International Engagement

Vision

For a Strong Europe, as a Partner to the World.

In a transforming world, with more nations conducting space activities and with new space agencies and private actors emerging, continuous dialogues, engagement and collaboration with relevant stakeholders outside of Europe remains an enabling factor for the effective fulfilment of ESPI’s mission and the ESPI2040 vision.

ESPI supports Europe’s international role, strengthens established relations, such as with the United States, Japan and India, amongst others, and offers cooperation and capacity building to new partners, including those in Africa, Latin America, and Middle East.

Through its engagement portfolio, ESPI undertakes regular efforts to monitor international space affairs and provide a synthesis of how major global developments affect Europe’s space activities at large.

ESPI also offers support to international relations at the national and ESA levels as well as to the EU space dialogues with third countries. In particular, ESPI support its members with Track II diplomacy efforts aimed at facilitating institutional and industrial cooperation and promoting regulatory alignment through the organization of meetings, seminars, round-tables in Europe and in third countries,

Diplomatic agility and innovative and adaptive governance schemes will be essential to navigate an era of fragmentation and multipolarity. Through its international engagement, ESPI aims to increase its efforts in networking, partnership building and participation in multilateral processes, within the United Nations and other frameworks.

Towards achieving this vision, ESPI will pursue cooperation agreements with multilateral bodies and third countries’ research centres, agencies, think tanks; expand its fellowship programmes to allow foreign researchers to conduct projects with/at ESPI; and collaborate with partners in the organization of events (workshops, conference, webinars) and in the execution of studies (reports, briefs, databases) on matters of common interests.

Key Initiatives & Partners

KEY INITIATIVES  

To fulfil the vision and goals of its international engagement strategy, ESPI drives diverse engagement activities across the globe, including: 

• Inter-Regional Dialogues: A series of annual forums with partners in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and Latin America, providing the opportunity to exchange information and mutually learn about the experience of the development and implementation of space policies among different regions. These dialogues typically blend technical presentations by government officials and experts, roundtable exchanges on different approaches to a selected overarching topic and networking opportunities.  
• Vienna Space Diplomat (VSD): An ESPI-led engagement platform gathering policymakers and space diplomatic community of Vienna in a suite of events to shape international space affairs and develop the role of space in a wider societal and economic context. 
• Global Fellowship Programme (GFP): Through its GFP, ESPI drives research collaboration with space policy experts outside Europe. The objective of this programme is to deepen knowledge, facilitate dialogue and promote active engagement between European and non-European stakeholders through involvement in various ESPI activities.  

• Global Space Policy Observatory: An annually updated booklet keeping track of selected states’ political evolution, economic developments, national space governance, policies and programmes in space sector. This initiatives relies on a proprietary database keeping track of all policies, legislations and regulatory frameworks in key countries and providing market intelligence to ESPI members interested in collaborating with third countries. 

• Bilateral Initiatives: ESPI collaborate with a wide range of partners around the world in the organization of events (workshops, conference, webinars) and in the execution of studies (reports, briefs, databases) on matters of common interests 

• Involvement in Global Engagements: ESPI staff regularly engage in networking, partnership building and participation in multilateral processes, within the United Nations and other frameworks. 

KEY PARTNERS

ESPI maintains productive relations and partnerships with a variety of international space actors, including: 

Engagement Highlights

An overview of ESPI’s international engagement activities in 2023:

Recent Highlights:

• Management and Sustainability of Outer Space Activities Conference
• 1st ASLI Colloquium on the African Outer Space Programme
• Reinforcing Dialogue with Latin America and the Caribbean
• From WRC-23 to the Next Cycle: How to Make Everyone Happy? (Hint: You Can’t) | COPUOS Side Event Recap
• ESPI Signs Zero Debris Charter Amongst Other Exciting Activities at ILA Berlin 
• Will Space Sit in the European Parliament? Key Report Takeaways

Stay tuned to our Events page for all forthcoming International Engagement events.

Global Fellowship Programme

In line with its policy vision, ESPI2040: Space for Prosperity, Peace and Future Generations, ESPI facilitates different forms of collaboration with space policy experts within and outside Europe, including through the establishment of its Global Fellowship Programme.  

The objective of the fellowship arrangement is to deepen knowledge, facilitate dialogue and promote active engagement between European and non-European stakeholders through involvement in various activities. 

Our current Global Fellows include:

• Vinicius Guedes de Oliveira (Brazil) 
• Rorisang Moyo (Zimbabwe) 
• Yui Nakama (Japan)
• Daniel Porras (USA)
• Victoria Valdivia (Chile) 
• Leyton Wells (UK) 
• Aoife Van Linden Tol (UK)

ESPI Global Fellows contribute to ESPI research and support the creation and operation of the ESPI Global Space Policy Observatory.