These awards will support entrepreneurs and small
companies in the space industry. The Agency is working
with UK industry to deliver world-class science
innovation support, in line with the Government’s
Industrial Strategy, which emphasises the importance of
science, innovation and skills.
The business incubation centres in the Solent, Scotland
and the South West of England, will support start-up
companies by providing advice and support, giving access
to facilities and resources and collaborating on events
and initiatives with other business incubators.
Just under £50,000 has gone to a joint scheme between the
National Oceanography Centre’s Marine Robotics Innovation
Centre, in Southampton, and the University of
Portsmouth’s Innovation Space. The money will be used to
provide an innovation hub in Southampton with
world-leading expertise in developing next generation
Marine Autonomous Systems and an incubation centre in
Portsmouth.
In a scheme led by the University of Exeter, the South
West Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications
Partnership has received £50,000 to run the SpaceTech
Incubation Initiative, which will support start-ups and
innovative SME’s to exploit space technology. SpaceTech
will be delivered by SETsquared EXETER with
high-potential businesses being provided with ‘grow-on’
space at Goonhilly Earth Station, Helston.
A further £50,000 has gone to the Scottish Centre of
Excellence in Satellite Applications, based at the
University of Strathclyde, to work with Tontine in
Glasgow, a high-tech acceleration and growth space for
new businesses. The money will be used to support new
start-up and scale up businesses.
The space sector is a UK success story, with growth
averaging over 8% a year over the last decade, a turnover
in excess of £11 billion a year and ambitious plans to
achieve 10% of the global space market by 2030. Much of
this growth is anticipated to come from companies using
space-derived data or services in a broad range of
different sectors.
Helen Roberts, Regional Growth Manager at the UK Space
Agency, said:
“We are delighted to extend the network of incubators
supporting space sector start-ups to cover even more of
the UK.
These new business incubators add to the existing network
of SETsquared, Leicester Dock, UNIP in Nottingham,
Loughborough University, Business Durham, Science and
Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at its Daresbury
Laboratory site, Glyndwr Innovations in St Asaph, North
Wales and the European Space Agency’s business incubator
at Harwell.
We look forward to working with them and seeing them help
exciting new businesses to develop and flourish.”
