Space the final frontier for agri-tech

Opportunity to take your experiment to the International Space Station

Microgravity, or weightlessness, creates an opportunity to develop more stress resilient crop varieties and other disruptive technologies, according to Markus Hauser, General Manager of the Space Cooperative Europe (SCE) project. The SCE project aims to encourage early-stage businesses and research organisations to explore the potential of space for agri-food innovation by putting three experiments into the International Space Station.

Markus explains: “The space environment, and in particular the absence of gravity, can be a game-changing factor for radical innovation, providing new insights into chemical and physical processes and plant biology – imagine a world without day and night, sedimentation, combustion, convection or phase separation!

“The aim of the programme is to stimulate new thinking and encourage new players to consider using space infrastructure for R&D.

“We are looking to take three experiments in agri-food up to the International Space Station, to exploit microgravity and run studies that would be otherwise impossible to do on the Earth’s surface. ”

The International Space Station already offers a number of commercial services, including:

• ICE cube service, which enables researchers to run their experiments in microgravity within self-contained cubes; potential applications include pharmaceutical development, microbiology and stem cells.
• Bioreactor Express, a mini laboratory equipped with temperature control and a centrifuge to explore impact of gravity on biological processes; a recent “BioAsteroid’ project by University of Edinburgh is looking at the growth of biofilms.
• Bartolomeo, a payload hosting platform located in the Columbus science lab which supports experiments in material science, fluid physics and life science.

SCE has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Industry Accelerator for the Business in Space Growth Network. The network has two other accelerators for Advanced Materials & Manufacture and Life Sciences.

SCE has recently joined Agri-TechE and is keen to talk to innovators about the potential of space for breakthrough innovation.

Call to collaborate with the space industry

Companies, research organisations and investors that are interested in discovering new opportunities can now join the BSGN Sustainable Agriculture and Food Industry Accelerator by registering on the platform: http://bsgn.spacecoop.eu. 

Note: this call is now closed and the final projects will be announced in 2023.