Providing Professional Education and Networking, Promoting International Commercial Space—An Interview with ISU President Juan de Dalmau

YU Weishu

China Aerospace Academy of Systems Science and Engineering, Beijing 201108

Juan de Dalmau was selected President of ISU and took office in September 2018. He brings a multidisciplinary background in mechanical engineering, business administration, space studies, and languages, as well as over 35 years of international management experience in engineering, operations, technology development,education and communications. He has worked in the private sector, in university and in space agencies. He attended ISU's Space Studies Program (SSP) in 1989 as a result of a joint scholarship from the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency(ESA). He retired from EAS in July 2018.

International Commercial Space Industry Summit was held on May 14 in Beijing. The summit was implemented with the development targets and principles set forth in the white paper under China's Space Activities and integrates its policy and actions to foster commercial space. The summit centers on the entire value chain of commercial space, focuses on the current policy to provide comprehensive support for interested government and industry and to explore potential business opportunities, promoting the stable and rapid development of the Chinese commercial space industry.

Juan de Dalmau, President of the International Space University (ISU), attended and gave a speech at the summit. Juan de Dalmau, President of ISU. In an interview with Aerospace China, Juan de Dalmau introduced ISU and shared his opinions on commercial space.

“My first time in Beijing was in 2003, for early discussions to promote ISU programs. These programs eventually happened in 2007. We had a two-month space study program. I think the cooperation between ISU and China started at the very beginning of the university.

We have seen an evolution in the way we work together.It's a similar revolution that we see also in the space sector in general. Today, there are more and more players who are from private industries. We see this also in our classes that we have more students who are sponsoring themselves or who are sponsored by a small company. We also see more and more of our alumni who decided to start up their own space companies. So that's why we are also adapting our teaching contents to provide more entrepreneurship”.

· You will take advantage of our strong professional network for your next project, career move or dream

All ISU courses are open to every nationality. For example,in the ISU's masters program, among the 50 students, we have 3 or 4 from China. They are now going for internships. They have to do work with space agencies, companies or research institutes anywhere around the world. There are international discussions every year. We can help any student to find an internship or sometimes to find a job in wherever they wish.

There will be an ISU summer school in Shenzhen in 2020.Shenzhen is an open city for innovation. I think our students and also our professors, they will learn a lot next year in Shenzhen.That's good to see that we can help with international cooperation through our teaching and research projects.

· ISU helps students in commercial space

We can see that China and other countries are very active with the new space in helping entrepreneurs who have an idea to turn their ideas a real business. So from the idea to the sustainable business, many things need to be done and to be taken care of. We can help these young people with ideas in their class with dedicated training, new skills, financial tools, helping them in preparing a good business plan so that they can present themselves in a professional way. We also teach our students how to find the right partners. Having the right connections to introduce you to the right people can make a big difference.You can do the work that would otherwise take two years in two weeks if you have the right knowledge of where to go. So what we are offering is entrepreneur services.

For example, our masters students have a 2-week course on entrepreneur space where they meet with people from finance, and with investors who have no idea about space knowledge. Our students have to explain why their idea is good for business. Then we offer them information services where if they present a good business plan, they can obtain special funding from different agencies. During these two years, the new entrepreneur can benefit not only from the funding but also from coaching about marketing, and soliciting certain partners for the business. As a result of being physically on campus, they can have daily contact with experts who come to give lectures.Also, to meet with our students who could be future employees. Our students can be invited for an exchange for 3 or 6 months as part of a startup company. If it goes well, they can be hired. So that's what we sometimes called the ecosystem. Different elements all live together and need each other.

· Obtaining experience from the model of European commercial space

As to European commercial space, traditionally the funding agencies are public. These governmental agencies give contracts to private companies to do the design, construction and operation of satellite systems. The first phase was public funding for big companies. The next phase was public funding for smaller companies. Now we are in a new phase which is private funding that is also very new in Europe where equity investors or space angels who are ready to risk their money in startup space technology. What I see work well in Europe is the so called ESA Business Incubation Centers. ESA has built a series of Business Incubation Centers in different cities. Here the new business receives funding from ESA and also from that local government.So jointly the money helps to fund the best business plans and the best startup companies. They give them physical space and advice from experts for two years. After two years, the companies have to fly on themselves. This model has been extended now to all the 20 centers in all of the ESA members in 20 different countries. It seems to be a good model because you have funding from the central agency and funding from the local government, and space experts and local experts work together to help the companies. Today, after 10 years, these business education centers have helped more than 500 companies to get started with a success rate of 80% which is quite high compared to other industrial sectors. Now what ESA is doing is giving advice even to non-member states. So for example, they go to Australia, Morocco, Israel and so on because these countries want to learn from the ESA model. This is a good model that can be applied in many other countries including China.

I think there can be investment in both directions. Chinese investors could decide to invest in European companies and European companies could have interests in investing in China's space industry.