Between May and June 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) marked the inauguration of two ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) in Portugal, ESA BIC Centro and ESA BIC Tagus, reinforcing the country’s role in Europe’s space commercialisation landscape.
Implemented respectively by Instituto Pedro Nunes (IPN) for ESA BIC Centro, and by Instituto Superior Técnico’s Técnico Venture Lab, for ESA BIC Tagus, these initiatives extend ESA’s business incubation capabilities across Portugal, connecting regional ecosystems with European space opportunities.
Two space entrepreneurship hubs within the national space ecosystem
The recent inaugurations illustrate a coordinated approach to further developing space entrepreneurship in Portugal, with each ESA BIC building on regional strengths and strategies while contributing to a shared national framework.
ESA BIC Centro focuses on the Centro Region of Portugal, leveraging research and technical facilities and multiple partners to support space startups emerging from the Region. Through its distributed incubation model, ESA BIC Centro startups can be hosted at IPN’s Incubator, at the Pampilhosa da Serra Business Center or at Incuba+ Santa Maria. Overall, the initiative is funded by the Portuguese subscription to ESA, the Municipality of Coimbra and CIM Região de Coimbra. ESA BIC Centro builds on the legacy of ESA BIC Portugal, where IPN and a large group of partner business incubators across Portugal supported 69 startups from 2014 to 2024.
For ESA BIC Tagus, ADIST – Associação para o Desenvolvimento do Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) takes the lead in collaboration with Técnico Venture Lab and Incubadora da Escola do Mar dos Açores. The initiative is funded by the Portuguese subscription to ESA and the Municipality of Oeiras. ESA BIC Tagus focuses on the Greater Lisbon Region and leverages IST’s strong academic and research environment though not exclusively, its Aerospace Engineering community. Embedded in the Oeiras Valley Space Hub, ESA BIC Tagus is able to tap into the vibrant Taguspark industrial and student ecosystem.
In this incubation setup, both ESA BICs in Portugal partner with incubators in the Autonomous Region of Azores and, with further support from the Portuguese Space Agency, startups can benefit from the space infrastructure, space ecosystem and strategic positioning of the Azores in the wider Atlantic area.
Taken together, these initiatives underscore the potential of the different Regions while above all they highlight the opportunity to work in articulation and complementarity as two entrepreneurship hubs within the national space ecosystem.
Launching opportunities
The inauguration of ESA BIC Tagus, held at the Oeiras Campus of Instituto Superior Técnico, was themed “Space Tech Entrepreneurship in the Artemis Generation 2026–2040” and brought together representatives from ESA and IST, students, startups and institutional partners. The event included panel discussions and talks on the future of the space economy.
The inauguration activities for ESA BIC Centro took place at IPN, where a networking cocktail showcased the dedicated space incubation area. The inauguration activities also included a visit to the Pampilhosa da Serra Space Observatory (PASO), an astronomical observatory dedicated to near-Earth space surveillance and tracking. Overall, the inauguration activities gathered representatives from ESA, municipal and regional authorities, research organisations and institutional partners.
Kicking off startup selections
Both ESA BICs linked their launch events with their first startup selection. Through startup selections, both ESA BICs seek to strengthen Portugal’s space capabilities, contribute to the new space economy with bold business models and space technologies, as well as leverage existing data about Earth and beyond. The open calls of ESA BICs Tagus and Centro are planned to remain open until the end of 2028. In total, the centres will support 36 startups over three years.
From local initiatives to European competitiveness
ESA Business Incubation Centres are part of ESA’s ACCESS programme, within its ScaleUp element, and act as entry points into the agency’s broader commercialisation framework. They support space startups in transforming technical developments into viable businesses and help build the foundations for global space businesses.
The inauguration of ESA BIC Tagus and ESA BIC Centro reflects a coordinated step in strengthening ESA’s commercialisation activities in Portugal. As ESA continues to expand across Member States, Portugal’s evolving ESA BIC landscape shows how national ecosystems can enable new ventures and support collaboration at the national, European and global levels.
Today, 40 ESA BICs operate across 23 countries in Europe, covering more than 100 locations. In addition, the ESRIC Startup Support Programme operates in Luxembourg as a similar activity within the network, bringing the total footprint of ESA startup support to 24 countries. Each year, more than 250 startups are supported and a cumulative total of over 2200 startups have been nurtured to date.
Learn more on ESA BICs