From ESA:

“The ESA Innovation Triangle Initiative (ITI) aims at supporting the fast introduction of disruptive innovations in the European space industry by combining the creativity, know-how and experience of the Research Community, Space Customers and Industry.

The technical scope of ITI is large, accepting proposals of possible disruptive innovations in any technical domain applicable to space, with particular emphasis on innovations coming originally from non-space industrial or research sectors. In ITI there are three types of contract activities:

1. Proof of concept: fast validation of new ideas and demonstration of its advantages;
2. Demonstration of feasibility and use: component and/or breadboard development up to validation in the laboratory or in a relevant environment;
3. Technology Adoption: support for the technology to be adopted by an European Space company(Customer) with the final objective of including the developed technology in their services, products or processes.

The ITI is based on a continuous call for ideas with a standing Evaluation Board that meets periodically (during the year), in order to ensure that funding for a proposal is authorised within few weeks.
The proposals must be submitted by the bidding entities using the templates provided on the ITI Web Application http://iti.esa.int. “