Ambassador approach: connecting EO capabilities with real industrial needs, market perspectives and innovation challenges across different sectors.
InCubed stands for ‘Investing in Industrial Innovation’ and is an ESA co-funding programme, managed by Φ-lab, that supports the development of innovative and commercially viable EO products and services, with the objective of accelerating their path to market. In this context, the ESA InCubed Ambassador Italy initiative, powered by STAM, promotes access to the programme and supports companies, research centres and startups in identifying opportunities, shaping business cases, and preparing high-impact proposals.
Insights from the event
The institutional opening of the event, with contributions from Michele Castorina, Head of ESA Φ-lab Invest Office, Francesco Longo, Head of Earth Observation Unit at the Italian Space Agency, and Stefano Carosio, Executive Director at STAM and ESA InCubed Ambassador for Italy, set the scene for a day focused on innovation, competitiveness, industrial needs and concrete pathways towards market uptake.
The roundtable discussion brought together different voices and sectors: Marco Iuorio for ANCE, Philip Thurn Valsassina for Confagricoltura Friuli Venezia Giulia, Leonardo Amoruso for Planetek, Michela Michilli for Lazio Innova and Alessandro Balboni for Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center. Their contributions helped highlight how EO can support innovation in areas such as infrastructure, agrifood, territorial development, industrial applications, mobility and finance.
The strong participation, the quality of the exchanges and the engagement during the co-creation sessions confirmed the growing interest in bringing space-enabled solutions closer to non-space markets.
Learn more on InCubed