- Category: Latest News
- 2025-07-17
As part of the EU Global Gateway strategy, the Africa–EU Space Partnership Programme strengthens collaboration between the European Union and Africa in the field of space technologies, services, and applications.
By promoting the use of space-based data and enhancing the capabilities of institutions and the private sector, the Programme enables African nations to tackle critical societal issues. These efforts support environmental monitoring, improve resilience to natural disasters, and facilitate the implementation of advanced early warning systems
The Programme targets Sub-Saharan Africa with a total budget of € 45 million. It is funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) and implemented by five partners.
- The African Space Agency (AfSA)
- The African Union Commission (AUC)
- Agence pour la sécurité de la navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar (ASECNA)
- The European Space Agency (ESA)
- The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
- The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)
Five calls are currently issued or intended by ESA:
- EU-AFRICA SPP – Institutional Cooperation: Closing on 04/09/2025, the main objective of this tender is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the African stakeholders in preparation of operating the African Space Agency in terms of programmatic design and planning, knowledge transfer, as well as outreach.
- EU-AFRICA SPP – Continental Innovation: Closing on 09/09/2025, the main objective of this procurement is to set up a capacity development programme dedicated to the EO private sector in Africa.
- EU-AFRICA SPP – Africa Business Innovation: This tender aims to set up a Phi-Lab in Africa, to boost and support the African start-up ecosystem in the Earth Observation domain, leveraging on ESAPhi-LAB and ESA BIC expertise.
- EU-AFRICA SPP – EO Application Innovation in agriculture in Nigeria within the Africa-EU Space Partnership Programme: The project aims to enhance the machine learning and AI capabilities of the National Space Research and Development Agency and other federal agencies. It will provide specialised training to their personnel, as well as to key agricultural stakeholders, while co-developing an open-source Climate-Smart Information System (CSIS).
- EU-AFRICA SPP New Space Partnership for EO mission: the main objective of the activity is to perform a feasibility study of an EO mission (based on Small satellite or CubeSat platform) responding to requirements driven by the African needs and EO applications.
The calls can be accessed on the ESA-Star webpage. Registration is mandatory for downloading the full tender documentation: https://esastar-publication-ext.sso.esa.int/