The CoRaSat project aims at investigating, developing, and demonstrating cognitive radio techniques in satellite communication systems for spectrum sharing. Outcomes of the study will drive the definition of strategic roadmaps to be followed by industry stakeholders, European Institutions, and Governmental actors towards regulatory and standardization groups in order to ensure that the necessary actions are undertaken to open new business perspectives for SatCom through cognitive radio communications in support of the Digital Agenda for Europe.Flexible spectrum utilization is a surging trend for the optimized exploitation of spectrum resources, and the cognitive approach has already demonstrated its potential for terrestrial systems, but not yet in the SatCom domain. However, SatCom are fundamental to achieve the challenging objectives of fast broadband access for everyone by 2020: their inherent large coverage footprint makes them the most suitable access scheme to reach those areas where deployment of wired and wireless networks is not economically viable.CoRaSat puts together these two elements by considering Cognitive Radio approaches for coexistence scenarios in spectrum allocated to any SatCom service.For the first time in SatCom research initiatives, CoRaSat will systematically and thoroughly approach the Cognitive Radio concept considering SatCom peculiarities and characteristics. CoRaSat will identify scenarios and use cases, focusing on broadband applications and considering other services, like interactive broadcasting, narrowband applications, etc., where cognitive radio can improve spectrum exploitation. Technology enablers for the identified scenarios will be developed and demonstrated for specific use cases through analysis, simulation, and testbed implementations.Flexible spectrum usage has potential benefits for SatCom as well as threats; CoRaSat aims at demonstrating that the benefits outnumber the threats and open up new business perspectives