The Government of Catalonia presents the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy to further boost the space industry

Today, the Government unveiled the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy, its new roadmap for the next five years. Catalonia is thus establishing a public capital fund to promote the space industry, with an initial investment of €40 million. The aim of the strategy is to further strengthen Catalonia’s space industry and contribute to Europe’s technological sovereignty in this field, while addressing major global challenges related to space, such as data management and exploitation or connectivity.

The Minister of Business and Labour, Miquel Sàmper, stressed that the Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy “reflects the country’s ambition to lead the future of the space sector through innovation, talent, and collaboration.” This new strategy also aims to strengthen Catalonia’s industrial and business capabilities in the space sector. “We are betting on industrial transformation through space technologies,” he emphasised.

The Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy is structured around five main pillars: fostering more innovative companies, more qualified talent, more alliances with key sectors, stronger international presence, and positioning Catalonia as a reference in the space sector.

To achieve these goals, a public capital fund of €40 million will be allocated to boost the space industry, in addition to a €7.5 million budget to launch the first actions in 2026. The Government’s objective is to mobilize up to €150 million in public investment over the next five years, with the expectation of doubling this figure through private capital. It is estimated that every euro of public investment will generate two euros in total.

This new fund will be managed by Avançsa, the public company of the Department of Business and Labour responsible for promoting Catalonia’s business ecosystem through public-private collaboration.

The strategy is the result of a participatory work process with the main actors in the Catalan space sector, as well as experts, institutions, and international stakeholders, with the aim of addressing the needs of a sector that must be key to the reindustrialization of Catalonia and that must be connected with Spanish and European strategies in order to position us in the first division of space. The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC — Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya), together with the i2CAT research centre and the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC), played a key role in shaping the strategy and will continue to be essential in its implementation.

The new strategy foresees eight satellite missions by 2030 to strengthen European sovereignty in two main areas:

• Earth observation, to address situations such as droughts, floods, and other emergencies.
• Communications, to reach remote areas and respond to situations such as power outages.

These missions aim to build capacity within the sector, obtain valuable data, and equip Catalonia with new space infrastructure.

The Catalonia Space 2030 Strategy was presented at the Parc Astronòmic del Montsec in Àger, presided over by Minister Sàmper and attended by Maria Galindo, Secretary of Digital Policies. The event also featured Juan Carlos Cortés, Director of the Spanish Space Agency (AEE); Xavier Benedicto, Director of Navigation Programmes at the European Space Agency (ESA); Albert Tort, Secretary for Telecommunications and Digital Transformation; and Carles Ruiz, President of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC).

Representing Catalonia’s collaborating institutions in the space field were Xavier Luri (Director of the IEEC), Sergi Figuerola (Director of i2CAT), and Antonio Magariños (Director of ICGC).

The event was conducted by Joan de Dalmau, professor and former Director of the International Space University (ISU), who also moderated a roundtable with space industry representatives Rafel Jordà (CEO of Open Cosmos), Roser Roca (CEO of Airbus GeoTech), and Adrià Argemí (CEO of Pangea Propulsion).