The Ministry of Enterprise and Technology increased the contribution to the ESA’s General Support Technology Program (GSTP) by 70% compared to the subscription made by the Polish Delegation during the ESA Ministerial Council meeting in Lucerne in 2016.

GSTP is a very important instrument for the development of competences and skills of Polish engineers, as well as for creating a competitive advantage of Polish entities in the space sector. GSTP enables the development of technology to the level of technological readiness allowing to use the developed technology in ESA space missions and in other commercial enterprises.

Additional funds for increasing the premium come from the savings generated by the Ministry of Enterpise and Technology and from the special reserve of the state budget launched at the request of the Ministry.

The Ministry indicates that thanks to additional funds, in 2019, Polish enterprises will be able to apply for contracts under the GSTP program, which was previously suspended as a result of the exhaustion of subscriptions to this program in 2018.

The role of SPACE PL in efforts to increase premium in the GSTP program, and in particular the Working Group for GSTP and optional programs, and its president, a member of the Board of SPACE PL – Mrs. Aleksandra Bukała, should be emphasized. Since its inception, this group has applied for increasing the Polish contribution in the aforementioned ESA’s flagship technology program, which is one of the most important tools for building new competences and development already possessed by the space sector in the field of key technologies for space missions.

We hope that the increase in the GSTP program contribution will contribute to the development of the Polish space sector and will bring Poland closer to achieving the strategic goal of the Polish Space Strategy, which by 2030 foresees the turnover of domestic space sector companies to amount to at least 3 percent of the total turnover of this industry in Europe.