On 16 and 17 September, Marine Weather Intelligence exhibited in the ESA BIC Village at ESA-ESTEC in the Netherlands, presenting its proximity alert system and exploring new data and research partnerships with Europe's space ecosystem.
Two days at the heart of Europe’s space industry
On 16 and 17 September 2026, Marine Weather Intelligence took part in the European Space Agency’s Industry Space Days (ISD) at ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Every year, the event brings together Europe’s space industry to exchange ideas, showcase capabilities and explore opportunities with ESA, through thousands of pre-planned business meetings, presentations from ESA directors and industry leaders, and collaboration forums.
As a member of the ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA-BIC) network, Marine Weather Intelligence was one of the 32 startups selected to exhibit in the ESA BIC Village, a dedicated area of the exhibition hall where young space-based companies present their products and innovations to potential customers, investors and business partners.
Our team was represented by Basile Rochut, COO and co-founder, and Rémy Fouchereau, Data Scientist working on the early detection of extreme weather phenomena.
Staying close to ESA and its network
Our objectives for these two days were clear: maintain a close relationship with ESA, present what we build, and identify the partners we can work with on joint projects. The booth was an opportunity to meet potential data providers and space industry players able to support our developments.
On the booth, we showcased our routing and forecasting platform, with a focus on our proximity alert system, designed to enhance safety at sea by anticipating hazardous weather phenomena in an increasingly uncertain climate.
It was also a valuable moment to understand the overall direction ESA is taking, and how startups like ours can contribute to it.
Moving forward on early proximity alerts
Industry Space Days were the occasion to discuss our project with ESA and Connect by CNES, currently underway within BASS (Business Applications and Space Solutions), ESA’s programme that funds and supports innovative services built on space technologies and data. Connect by CNES acts as a one-stop shop linking space technologies and data (geolocation, imagery, telecommunications) to the needs of companies, startups and institutional players, and partners with BASS to back this kind of innovation.
Our project focuses on early proximity alerts: using space-based data to detect dangerous weather phenomena as early as possible and warn crews before they reach the vessel.
This work builds directly on the research Rémy leads on the early detection of extreme weather events, and on the satellite data analysis initiated within ESA-BIC.
To go further, discover our HWZSea hazardous weather zone project, our approach to thunderstorm nowcasting and our white paper on atmospheric convection.
A workshop on startup scalability
We also took part in a very insightful workshop led by an Imperial College London research project on the scalability of startups. The session covered scalability vectors and diagnostic tools that help young companies identify how and where they can grow.
A warm thank you to Niels Eldering, Associate Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and Erkko Autio, Chair in Technology Venturing at Imperial College Business School, for organising this workshop.
Thank you, ESA
Thank you to ESA and the ESA-BIC programme for giving us access to a booth and for bringing together such a rich community of space startups, industry players and institutions. We left Noordwijk with new contacts, fresh ideas and concrete next steps for our space-based safety at sea projects.
Key figures from Industry Space Days 2026:
- 2 days at ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk
- 32 startups exhibiting in the ESA BIC Village
- 40 ESA Business Incubation Centres across 23 European countries
