Nicosia, Cyprus. Europe’s future in space will depend not only on satellites and infrastructure, but also on whether it can build the workforce needed to sustain the sector’s rapid transformation, speakers at the EU Space Days 2026 conference in Nicosia said on Wednesday.
Skills gap
Experts warned that Europe’s space industry is no longer looking only for engineers and astronauts, but increasingly for professionals with expertise in artificial intelligence, business, law, cybersecurity and data analysis, highlighting a growing gap between traditional academic education and the sector’s evolving needs.
DG DEFIS senior expert Lysandros Stathopoulos said the pace of change in the European space ecosystem had made skills development a strategic priority for the bloc’s competitiveness.
STEMFreak Educational Innovation Centre founder Andri Vryoni said traditional education systems often fail to connect science with real innovation, discouraging young people before they even reach higher education. “Traditional schooling kills innovation, motivation, interests and children’s curiosity,” she said.
“We cannot wait until university to discover who is interested in space,” she added, warning that many students – particularly girls, young people with neurodevelopmental differences and those from vulnerable social groups – are pushed away from STEM education at a very early stage.
Changing perceptions
From the industry side, EY’s head of space, defence and digital technologies for EU institutions Monica Pesce said public perceptions of the sector remain outdated.
“People still think space means rockets and astronauts,” she said, despite the growing use of space technologies in agriculture, automotive industries, environmental monitoring and cultural heritage.
Infrastructure and autonomy
Against that backdrop, a separate panel at the conference turned to the infrastructure needed to underpin Europe’s ambitions in space.
“Space is no longer important only because of exploration and science. It is also critical infrastructure for our society, our economy, our security and our defence,” said Christina Giannopapa of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme.
She said Earth observation, satellite navigation, secure connectivity and access-to-space capabilities have become essential to Europe’s strategic autonomy and ability to make sovereign decisions in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.