About the European Commission
In the field of Space, the European Commission manages the EU Space Programme that includes, amongst others, the Galileo, Copernicus and the future IRIS2 (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) constellations, and carries out other initiatives to support the competitiveness of the EU industry. One of them is the IOD/IOV initiative, through which the European Commission offers industry, universities or scientists the opportunity to fly their innovation or experiment into space for demonstration or validation. The experiments can be stand-alone or ready-to-fly satellites. The services offered include the aggregation on a satellite, the launch and up to one year of operation. The initiative, financed by the European Commission, is implemented by ESA. So far, more than 90 projects have been selected and some of them have already been launched.