On Saturday 4 June 2022, the International Space University (ISU) hosted SG[France] 2022 at ISU Central Campus. Under the motto “Road to Newspace”, ISU partnered with the French Chapter of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) to organise a one-day event for international students and young professional aged 18-35. This cooperation builds on the partnership between ISU and SGAC signed at the occasion of the 2021 SGAC Congress in Dubai (UAE). A record 120 participants from 29 countries attended the event.
ISU President Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund gave the introductory welcome and first inspirational speech to welcome the SGAC delegates among them several ISU Alumni such as Elodie Viau from the European Space Agency (ESA) or Guillaume Tanier from Leanspace. Other inspirational speakers included Catherine Kavvada from the European Commission, Member of European Parliament Christophe Grudler, or Stanislas Maximin from Alliance NewSpace and Venture Orbital Space founder. Other keynote speeches were provided by representatives from the French Space Agency CNES and Clearspace.
Many experts from the space industry, agencies and academia served also as experts on the technical roundtable. Prof. Nicolas Peter, ISU Faculty and Head of the Space Policy and Entrepreneurship lab (SPEL) co-organised the event and served as an expert in the Round Table 1 “Launch your business” to discuss the space economy and the role of the incubator including, ISU incubator in developing the New Space economy. He also served on the Jury to judge the best team’s presentation.
The one-day event helped to devise recommendations of various working groups besides “Launch your business”, but also on “Space systems development”, “Space data and its uses across the lifecycle of space missions” and “New usage of space”.
SG[France] 2022 allowed participants to think and debate on “What is the role of business in the future of the space sector and how can we foster space-related entrepreneurship?”.
Nicolas Peter stressed that:
“ISU is the perfect platform to host such a SGAC event to meet and discuss the next challenges in space and how to foster space entrepreneurship and launch new business ideas. ISU’s location in the heart of Europe allowed to have a European participation, making this year’s SGAC France event a European one”.
