Memorandum submitted by Andy Green (UKSA
01)
1.THE SPACE
INNOVATION AND
GROWTH STRATEGY
This input is written from my perspective of
Chair of the Executive Steering Committee of the Space Innovation
and Growth Strategy 2010 and subsequently co-chair of the Space
Leadership Council.
2. INTRODUCTION
In June 2009 the Minister for State for Science
Defence and Innovation requested the sector to form an Innovation
and Growth Team to produce a plan for growth for Space covering
the forthcoming 20 years.
The sector responded with over 200 experts from Industry,
Academia and Government contributing to a short but intense eight
month activity delivering a progressive vision of the growth possible
within the UK. In parallel there was a BIS Ecomics report which
confirmed that the sector was growing at around 9% per year, which
it has done all through the recession.
In the Strategy we identified that Space has
been one of the hidden success stories of British industry over
the past few decades. In 2007, it generated revenues of £5.9
billion in the UK, of which £2.8 billion contributed directly
to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sector also
accounted for 19,100 jobs as a direct result of its activities,
with employee productivity more than four times the national average.
It consequently contributes some £145,000 per worker to UK
GDP. The overall world market for the Space industry is likely
to grow from £160 billion in 2008 to at least £400 billion
by 2030—a 5% annual growth rate in constant 2007 values.
Our strategy was to set ourselves a clear challenge
to firmly establish the UK as one of the World's leading Space
nations and grow the UK's share of the global market to 10% over
the next 20 years. This drives Space in the UK from a £6
billion to a £40 billion sector and will produce 100,000
new jobs. We will not achieve this overnight, and the scale of
the investment needed to achieve this will only be manageable
if it is selective. But, what we need to do now is set a trajectory
for growth and it is vital that we create the right business support
environment and seize the market opportunities to deliver the
national benefits.
We are at a crossroads in terms of the strategic
direction for the UK. The UK's share of the world Space market
in 2007 was around 6%. This substantial figure is about twice
the size of many other major UK industrial sectors, but less than
that of our leading industries. However, if we take a positive
decision to go for growth, we can raise the market share significantly.
But, if we fail to step up our efforts there is a strong likelihood
that the sector will slide back to around the 3% mark.
Our Strategy identified 16 recommendations:
1. Develop a National Space Policy.
2. Ensure the UK Space Agency is sufficiently
resourced and empowered to drive economic and social benefits
from Space.
3. Develop a National Space Technology Strategy.
4. Ensure credit is available for satellite procurement
and launch.
5. Procure a sovereign Earth Observation (EO)
capability.
6. Take a leadership role in climate-change monitoring,
mitigation and agreement verification.
7. Develop Space as a complementary ICT infrastructure
to fibre-optic and wireless superfast broadband.
8. Use Space capabilities to help achieve UK
CO2 emissions reductions from ICT systems.
9. Reflect Space capabilities in future defence/security
planning.
10. Promote Space in future UK/EU emergency mobile
networks.
11. Secure sufficient future satellite radio
frequency spectrum and orbital slots.
12. Train the next generation of Space engineers
and scientists and promote STEM subjects in schools, colleges
and businesses.
13. Initiate and lead three Space exploration
or science missions by 2030.
14. Establish a hub and spoke model for Space
in the UK, and an International Space Innovation Centre at Harwell.
15. Invest earlier, and more consistently, in
ESA programmes.
16. Establish a Space Leadership Council to implement
this strategy.
3. RECOMMENDATION
2 RELATED TO
THE UK SPACE
AGENCY
The Strategy recommended that:
The UK Space Agency (UKSA), when established, should
be resourced and empowered to maximise the growth opportunities
for the UK Space sector. It should lead on all UK Space-related
activities including national and international negotiations and
delivery of the National Space Policy. It should have a remit
including civil, defence and security Space domains.
The UK Space Agency (UKSA), which will replace
the British National Space Centre (BNSC), should provide the mechanism
for delivering a National Space Policy that maximises opportunities
for the UK Space sector. It is therefore absolutely vital that
it is sufficiently resourced and empowered, as a lack of these
vital elements resulted in the BNSC's inability to fully achieve
this goal. The UK Space Agency should aim to develop itself into
an organisation capable of being a champion for the UK's Space
industry both at home and internationally, and in terms of functions
it should:
— be empowered to lead on all Space-related
activities for the UK in national and multinational negotiations
and in prioritising programmes;
— have a broad remit which includes civil,
defence and security requirements, particularly where these will
develop crosscutting technologies and applications;
— be responsible for the administration
of a national Space budget and provide the backing for the UK
to lead national and multi-national programmes;
— be responsible for procuring Space and
Space-related programmes wherever the procurement budget is held
within Government; and
— promote the UK's Space sector.
4. SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
RAISED BY
THE SELECT
COMMITTEE
1. What progress has been made in setting
up the UK Space Agency?
Although I am aware that there are changes being
planned there is no external communication of what they are and
so it is difficult to answer if any progress has been made. From
a position of being external to the Agency and indeed Government,
I can only say the perception is that the team involved, and the
method of working, appears to have changed very little and therefore
the Agency has been unable to raise its game to that expected.
In the Space Leadership council, which I co-chair,
an action was raised at the last meeting (in July) for the Acting
CEO to report to subsequent SLC meetings the progress being made
in the development of the new Agency, the next meeting is on the
14 October when a first report to the SLC will be made.
One of the recommendations in the IGS, recommendation
2, refers to strengthening the agency and asks industry to support.
Industry has responded by seconding three senior people to the
agency to work on the IGS implementation. Any wider involvement
or assistance from industry will not be possible until there is
an ability to discuss the proposed organisation and gaps in the
skills of the Agency. This dialogue has been planned for the autumn
at UKSA's request.
One particular divergence of the UKSA from the
IGS requested perimeter is that there appears no intention for
the UKSA to have any responsibility for the MOD/Security side
and the rhetoric appears to continue to only talk about a Civil
space responsibility.
2. How does the UK Space Agency work with
other bodies (national and international) on space issues?
It is expected that the UKSA will be the government
body able to work closely with all other Government bodies, both
nationally and internationally. It is expected the UKSA will use
these links to promote the sector and continually explore how
the sector can address the social and policy needs of the country
and give international leadership.
In order to be able to fully represent the sector
it will be important that the staff are recognised as experts
that all other Government departments accept the UKSA to operate
on their behalf, therefore it should be incumbent on the Government
or Agency to do surveys to confirm this.
3. Is the UK Space Agency more effective
at coordinating space policy than its predecessor, the British
National Space Centre?
This is the IGS vision of the future, not only
will it co-ordinate but it will lead and steer the policy. In
this way it should deliver smarter Government, save funds, and
address some of our social problems of the future whilst building
an export led sector to grow to a £40 billion annual revenue
by 2030.
It is inconceivable that this would happen overnight
but the plans to enable this should be discussed.
4. What should the UK Space Agency's priorities
be for the next five years?
Achieving growth and delivering economic wealth
should be its focus. To achieve this will require a technically
competent and articulate team able to convince other government
departments to be flexible in their approach to encourage and
allow the UK space sector to be first to market and therefore
capture the export growth, also, when dealing internationally
to be able to convince other countries who perhaps spend more
than us in space to let the UK take a leading position.
The IGS recommendations identified above give a good
start to the priorities.
5. Is the UK Space Agency adequately funded?
Until the CSR outcome is known, we do not know
the answer to this. But achieving the growth goal to 10% of a
growing world-wide market will require a huge commitment and substantial
increases in investment from everyone: companies, financial institutions,
and the public sector. It will require a major uplift in UK funding
for Space-related programmes and technologies to enable the UK
to maintain its competitiveness in commercial, institutional and
exploration capabilities. Most importantly, the UK must maximise
the economic and social benefits from its funding. It is unrealistic
to believe that the UK can achieve its growth goal without this
increase in public sector investment. Therefore the IGS proposed
that the Government plan a doubling of UK spend, in real terms,
including national programmes, over the next 10 years. This would
raise the UK from its worldwide current position of 21st to 10th
in Space funding as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The sector fully recognises that this will be a slow
trajectory of increase whist the current deficit is addressed,
but we are at a crossroads in terms of the strategic direction
for the UK. The UK's share of the world Space market in 2007 was
around 6%. This substantial figure is about twice the size of
many other major UK industrial sectors, but less than that of
our leading industries. However, if we take a positive decision
to go for growth, we can raise the market share significantly.
But, if we fail to step up our efforts there is a strong likelihood
that the sector will slide back to around the 3% mark.
Andy Green
August 2010
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