SOCIETE D'ECONOMIE MIXTE D'EXPLOITATION DE CENTRES CULTUREL EDUCATIF ET DE LOISIRS SEM

Their core work

SEMECCEL operates the Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse, France — a major science center and theme park dedicated to space exploration and astronautics. Their core work in EU projects centers on space education, public engagement, and inspiring young people through hands-on science experiences. They design and deliver educational programs that connect space science to broader societal goals including gender inclusion, career development, and reaching underprivileged communities. As a cultural and educational venue with deep ties to Europe's space capital (Toulouse), they bring large-scale public outreach infrastructure to research consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (2015-2017) focused on traditional space outreach — running contests, coordinating national space education activities, and hands-on science events through Odysseus II. By 2017-2020, their focus shifted toward social impact: open schooling models, science capital theory, responsible citizenship (OSOS), and explicitly targeting inclusion gaps around gender, youth from disadvantaged backgrounds, and policy engagement (spaceEU). The trajectory shows a clear move from event-based outreach to systemic educational reform and social inclusion through space.

Moving from pure space enthusiasm toward using space as a vehicle for social inclusion, education reform, and engaging underrepresented groups — expect future interest in diversity-in-STEM and citizen science initiatives.

How they like to work

SEMECCEL consistently joins as a participant or third party — never as coordinator — which positions them as a reliable delivery partner for outreach and public engagement work packages. With 46 unique partners across 19 countries, they operate in large, pan-European consortia typical of Coordination and Support Actions. Their role is clear: they bring venue infrastructure, public audiences, and educational program design to consortia that need a credible dissemination and engagement partner.

Broad European network spanning 46 partners across 19 countries, built through large CSA consortia. No apparent geographic concentration — their partnerships reflect the pan-European nature of space education and science communication projects.

What sets them apart

Cité de l'Espace is one of Europe's premier space science centers, located in Toulouse — the heart of Europe's aerospace industry (Airbus, CNES, ESA facilities). This gives them unmatched physical infrastructure for public engagement: exhibition halls, planetarium, real spacecraft, and hundreds of thousands of annual visitors. For any consortium needing credible, large-scale public outreach on space or STEM topics in France, they are a natural and proven partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Odysseus II
  Their largest funded project (EUR 192,125), focused on pan-European youth space challenges — demonstrates their core competency in contest-based science engagement.
• OSOS
  Open Schools for Open Societies represents their pivot toward systemic education reform, applying science capital theory to make schools more connected to their communities.
• spaceEU
  Participated as third party, showing they are sought out even beyond formal consortium roles; explicitly tackled gender and social inclusion in space — a growing EU priority.