Current Barriers and Factors of Success in the Diffusion of Satellite Services in Europe
Article published Space Policy Magazine, Vol. 25 Issue 4, November 2009. Go to Science Direct Website for Article. Copyright 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Satellite services benefit civil society by helping tackle challenges such as climate change, the digital divide, etc. They have the potential to deliver concrete benefits to European society through innovative services supporting economic, societal and environmental policies. However, this potential has yet to be achieved. The paper argues that technological bias, the diversity of interests and initiatives among stakeholders and their individual actions do not always serve their collective objective to ensure wide diffusion of satellite services.
This Paper argues that it is necessary to make efficient use of public investment in research and development by supporting the transition of the results into the final operational service/product.Recommended measures include ensuring a better transition between the 7th Framework Programmes and European Regional Policy Funds, by designing calls that take into consideration the R&D stage but also the operational use of the resulting services as an objective in itself. Such calls would make it compulsory to include end-users from the R&D stage, and a business case for these to use the resulting services.
The Paper outlined Eurisy’s User Programme objectives, methodology and results. It was presented at the IAF 2008 IAC conference in Glasgow (IAC-08-D1.1.01.)