Industrial policy

ESTEC

ESA Member States receive industrial commissions in accordance with their contribution to ESA programmes. This 'proportional allocation' is stated in ESA's industrial policy that is renewed every five years.

During the past fifteen years, the Netherlands has always acquired more contracts than it would have done according to the proportional allocation, because ESA's largest location (ESTEC) is located in Noordwijk. This results in a lot of extra employment with respect to both technology and support.

Future space missions are only possible if the Member States develop the necessary technology. ESA strives to realise a voluntary organisation of the technology developed within Europe to prevent things from being developed twice. The Technology Harmonisation Advisory Group (THAG) is responsible for this task and it draws up the European space technology roadmaps together with the EU and EDA. These roadmaps are published annually in the European Space Technology Master Plan.

For its industrial policy, the Netherlands uses the NSO roadmaps. These are compiled prior to the ESA Ministerial Council and contain the possibilities and ambitions in specific areas within the space sector for the forthcoming years.