In 1986 the Director General of the European Space Agency created the Office of Space Commercialisation with the objective to define and to develop, in cooperation with the ESA Programme Directorates, a strategy to promote the industrial utilisation of space and to facilitate the transfer of space technologies and systems to the private sector. The Office contributes to the ESA Medium- and Long-term Plan by defining a coherent approach to involve industries in the funding, the operation and the utilisation of the Agency's programmes. The Agency's role is not in itself a commercial one, but rather one of promoting the development of a customer base, by recognising its characteristics and needs, and by helping the space industry to adapt accordingly. To this end, the Office of Space Commercialisation has initiated the creation and implementation of two mini-programmes 1. the Technology Transfer Programme 2. the Promotion of Industrial Use of Space (RADIUS in Microgravity) This paper describes the role of the Office of Space Commercialisation in defining a European industrial strategy in terms of ways to encourage the participation of space and non-space companies in the space commercialisation process. The mini-programmes of the Office give an excellent platform to demonstrate the strategic concepts developed and to help define methods and metrics techniques to measure the effects of ESA's programmes on the industry competitiveness and on the overall European economy.
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