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Defence Industry and Space
  • News article
  • 26 June 2025
  • Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space
  • 3 min read

Call for Expression to participate in Supporting Studies of the PEFCR4Space – Now Open

Call for Interest_Supporting Studies

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) and the PERFCR4Space project team invites space companies to participate in the Supporting Studies which will be conducted as part of the development of Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCRs). 

The PEFCR4Space initiative responds to the growing need for sustainable space activities and is aiming to establish a standardised method for assessing and reducing environmental impacts across the EU space sector.  

This call of expression of interest will be open until Tuesday, 30 September 2025. 

To express your interest to participate in the PEFCR4Space supporting studies, simply fill out the EUsurvey: Supporting Studies.

We support a collaborative process and encourage you to promote this opportunity within your network. 

Why get involved?

Taking part in the supporting studies of the PEFCR4Space offers a unique opportunity to test and co-shape the European framework for evaluating environmental impacts and for communicating about the environmental footprint performance of space activities. 

Participating companies will discover first-hand the EU upcoming environmental footprint rules and gain valuable insights to the environmental footprint methodologies. 

Apart from gaining experience in the application of the PEFCR4Space, the support of expert Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) consultants will be available free of charge when reviewing your company processes. 

Selected participating companies will contribute directly to the shaping the environmental benchmarks for their specific segments.

What are the supporting studies needed for?

Supporting Studies are designed to collect high-quality primary data from representative companies from the space sector and across the different sub-categories defined in the draft PEFCR4Space. These studies will enable the refinement of category-specific rules, ensure alignment with the European Union Environmental Footprint methods, and ultimately strengthen the scientific credibility and applicability of the resulting representative products models for the defined sub-categories within the scope of the draft PEFCR4Space. 

The Supporting Studies of the PEFCR4Space will test whether the proposed modelling rules can be effectively applied to specific space products and assess how well the product environmental footprint methodology functions in practice.

Selection criteria

Space companies handling an activity covered under one of the PEFCR4Space subgroup(s) will be selected according to the following criteria:

  • Company must be a producer and/or operator of products or services in scope under one of the sub-categories of the PEFCR4Space: Earth observation, PNT, Satellite video services, Satellite connectivity services, In-Space transport services, Uncrewed launch services.
  • Company’s ability to provide data on applicable production models/technologies in the specific sub-category (to be collected during the period of February – June 2026).
  • Company is willing to sign a letter of commitment to provide data and make the resources available to engage in the different steps of the supporting study process.

It will be considered an asset:

  • If the applicant company has experience in environmental footprint assessments and involvement in the PEFCR4Space project as a member of the Technical Secretariat or working group member.
  • If the applicant company has experience in performing Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of products/services.
  • If the applicant company has an Environmental Management System (EMS) in place.

Also good to know:

  • Confidentiality will be guaranteed through non-disclosure agreements, and no public disclosure of individual data or reports is required.
  • The participation of Small and Medium sized Enterprises is encouraged.
  • Participation in the Supporting Studies is voluntary.
  • Selected companies will represent a broad geographical coverage.  

Timeline

The timeline for the supporting studies begins with industry engagement, which will run from June 2025 until January 2026. Following this step, a data collection period will follow from February until June 2026. Subsequently, activities will shift towards modelling and report-writing, with a review  expected in November 2026, and in view of  finalising the supporting studies by the end of 2026.

Q&A session 

An online Q&A session will be organised in early September to offer an opportunity for interested stakeholders to learn more about the PEFCR4Space supporting studies and the next steps, and about the overall objective of the PEFCR4space project. On this occasion, we will address any questions you may have regarding your potential participation in the supporting studies. 

More information coming soon. Stay tuned via the project webpage PEFCR4Space and via our social media: EUSpace

We encourage interested entities to stay tuned and consider joining this informative session.

More info 

Details

Publication date
26 June 2025
Author
Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space