The Lombardy region is one of the 21 regions of Italy, with a population of 9,650,000 (2006) inhabitants and an area of 23,861 sq km . (7.9% of Italy). The capital city is Milan. Lombardy has its own constitution, on which Lombardy`s “Consiglio regionale” and Executive Government are based. The Lombardy region has 12 provinces and 1,546 municipalities. Lombardy’s GDP is EUR 305.5 m (2006), corresponding to 22.2% of Italy’s total GDP. Lombardy is Italy’s leading region in terms of innovation and is well situated with respect to the international market:

• Investment in R&D amounts to 1.27% of the regional GDP
• It is home to 12 universities, several research centres and the highest number of lecturers and researchers in Italy, amounting to approximately 7,500 people
• Of Lombardy’s investments in R&D, 74% come from private enterprises
• Of the patents filed by Italians with the European Patent Office over the last 10 years, 40% have been from Lombards.

Founded in Milan in 1989, Navigate Consortium promotes and manages new aerospace initiatives and applications (including navigation innovation). It has also served as the Lombardy region's coordinator for the European Satellite Navigation Competition since 2007.

Aerospace is the focus of Navigate's main area of business, where it participates in important initiatives occurring at the local, national, European, and international level.

In 2001, Regione Lombardia formally commissioned the Consortium to promote regional aerospace initiatives for northern Italy.

Navigate Consortium's partner companies include Elea, Intecs, Euroways, ITS, Altran Italia, Telespazio, and Thales Alenia Space Italia, with further Italian space organizations potentially on the way.

The Italian Space Agency was called into being in 1988 to coordinate all of the efforts and investments Italy initiated in the space sector in the 1960s.
In the 20 years since, ASI has become one of the most significant players in the world in space science, satellite technologies, and the development of mobile systems for exploring the universe. Today, ASI has a key role at the European level, where Italy was the third contributor country to join the European Space Agency.