"Since both Korea and Switzerland have research and development (R&D) bases in bio and pharmaceuticals, the two countries can naturally collaborate in space life sciences and space-related pharmaceuticals."
On the 11th at The Plaza Hotel in Jung District, Seoul, Michael Gschweitl, technical lead for the European Space Agency (ESA) Business Incubation Centre (BIC) Switzerland, named space life sciences first when asked about the potential for space cooperation between Korea and Switzerland. Gschweitl said the countries' points of collaboration could widen from space life sciences to Earth observation data and on-orbit manufacturing.
Gschweitl supports space-linked startups at ESA BIC Switzerland. ESA BIC Switzerland discovers corporations that apply space technologies to terrestrial industries, bring terrestrial technologies into the space environment, or use satellite and Earth observation data. About 100 startups are currently in the program.
Gschweitl visited Korea to attend the "Swiss space industry day" seminar held as part of the Korea-Switzerland Innovation Week and met Korean space corporations, research institutions, and government officials. "This visit is to gain a deep understanding of Korea's capabilities and expertise and to find possibilities for collaboration in both business and research," Gschweitl said.
◇ Life sciences, data, on-orbit manufacturing… expanding Korea-Switzerland space cooperation
Referring to attempts in space healthcare and bio by domestic corporations such as Boryung, Gschweitl said, "The potential for Korea-Switzerland cooperation does not need to stay only with launch vehicles or satellite development. Starting with space life sciences, we can gradually broaden the scope of collaboration."
Space life sciences is a research field that uses space environments, such as microgravity, that differ from Earth to examine how cells grow, how protein crystals form, and how drugs respond. For example, life phenomena observed under Earth's gravity may appear differently in space. Leveraging this can yield data needed for research on drug candidates or the development of biopharmaceuticals.
Beyond space life sciences, Gschweitl also cited Earth observation data as a point of Korea-Switzerland collaboration. Earth observation data refers to information obtained by satellites photographing or observing Earth. It can be used to analyze climate, crop growth, disasters, ship movements, and logistics flows.
"I met Korean Earth observation corporations and, frankly, I did not know Korea's technology level and services had advanced this far," Gschweitl said, adding, "Beyond simply securing satellite data, the two countries can cooperate in the 'downstream' area of putting it to use in insurance, logistics, agriculture, and research." Downstream is the field of applying data from satellites to terrestrial industries.
He also named on-orbit manufacturing as a field with strong collaboration potential. On-orbit manufacturing is a technology for producing materials, parts, bio substances, and more in space. In environments less affected by Earth's gravity, substances can mix or crystallize differently than on Earth, enabling use in new materials and bio research. However, to actually make something in space, precise robotic arms, control devices, and materials technologies are needed.
"Switzerland's strengths in precision engineering, Robotics, sensors, advanced materials, and computing can consolidate with Korea's space manufacturing technologies and bioreactor field," Gschweitl said. "Actually producing something in space is still new and has considerable room to grow."
He added, "Korea-Switzerland cooperation should start from specific problems rather than grand declarations. Successful collaboration usually does not start with funding. It develops by people meeting to share a common vision, organizing ideas, and then attaching concrete financing."
◇ Tailored technologies, partnerships, revenue… survival strategy of Switzerland's space ecosystem
The hallmark of Switzerland's space startup ecosystem is solving highly specialized problems rather than competing in mass markets. "Swiss space startups build partnerships properly from the outset and operate by providing customized solutions," Gschweitl explained.
In particular, many corporations in the ESA BIC Switzerland program are deep-tech companies spun out of the country's two major institutes of technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL. "Swiss corporations compete by bringing new, customized solutions to market," he said. "That makes the universities' technology base all the more important."
However, he said startups do not grow on technological prowess alone. "In Switzerland, 80% to 90% of corporations have a very solid technological foundation," Gschweitl said. "So we look at the 'team.' We look at how the founding team works together, whether they have diverse technical expertise, and how diverse the team composition is, including gender."
Gschweitl said that the stronger a founding team is technologically, the more likely it is to show weaknesses when explaining itself to the market. "You must be able to say clearly what the target market is, who the customers are, and what value you are proposing," he said. "It is crucial to be able to explain your technology in a way customers and investors can understand."
Meanwhile, he cited growth capital as a bottleneck for European space startups. In Switzerland, there are relatively many avenues for early-stage funding, but capital for the stage of growing a company to the tens of millions of dollars is still lacking. He said this is a problem faced not only by Switzerland but across Europe.
Gschweitl did not see the lack of growth capital as merely a matter of investment size. For a startup with good technology to move to the next stage, it needs not only investors but also customers who will use the technology, partners who will solve problems together, and an environment where successive founding teams continue to emerge, he said.
"ESA BIC's goal is to increase the density of space startups within Switzerland and build a growth foundation that can lead to follow-on investment," he said.
He added, "While the amount of investment attracted matters, whether a startup is actually growing shows up in revenue. An increasing number of corporations surpassing $1 million in annual revenue (about 1.5 billion won) creates the ecosystem's density. The more corporations that generate revenue, the more employment and customer touchpoints increase, and talent accumulates back into the ecosystem."