European Union faces a shortage of specialists who have completed STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) studies. CEDEFOP’s (European Center for the Development of Vocational Training) official statistics show that by 2025 the demand on highly qualified workforce will increase by 12% compared to the current state, the employment structure will also change: about 80% of new established jobs will require high qualifications. Long-term forecasts clearly indicate that the demand for qualified employees will be increasing constantly due to changes in the sectoral employment structure and changes in knowledge-based technologies.The FUTURE SPACE project provides a significant change in learning and teaching STEM subjects in upper secondary schools in Poland, Greece and the Netherlands. The implementation of the project will allow to reduce the number of low achievers in natural science subjects, increase the number of candidates for STEM studies and introduce young people to career opportunities in the space sector and other innovative industries. Modern tools and innovative didactic forms combined with an attractive subject matter of classes, should also result in a better understanding of STEM issues.The two main deliverables of the project are the Space Schools Programme and the Space Programme for science centres and other non-formal education organisations. Thematic modules are devoted to the XXI century’s global challenges and practical solutions offered by research and exploration of the near space. Both Programmes indicate economic and social benefits of space exploration, as well as career paths in industry, available not only to STEM specialists, but also to lawyers or graduates in social sciences. The Programmes will use a variety of didactic materials, such as short videos, ICT tools, and even an astronomical show for mobile planetariums. The aim of the Space Schools Programme is not to replace the existing curricula of individual STEM subjects, but to extend their content, present real-life applications to theoretical school knowledge and indicate the interdisciplinary nature of all STEM subjects. The Programme will also contain practical information for schools on how to organize classes and teaching process.The Space Programme for science centres and other non-formal learning and teaching institutions and organisations is a significant modification of the Space School Programme. The Space Programme is based on a wide range of training experience as well as expertise of the project foreign partners: NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam and NOESIS Science Centre, Thessaloniki. Both Programmes offer workshops to develop youth's skills and competencies: from basic scientific and technical ones, through cross-section to soft skills. We also have foreseen a pilotage for Space Schools Programme to guarantee it fits the upper secondary school needs. The target group of the project are teachers of science subject in upper secondary schools in Poland, Greece and the Netherlands, but also students to whom some of the materials will be directly addressed. Moreover, the Space Programme increases the target group by lower secondary school students. The Project will train a large number of science teachers and educators. The multiplier events allow to reach 10 000 persons it total (directly and indirectly) in Poland, Greece and the Netherlands and the next few thousands from all over Europe due to ECSITE conferences. Workshops and conferences for the teachers will be conducted by specialists of the teachers’ training centres and science centres. Schools which decide to implement the Programme should see positive results already in the second year of its application. Individual elements of the Space Schools Programme can be used separately in upper secondary schools, shaping the STEM science interests and showing interesting career paths for young people all over Europe.The implementation of the project will result in long-term benefits not only by improving the quality of natural science subjects teaching and introducing the latest didactic methodology to schools. It will also increase the number of candidates for STEM studies, and present attractive career paths in the space sector and other industry sectors related to new technologies. Both Programmes enrich the educational offer for schools and non-formal teaching and learning organisations and improve the competences of teachers and educators.

SUN (Space hUb Network) aims to increase the commercialization of space enabled solutions and growth of European start-ups and scale-ups in space downstream and upstream sectors by implementing a multi-dimensional concept. To increase the number of space applications being developed as well as involve SMEs into space sector, project will organize 4 Hackathons (at least 200 participants) and 9 Roadshow events for SMEs (attended by 480 stakeholders). In order to complement (instead of competing) existing European initiatives, these events will target stakeholders of specific industries that can mostly benefit from space technologies, for example, telecom, mobility, agriculture. Space entrepreneurs (at pre-startup stage), start-ups and scale-ups will receive an opportunity to participate in mentorship programme. SUN will be implementing 3 types of mentorship programmes based on the IRL & TRL level of each participant. In total, 80 start-ups and scale-ups will participate in mentorship programmes. Main goal of it will be to help startups advance their IRL and get access to finance. SUN will also conduct extensive ecosystem mapping and will aim to build bridges among current local and international initiatives supporting space start-ups and scale-ups. SUN will complement the initiatives by matching them with space entrepreneurs. Consortium has been formed to involve organizations specializing in space technologies and applications, incubation and business support, technical support, start-ups and community building. Project activities will take place in 6 countries (Austria, Ireland, France, Lithuania, Poland, Romania) but will target start-ups and scale-ups on pan-European level.

The aim of the SAT2Rescue project is to strengthen the use of satellite communication by government institutions and non-governmental organizations, in particular in the areas of response to natural and man-made disasters, optimization of emergency services activities, and telemedicine in humanitarian aid. Infrastructure and services under the GOVSATCOM initiative will be used. As part of the project, a telecommunications satellite terminal will be built, which: • It is portable and mobile: compact dimensions, flat electronic antenna and rugged, durable form allow it to fit in a vehicle, boat or carry in a backpack. • It allows you to establish reliable communication (voice and data transmission), even in the absence of a cellular network signal or outside the range of a terrestrial radio communication system. • It is fully automatic: when turned on, it locates itself using GNSS (including Galileo), locks on to a satellite (in both geostationary and low Earth orbit) and controls the antenna to track it. It can also dynamically switch between satellites without interrupting the connection • Enables you to establish and maintain a connection even while on the move (e.g. while driving) • It is resistant to GNSS signal jamming and spoofing • Provides the ability to divide a single satellite communication channel into independent virtual networks (Software Defined Networking) Usage scenarios will be defined, including: mountain and sea rescue and rescue operations in urbanized areas after disasters. Application software will be developed for rescue operations management centers, providing a situational picture of the operation, integrating geoinformation and weather data, image data from the Copernicus system, and geotag data collected via the Galileo system. The system will be demonstrated according to usage scenarios.

Protecting citizens and freedoms is one of the four European Union priorities in its 2019-2024 strategic agenda, with a priority to increase the EU's resilience against both natural and man-made disasters. The EU’s autonomy and independence is essential to implement the common security policy, including the governmental communications. SATCOM represents the ideal communication means for covering large geographical areas or operations deployed in remote or isolated sites. The European Union Governmental Satellite Communications (EU GOVSATCOM) Programme aims at providing secure, guaranteed and cost-effective SATCOM services to EU governmental stakeholders, such as Member States (MS) and related security organisations and EU Agencies or institutions with special emphasis on civilians. Its concept relies on the aggregation of the SATCOM demand and the pooling & sharing of the SATCOM service supply. GEXTRECS will define and demonstrate an End-to-End GOVSATCOM Service supporting Crisis Management. GEXTRECS will: 1/ prototype the Dynamic Planner, in order to de-risk an important GOVSATCOM Ground segment element, in order to enable dynamic SATCOM resources allocation in the most optimal manner, making use of advance heuristics; 2/ integrate a Network Balancer, which will enable the required interoperability ensuring that secure communications are preserved when using different communications networks; 3/ illustrate GOVSATCOM synergies with other components of EU Space Programme. The GEXTRECS innovation will be demonstrated in two use cases (land and maritime) in real End-User environments, while exploiting synergies with other EU Space Programme components such as Copernicus and Galileo. Annual demonstrations will simulate exercises in land cross-border and multinational maritime use cases. GEXTRECS partners covers the full SATCOM added value chain with GMV, HISDESAT, TTCOMM and the End-Users (ISAR, CSIC) complemented by POLSA as hub of the ENTRUSTED Network Of Users.

The project “Per aspera (ad astra)” (Latin meaning “Through hardships to the stars”) has developed an integrated master plan (a.k.a. roadmap) of activities and associated activity descriptions, for a Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) in Space Robotics Technology. The roadmap has been implemented within the SRC through operational grants, which have been recommended by PERASPERA and issued by the European Commission. The overall objective of the SRC has been to deliver, within the 2023/2024 framework, key enabling technologies and demonstrate autonomous robotic systems at a significant scale as key elements for on-orbit satellite servicing and planetary exploration. The PERASPERA objectives have been measurable through the immediate deliverables of the project, these being: • the roadmap, i.e. the master plan to coordinate all the activities for the whole duration of the SRC (delivered during the first year and updated twice) • draft text for the calls to award operational grants This proposal covers the extension of the present PERASPERA as Programme Support Activity (PSA), for the implementation of the Space robotics technologies Strategic Research Clusters (SRCs) in Horizon 2020. This continuation is necessary as the activities in the SRC were planned to cover a period of 7 years while the PSA was only awarded a grant for the duration of 5 years. This proposal hence covers the residual duration of the SRC.