Home

About Czech Space Office

Wed, 2008-09-03 09:49, Jan Kolář

Czech Space Office is a non-profit association. It was created in November 2003. The bodies of the association are the Managment Board, the Supervisory Board and the Managing Director.

The Czech Space Office is the central contact point for the coordination of all space-related activities in the Czech Republic. It fulfils tasks of the national information and advisory centre on opportunities to enter the international space scene and about space activities in the Czech Republic. The CSO makes the portal to the international space community for Czech science, R&D and business sectors.

Our activities and services include:

  • supporting the participation of Czech researchers in international space collaborations,
  • managing the relationship with ESA and contributions of the Czech Republic to ESA programmes,
  • providing information and consulting Czech parties concerned in space-related project specification, establishing contacts with cooperation partners and support in technology transfer activities,
  • facilitation of the space industry development and implementation of space applications through providing dedicated training opportunities
  • elaboration of the Czech Space Programme,
  • representing Czech Republic’s interests in official European space-related establishments as GAC, HSPG, FP7-Space Programme Committee, Working Group GEO/GEOSS,
  • membership at IAF, ESTP and EURISY organisations,
  • national contact point for Galileo,
  • student and outreach activities.

To reach those objectives, the CSO organises seminars and workshops for professionals from various fields of space activities, as well as educational and public events devoted to space related topics.

The Office closely cooperates with the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, which is a governmental body responsible for space activities in the Czech Republic. CSO provides administrative, technical and professional support to the Ministry required for different space related tasks and decisions. It also prepares meeting of the Czech Board for Space Activities (CBSA) and corresponding documents. CSO coordinates and administrates projects in ESA programmes and evaluates results of the cooperation for the Ministry. CSO also represents the Czech Republic in a High-level Space Policy Group chaired by EC and ESA. Finally, CSO is as well a member of the European organization EURISY promoting education and information about space technology and its applications, and a national point of contact for the World Space Week - a worldwide UN space outreach activity.

The CSO's work includes gathering and archiving information about Czech space projects as well as the information on foreign space programmes having importance for development of the Czech space activities. It covers management of databases of the Czech institutions both academia and industrial and data on space projects being undertaken in the Czech Republic, their status and results.

The office offers help and provides projetcs preparation consultancy, advises SMEs to incorporate into international high technology networks and to search for partners in international space projects. It supports relationships between research and industry.

Moreover, the Czech Space Office also offers information on the Czech space activities and advertises their results inside and outside the country. It arranges seminars and conferences and supports the attendance of Czech institutions and firms in specialized exhibitions dealing with space technologies.

All the CSO work is based on collection and maintenance a database containing data and information about space projects, results and activities of relevant organizations having relation to cosmic activities (presently database includes more than 200 industrial firms).

Last but not least, CSO serves as information point for general public as well as for professionals. It prepares information and advertisement materials describing capacities and potentials of the Czech Republic in space, documents about Czech space activities and their results. It also communicates examples and information on benefits of the space projects to schools and media.

Abbreviation used:
CSO – Czech Space Office
ESA - European Space Agency
ESTP - European Space Technology Platform
GAC - GMES Advisory Council
GEO - Group on Earth Observations
GEOSS - Global Earth Observation System of Systems
HSPG - High Level Space Policy Group
IAF - International Astronomical Federation