The SME Forum is an annual consultation process during which ESA invites Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) and their associations to share their views and provide feedback about topics which affect their work with ESA and in the space sector in general.

In 2025, the SME Forum will take at ESA/ESTEC (Noordwijk, NL) on 23 April (a separate registration at a later point in time will be required to attend this on-site event). Consolidated comments and reactions provided during the SME Forum will feed into the next ESA High Level Forum as well as future considerations about the activities and policies of the Agency.

Preparatory meetings

To collect some first SME contributions and prepare the on-site SME Forum, ESA invites SMEs active in the space sector to contribute to the discussion by attending and actively engaging in a number of online preparatory meetings. These will take place on:

Tuesday, 21 January 2025 (online; 14:00 - 17:00 CET) [new date]
Tuesday, 18 March 2025 (online; 9:30 - 12:30 CET)
Tuesday, 8 April 2025 (online; 9:30 - 12:30 CEST)
Back-up meeting: Tuesday, 15 April 2025 (online; 9:30 - 12:30 CEST)

Representatives of SMEs from ESA Member States, Associate States and Cooperating States are invited to participate in the process on behalf of their companies. The Agency encourages participation at management level (1 participant per company).

The main points highlighted during the preparatory meetings will be gathered and will provide a first set of industry inputs to the SME Forum, presented by one or more SME representatives in April, which will kick-off the debate on the day.

The consultation meetings are held to:

• have an open discussion and collect views of the community which can be brought to the SME Forum;
• identify pressing issues and areas of concern for SMEs;
• collect inputs which could help shape the SME Forum agenda;
• provide an opportunity to those who cannot attend the on-site event in Noordwijk to share their views and provide feedback;
• inform SMEs about current issues of relevance to industry, including CM25 preparations and special measures conceived.

Draft agenda Meeting #1 (subject to change), 21 January

• ESA Introduction
• ESA Briefing on:
  • New ESA Contracting Regulations
  • Status of the Tripartite Tiger Team and potential measures to be implemented
• SME4Space presentation
• Open discussion:
  • Challenges for industry in the space market
  • Working with ESA: challenges, needs and evolution
• Other issues to be brought to the attention of the Agency
• AOB

Note: please ensure that you are registered on the Learning Hub with your corporate company email address (this can be checked, and changed if necessary, in your Learning Hub user profile).