The 2012 edition of the Space Days is being organized in close collaboration with

La Belgique est un leader dans ce secteur de pointe, qu’est l’aérospatial. Nous sommes, dans ce domaine « le plus grand des petits pays ». Sixième contributeur à l’Agence Spatiale Européenne, nous y bénéficions d’une influence réelle et d’une crédibilité incontestable. C’est donc avec énormément d’enthousiasme que je souhaite promouvoir les « space days » des 26 et 27 septembre prochains.

Son objectif est de favoriser les rencontres entre les professionnels du secteur spatial et d’identifier de nouvelles opportunités scientifiques et technologiques.

Cette année, le thème retenu est « l’observation de la Terre » et je m’en félicite parce que la Belgique est un des acteurs de pointe du domaine. Elle bénéficie d’un savoir-faire internationalement reconnu à travers ses chercheurs, ses industriels et tous les travailleurs du secteur.

J’espère que les « space days » permettront de dégager de nouvelles pistes au service du développement scientifique et industriel et contribueront au rayonnement de la culture scientifique spatiale.

Paul Magnette
Ministre de la Politique Scientifique

Skywin is the Aerospace Competitiveness Cluster of the Walloon Region of Belgium. Created in 2006 in order to increase the competitiveness of Walloon enterprises in the Aeronautics and Space sectors. Skywin represents more than 110 members coming mainly from industry, but also universities and dedicated research centers. This represents a total of more than 6,000 direct jobs in the region for about 1 billion Euros turnover.

Skywin gathers several major regional players like Thales Alenia Space, Sabca, Sonaca, Spacebel, Techspace Aero, FN Herstal, Thales Belgium as well as numerous innovative and proactive SME's working in engines, structures, systems and equipment technologies. Members activities consist of R&D, design, virtual prototyping, manufacturing, MRO and upgrades of airplanes, helicopters, UAV, engines sub-assemblies or rocket components and space equipment and related services.

Skywin’s objective is to foster and promote the technological advance of the Walloon Region in the Aerospace sector and therefore to supply competitive products and services which are the mainstay of business development.

Strongly oriented toward industrial projects and benefits, Skywin activities can be categorized into 3 orientations:

• Innovation and Training Projects: Since 2006, through 7 Calls for Projects, Skywin is currently managing 40 projects (23 R&D, 8 Training and
  9 Investment) totalizing 244 contributions from industries, research centres and universities with a total budget of 134 MEuros.

• Clustering activities: The Clustering process is mainly based on Business Development actions, setting-up of partnerships, benchmarking, and technology watch programs.

• International business development: The Cluster also supports international business development actions and promotes its members know-how in various trade fairs and dedicated Aerospace events. Besides, the Cluster also promotes transnational or trans-regional cooperations and operates in good intelligence with similar clusters located in Europe.

Pierre Sonveaux
Chairman of the Board

 We also thank the following partners for their support

ULg

AWEX

Province de Liège

ESA