Earlier this month, the GALACTICA project team, led by AEI Tèxtils, met in Athens to discuss with the European Commission the activities conducted during the first year and to plan for the upcoming activities. GALACTICA aims at promoting innovation across the aerospace, textile and advanced manufacturing sectors.

During 2021, GALACTICA has supported more than 70 companies with over 1.25M€ with different mechanisms including collaborative projects under Orbital Projects, individual innovation projects under Pioneer Acceleration, Travel vouchers to attend learning expeditions and through hackathon prizes.  During next months, the project will distribute more than 1.7M€ to continue supporting SMEs cross-sectoral innovation and collaboration.

Next week, AEI Tèxtils will host a GALACTICA learning expedition with 12 companies coming from across Europe from aerospace, advanced manufacturing and textile sector to visit the Catalan textile innovation ecosystem. The GALACTICA learning expedition will visit several cluster members including LEITAT, UPC, Marina Tèxtil, LIASA and CINPASA.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Terrassa will also host the 2nd GALACTICA Hackathon final with 50k€ in prizes. The final pitching session and award ceremony will take place at UPC with participation of the 9 finalist teams.

Other upcoming GALACTICA activities includes the launch of the second call for proposals planned for mid-January and the organization of the 2nd matchmaking to bring together companies to establish synergies and prepare consortia to apply in the 2nd call. The second call will count with 1.64M€ in funding to support Orbital Projects and Pioneer Acceleration projects.