Sep. 22, 2015

Formally launched in July last year with agreements signed at the Toulouse Space Show - and later relaunched during theAthens summit held 5 months ago - the cooperation between the Apulia Aerospace District (DTA) and the corresponding Greek cluster (si-Cluster) has taken a new, decisive step forwards, with the opening of an “Interregional Cooperation in Space” workshop in Bari, attended by leading local administrative and political figures.
The event in the Apulian capital, which was held over two days(one political opening session on 22 September at the Bari Airport Conference Room and a technical panel on 23 September at Sitael in Mola di Bari), was attended by a wide range of speakers and guests representing space agencies, companies in the sector, universities and research centres.

The first row was taken up by Regional President Michele Emiliano, President of the Nereus network (which groups together the leading European sector clusters) Niki Vendola, and Italian Space Agency President Roberto Battiston. International organisation relations manager Nikos Prekas took part via video-link from Athens. Italian astronaut Maurizio Cheliwas one of many celebrity guests.
"With the ‘Control Booth’ model that we are currently using, regional authorities are a particularly important partner for coordinating national space policy”, commented Battiston. “For example, I have just got back from Sweden, and I was wondering why the country is so rich, despite having a difficult climate and a much lower population than Italy has? The answer is simple: because they work together!".

The magic words, therefore, are staying together and working together”, explained the President of ASI. “It's not just a question of ‘family management’, but actually directing the government's work. Working together means putting regional and national resources together in an intelligent way. If we're successful in one case, we can multiply it and activate a national operating policy for space.”
Battiston concluded by saying that “In this sense, the collaboration between Apulia and the Italian Space Agency has proved to be both long-standing and effective, and I am sure this will continue in the future”.
The two-day event in the Apulian capital is also part of a full week of initiatives held from 21 to 26 September as part of theEuropean Territorial Cooperation “Greece-Italy” Program, which the Apulia Region is taking part in for the fourth year running.

Emiliano explained that “The aerospace sector is strategic and has a high added value: investment in research and industrial patent applications leads to important results on an employment level, both in terms of quality and numbers”.
“The aerospace district is one of the areas that we are most confident about in terms of building our future”, added the Regional President; “being in space is not about having fun, just to see what it's like. It's a place where it is easier to see the future, and since politics is about foreseeing the future and making decisions, I have asked everyone to pay close attention to measuring the results of any activity that we do using European funds”.

The vitality of the Apulian aerospace district has been in the spotlight for some time: the territory hosts more than 80 companies in the sector, employing around 6,000 people - including researchers - with an export value that grew by 15% in 2014 (against a smaller, although nonetheless important, 4.5% national growth).*
Regional Councillor for Economic Development, Loredana Capone, commented that “Given this context, it is fundamental for Regions, districts and clusters to cooperate in order to make the best use of European resources. Even more so because the EU will be investing as much as twelve billion euros in space as part of the 2014-2020 planning activities, and Italy will be receiving 1.5 billion of that”.

“Agreements between the districts are a strategic tool for increasing our capacity to use the resources offered by large-scale European programs such as Horizon 2020”, addedGiuseppe Acierno, President of the DTA. He continued that “Apulia has focussed strongly on the aerospace sector, and now has a district that is of European excellence, ranging from the construction of micro-satellites to Earth observation services, in addition to strong scientific research and training capacities”.
The two-day event will also include some promotional activities such as the Apulia Space - La Puglia nello Spazio exhibition held in the Fortino di Bari area, the Italian Space Agency's “travelling” Missione Rosetta(The Rosetta Mission) show, and the Le donne e lo spazio(Women and space) photographic exhibition by French agency Sipa Press in partnership with the ESA, Nereus, the French space agency (CNES), the European satellite navigation agency (GSA) and the Toulouse Space Museum.