TBIXI3

Frank M. Salzgeber
is Head of the
Technology Transfer
Programme Office of
the European Space
Agency (ESA).Prior
to this post he was
the Head of
C o m m e r c i a l
Development in the
European Astronaut
Department of the
Directorate of Human
Spaceflight Microgravity
and Exploration
at the European
Space Agency (ESA)
Prior to joining ESA, Frank held the position of Chief
Operating Officer (COO and CFO) at an IT start-up with the
headquarters in Munich, Germany between 2000 and 2003.
Frank also spent seven years at Apple Computer
(1993–2000) initially as an account manager and then as a
sales manager covering Central Europe.
Frank is genuinely passionate about the importance of
human space flight and the European Space Programme,
saying “a society that stops exploring, stops progressing”.
He holds a degree in Graduated Industrial Engineering.
Frank is a member of the advisory board of the Triangle
Venture Capital Group and the board of directors of the
European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN).
teamed up with CERN (the European Organization for
Nuclear Research) to create a STFC CERN Business
Incubator. The first of its kind, the centre aims to transfer
technologies developed for high energy physics research and
bridge the gap between fundamental research and the
creation of new products and services.
Paul Vernon, STFC's Head of Campus Development who
leads business incubation initiatives said, “STFC has very
strong and long standing relationships with both ESA and
CERN. The collaboration with CERN was directly made
possible by our strong track record of business incubation
through the ESA BIC Harwell, where we now have 17 hightech
companies that are successfully translating space
technologies into award winning, profitable businesses.”
Supporting fresh ideas, ESA TTPO is also supporting the
European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) - Galileo
Masters - which is a launch pad for innovative business ideas
and solutions involving satellite navigation. The winning
start-up of the ESA Innovation Prize is awarded €10,000.
“We have the technology and know-how within ESA, and
investing in such a competition, where European
entrepreneurs are developing this existing knowledge, is not
only investment in them, but also in future space and
business development,” said Frank Salzgeber.
This competition is a great source of innovative business
ideas in virtually every field of industry, and through it, the
TTPO finds and supports new ideas for the commercial use
of space technology, and seizing the opportunity as a deal
flow generator.
Among the innovative ideas for satellite navigation
applications originating from the competition's previous
years is a system that reports flooding in real-time, a
corporate application for tracking carbon footprints, and
commercial location-based services.
Based on this success the ESA BIC Bavaria was contacted
by the Fraunhofer Institute ISS based in Nürnberg, which is
well known primarily for the development of the audio
coding technique, MP3. Since the year 2012 this ESA BIC is
also hosting the incubation activities related to navigation
for the Institute.
Looking at the future, with countries lining up to open
Business Incubation Centres, and partners using the ESA
model, it is the importance of investment in future talent,
and building around it a solid framework, which guarantees
sustainability in every location.
We have the technology and
know-how within ESA...
theReport
Moreover, the start-up companies may take advantage of
other TTPO activities: the commercialization of ESA IPRs,
the ESA Broker Network and the Open Sky Technology Fund,
a €100m Venture Capital Fund managed by Triangle
Ventures.
“At the end of the day the vision is clear. We are looking
for products, not projects, and the customer is the start-up. If
they are successful, ESA TTPO is successful,” says Salzgeber.
Cosimo A. Quarta is a member of the Technology Transfer Office at the University of Salento, Lecce,
Italy. In 2006 he contributed to the establishment of the ITech incubator of BIC Lazio at the
Tiburtino Technological Pole in Rome. He implemented a start-up support programme in the
aerospace industry in co-operation with the European Space Research Institute (Frascati, Italy) and
made agreements with leading Italian research organizations CNR, ENEA , University of
Rome “La Sapienza”. Formerly Cosimo was involved in local economic development, EU project
design and entrepreneurship support. He is currently carrying out a PhD in economic geography on
urban networking in Europe.
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