EIC and ESA seek circular economy solutions for long‑duration space missions

Brussels, January 19th 2022

Summary

›The European Innovation Council and the European Space Agency launched a joint call for ideas to develop circular economy technologies and processes for space missions.
›They are soliciting concepts for reuse and recycling of water, food, oxygen, nitrogen and other scarce resources, with an emphasis on solutions that have terrestrial applications.
›Four challenge areas were identified: system design methodology, waste management, urine management and food management.
›Contributions covering technology building blocks, policy, legislation and investment frameworks will be evaluated and winners will be invited to a workshop to draft a joint strategy for the next decade.
›Submission deadline was 1 March 2022 at midnight and organisers provided a letter of invitation, proposal template and an introductory webinar; questions could be emailed to EIC-ESA.WhitePaper@ec.europa.eu.

EIC and ESA launch joint call for circular economy technologies for space

In January 2022 the European Innovation Council and the European Space Agency opened a joint call to collect ideas that would advance the concept of a circular economy in space. The organisers want proposals that enable long duration human presence on the Moon, Mars or other deep space destinations by maximising reuse and recycling of critical resources. The call frames these technologies and processes as not only essential for space sustainability but also as opportunities to generate synergies with terrestrial circular economy efforts.

Why circularity matters for crewed space missions

Sustaining human life away from Earth depends on managing a small and closed set of resources. Water, breathable gases, food and key nutrient cycles must be maintained while limiting resupply from Earth. That creates a practical incentive to recover valuable materials from what would otherwise be waste. The call recognises this operational imperative and aims to surface technical, policy and investment proposals that could reduce dependence on long supply chains and cut mission cost and risk.

Closed-loop life support systems:Closed-loop life support refers to systems that regenerate or recycle consumables so that the quantity of inputs from Earth is minimised. This can include physico-chemical processes like distillation and catalysis and biological approaches such as microbial bioreactors and plant growth chambers.

Regenerative and bioregenerative approaches:Bioregenerative systems use living organisms to process waste into useful products for the crew. Examples include algae cultivation for oxygen and nutrition, microbial consortia for waste breakdown and plant growth systems that recycle water and provide food. These approaches promise efficiency but add complexity in control, reliability and system integration.

What the call is looking for

Guided by decades of ESA research and operational experience, the joint EIC‑ESA initiative asked for contributions across four specific challenge areas. The organisers want proposals that cover not only technical building blocks but also policy, legislative and investment frameworks that would help deploy and scale these technologies in space and on Earth.

Challenge	Short description	Scope of contributions sought
Circular System Design Methodology	Frameworks and tools for designing closed or regenerative systems	Design methods, modelling tools, standards, integration approaches and failure mode analyses
Circular Waste Management	Converting apparent waste into useful feedstocks	Waste processing technologies, resource recovery, contamination control and stabilisation methods
Circular Urine Management	Recovering water, nutrients and other reusable components from urine	Physico-chemical and biological urine treatment, nutrient recovery and safe reuse concepts
Circular Food Management	Sustainable food production and nutrient cycling in confined habitats	Crop systems, food processing, storage, nutrient recirculation and integration with life support

How this builds on existing programmes and experience

The announcement explicitly references two lines of prior work. First, the International Space Station already demonstrates aggressive water recovery. Systems there reclaim water from crew urine, sweat, condensate from towels, and even humidity in exhaled breath. Second, ESA's Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative programme, MELiSSA, has been researching regenerative life support for more than three decades. MELiSSA focuses on creating closed food and waste loops using microbial and higher plant compartments.

MELiSSA background:MELiSSA is an ESA-led research programme that explores compartmentalised biological systems to regenerate air, water and food. Its research spans microbial ecology, process engineering and system integration. Over thirty years the programme has produced scientific knowledge and prototypes but scaling and spaceflight validation remain significant hurdles.

Technologies and trade-offs to consider

Any practical solution will need to balance mass, power, reliability, maintainability and contamination control. Physico-chemical units are often compact and predictable but can be energy intensive and generate secondary wastes. Biological systems can close nutrient cycles and provide food but require more volume and complex environmental control. Demonstration in relevant environments such as microgravity or lunar analogues is often necessary to validate performance.

Examples of technology areas relevant to submissions:Membrane and thermal distillation for water reclamation, catalytic oxidation or advanced oxidation for trace contaminant removal, engineered microbial consortia for waste breakdown, nutrient recovery processes like ion exchange and electrodialysis, controlled environment agriculture systems for food production, integrated sensors and automation for system control, and modular designs to enable stepwise in‑flight validation.

Policy, regulation and investment angles

EIC and ESA explicitly asked respondents to include policy, legislative and investment frameworks in their submissions. Long term adoption of circular systems in space will require standards on materials, waste handling and safety. Investment frameworks need to recognise high upfront costs and long development timelines while enabling technology transfer to terrestrial markets. The call recognises the dual objective of supporting space mission readiness and creating commercial or societal value on Earth.

Key policy considerations include establishing reliability and certification pathways for life support technologies, standardised interfaces for modular systems, and alignment with environmental and public health regulations when recovered resources are returned to terrestrial use or used in Earth analogues.

Process, evaluation and next steps

Contributors were invited to submit proposals using the letter of invitation and the provided proposal template. An introductory webinar was made available to explain the call. EIC and ESA stated they would jointly evaluate submissions and invite winning contributors to a workshop. The workshop aims to produce a joint strategy proposal that will guide activities for the coming decade.

Item	Detail	Where to find it
Proposal template and letter of invitation	Documents to structure submissions	Provided by EIC and ESA via the call page
Introductory webinar	Recorded briefing for potential contributors	Available on the EIC/ESA call page
Contact for questions	EIC-ESA.WhitePaper@ec.europa.eu	Email enquiries accepted
Submission deadline	1 March 2022 at midnight	Final time stated by organisers

Opportunities and realism

The call sits at the intersection of ambitious exploration agendas and growing European innovation support. For technology developers, the space context offers a strong motivation to push mass and energy efficient solutions. If matured, these technologies can create new commercial opportunities on Earth in water scarce regions, circular food systems and industrial waste valorisation.

At the same time there are practical constraints. Technology readiness levels for many biological and integrated systems remain low for spaceflight. Demonstrations require access to flight hardware or relevant ground and microgravity testbeds and can be costly. Translating research prototypes into certified systems for human missions requires long lead times and rigorous safety validation.

Where EIC and ESA fit in the European innovation landscape

The EIC is an EU programme that supports breakthrough technology development and scale up. ESA is Europe’s intergovernmental space agency with technical expertise and mission platforms. Their collaboration is logical from an innovation systems perspective. The EIC can mobilise funding, investment readiness support and ecosystem links while ESA provides domain expertise, access to testing facilities and operational requirements. The partnership reflects the broader EU approach to link space research with innovation and market development.

What to watch for after the call

Look for the results of the evaluation and whether the joint workshop generates a coherent strategy with concrete milestones. Key indicators of impact will include funding commitments for demonstrators, selection of technology roadmaps with TRL targets and pathway definitions for certification and market adoption. Observers should also watch for how the agencies plan to link winners into the broader EIC pipeline that supports scaling and investor matchmaking.

Finally, the success of this initiative depends on closing the gap between lab and system level validation in relevant environments. Promises of closed-loop autonomy will require sustained investment and coordinated policy work if they are to move from research programmes like MELiSSA and ISS demonstrations into operational life support for lunar or Martian habitats.

How to get involved

Interested parties were directed to the call page for the proposal template and letter of invitation. An introductory webinar was published to explain submission requirements. Questions could be sent to EIC-ESA.WhitePaper@ec.europa.eu. The submission window closed on 1 March 2022 at midnight.