How to work with us

Companies and organisations - whether small or large, new or experienced - have the opportunity to participate in the ARTES Programme. Participation is open to all firms residing within participating Member States provided that your Member State subscribes to the ARTES element concerned. The 22 countries participating in ARTES Core Competitiveness are: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom. 

ESA will fully fund (100%) projects in the early stages of innovative technologies development where there is a perceived high commercial and/or technical risk.

ESA will partly fund (up to 75%*) projects related to new technologies or techniques where the end product shall have a clear market potential.

ESA will partly fund (up to 50%*) projects related to the integration and demonstration of activities based on existing technologies that are tailored to pre-operational products, systems and applications with identified market opportunities.

*For SMEs, the funding can go up to 80%.

Invitations to Tender (ITT) – ESA-initiated

One opportunity for placing contracts with ESA is the open competitive Invitation to Tender (ITT). In this case, ESA is inviting companies and organisations to submit a proposal in response to a particular subject. The full list of ARTES ITTs is accessible in the Funding section.

Open Call For Proposals – Industry-initiated

Interested parties can submit an unsolicited proposal to the ARTES Competitiveness & Growth, BASS, Space for 4S, Space for 5G/6G and Optical and Quantum Communications/ScyLight  programme lines, if the proposal meets the requirements of these elements. Click here for more information on the ARTES Open Calls for Proposal.

ARTES CALL FOR IDEAS

The ARTES Call For Ideas (CFI) is issued to gather valuable input from the satellite communication industry and experts to help ESA establish relevant workplans for ARTES Advanced Technology and ARTES Future Preparations to meet future satellite communication needs.

Tender Conditions

Before considering responding to any ITT, please ensure that:

  • Your company and your sub-contractor(s) are located within the participating Member States of the applicable ARTES element.
  • Your National Delegation will support your proposals where applicable. See the specific ARTES elements for more information.

Detailed conditions can be found on esa-star in the ITT Conditions of Tender.

ESA Tendering Systems

The official information platform for providing potential bidders all the relevant documentation and details concerning the intended and issued Invitations To Tender (ITTs) for Open Competitions and Direct Negotiations is
ESA-STAR - managed and operated by the ESA Procurement Department.

As of 15 March 2016, esa-star – ESA’s System for Tendering And Registration – replaced EMITS as the facility to register with ESA as an external Entity, i.e. potential Bidder/ Supplier. Existing user data from EMITS has been carried over to esa-star, which also provides access to your own entity-related data in order to verify, validate, modify or complete the registration-related data. Entities whose registration process in EMITS was in status “in preparation” on 8 March 2016 should re-enter their Entity data into the new esa-star registration facility.

The registration is mandatory prior to submitting proposals to ESA. Registered users (having obtained an ID and password) will have full access to the issued ITTs that are open to organisations of their country of registration. This will allow them on one side to download the whole ITT package (Cover Letter, Statement of Work, Draft Contract, Special Conditions of Tender, clarifications issued) and on the other side to provide their expression of interest (visible for ESA only or also for other EMITS/ esa-star users) of submitting an offer.

Related Links

ESA is pleased to publish the overviews of the latest status of the ESA initiated work plan activities for the following programmes in 2024:

ESA is pleased to announce the publication of the following work plans for 2024: