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BNS - Estonia and the European Space Agency (ESA) are about to sign an agreement in Paris today under which finance will be provided for 12 development and technology projects in Estonia that ESA is hoping to put to its use in the future, the daily Postimees said.
The financial framework of the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) Charter says Estonia will provide ESA with 6 million euros over five years in annual instalments of 1.2 euros to cover the development costs of the projects, after which ESA is obliged to pay for the orders.
Madis Vooras, adviser at the innovation division of Enterprise Estonia, explained to the newspaper that ESA will later pay back 93 percent of the money.
The signing of the agreement allows Estonian companies and research institutions to get orders from ESA and participate in projects financed by ESA. For that the sides have selected 12 projects of Estonian companies and research and development institutions .
The development plans originating in Estonia belong to the areas of space science, remote monitoring of ground surface, manned space mission, microgravitation, satellite communications, and industrial policy.
The Plan for European Cooperating States is designed to help European countries, particularly those that joined the EU after 2004, to join ESA. PECS is helping to stimulate relations with interested European countries, to expand the overall European scientific and industrial base and to enrich ESA as a research and development organization.
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