by Laura Hood
The UK has cemented its place in European space science following the announcement last week that the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire will host a European Space Agency research centre.
Paul Drayson, the minister for science and innovation, returned from a meeting of ESA ministers in the Hague on 25 and 26 November to confirm that the first major ESA research centre since the 1980s will be built in Britain. The centre, which is likely to open next year, will focus mainly on climate change and Earth observation. In keeping with the UK's traditional areas of expertise, a particular emphasis will be placed on robotics.
It will eventually house around 70 members of staff, the Science and Technology Facilities Council has confirmed. These employees, from the UK and abroad, will work not only on the construction of space technologies but also on analysing data gathered from ESA programmes such as the Kopernikus Earth observation satellites.
The decision was made during a surprisingly successful summit, at which ministers from ESA member states and Canada agreed to invest around 10 billion euros (£8.5 bn) in agency programmes.
Until now, the UK was the only major ESA contributor that did not have its own centre. Nicolas Peter, a research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute in Vienna, says that although other members were bidding to increase activity at their own bases, none could legitimately argue against Drayson's proposal for this reason.
Harwell was attractive to ESA because of its `multi-disciplinary environment' and the international interest in the campus, such as from Canadian space robotics company MDA, an STFC spokeswoman said. However, `The appropriate synergies will be sought with activities on the Daresbury campus and other capabilities existing within the UK and Europe,' she added.
The news is likely to boost UK business, says Peter. `It's a positive thing for the country because it enshrines the UK in ESA, demonstrating that it's willing to commit to play a bigger role in the agency's work,' he said. `That's good at the political, European level but also for the development of the workforce in the UK.' Other ESA centres have created opportunities for local industry through technology transfer agreements, he says, adding that the new facility will help the UK to do the same.