The University of Oviedo is one of the three European centres selected to take part in ESA S2UN challenge, an initiative set in motion by the European Space Agency (ESA) so that a maximum of 10 multidisciplinary student teams from this institution design a technological and business project related to patents of the aerospace industry, characterised by reduced dimension and weight products with high resistance which are also used in non aerospace spheres.

Together with the Asturian academic insitution, the University of Turín and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Oporto also will take part in the competition. The European Space Agency (ESA) puts at the teams' disposal 8 of their patents and puts them in touch with their researchers so that, on the basis of the same, they create applications of specific non-spacial products, valuing their technical and commercial viability.

The teams can consist of students at all levels and from different academic disciplines and they will count on the guidance of lecturers at the University of Oviedo. The competition is divided into two phases. In the first one, they will select the teams for the development of a model and a business plan on paper and, in the second phase, the selected teams will go in July to the European Space Agency for presenting and defending orally their ideas before the people responsible for the orgnization.

Some of the ESA's patents given to the young competitors are, for example, a waste management system in the space, a tool able to monitorise and detect any failure in telemetry systems, a solar controller, a lightweight structure or the mass design and the manufacturing of antennas.

The teams, made up of three to five students, will have to be in charge not only of the technological development of the project, but also of the business viability of their proposal. For that, the University of Oviedo will provide the multidisciplinary teams with the necessary training.

This activity coincides with the training acitivities organised by the Area of Economic Planning and Employment, in collaboration with the European Business and Innovation Centre (CEEI), on the development of business models and plans which make it possible to achieve up to 2 free-election credits. The participants can also sing on the training courses organised.