ESA BIC is the business incubation programme of the European Space Agency. It is the best place for entrepreneurs to realise their innovative business ideas based on space technology or data. Every year, new startups are incubated at ESA BIC Noordwijk. If you are based in NL, this is the ESA BIC for you. You can apply to ESA BIC anytime via the Permanent Open Call. Selections are made twice a year (in Spring and Fall). The next ESA BIC Noordwijk deadline is 5 Oct 2026.
Your Timeline For Success
With ESA BIC, startups get up to €60K funding for product development, technical support by the European Space Agency (ESA) or partners, and extensive business support by SBIC. Please read the application instructions & start your preparation by already downloading the open call materials. Be sure to speak with our team and you can also get application tips via the webinars. Get any questions answered before submitting your space business proposal.
Discover your space at ESA BIC
ESA BIC Noordwijk offers technical, business and financial support to startups that use space technology for terrestrial applications or are developing a product or service for the space industry.
ESA BIC Noordwijk is part of a network of 30+ ESA BICs across Europe, which was first established to empower entrepreneurship and to allow local economies to benefit from space data and technologies. The Dutch incubator, the first in the network, was officially founded at ESA/ESTEC in 2004 before relocating to its new home at SBIC Noordwijk in 2011. Read about the celebration for the first 20 years of the ESA BIC network here.
The 2-year programme is managed by a local partner and for the Netherlands that is us: the Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk. The non-equity funding comes from ESA under the authorisation of the Netherlands Space Agency (NLSA).