Reinforcing the UK space industry - ISIC is officially launched

The International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) celebrated its launch on Friday 6 May 2011 with an opening ceremony conducted by HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science.

Speaking ahead of the event, HRH the Duke of York said: "It is reassuring to see that Space is a sector where UK businesses continue to flourish. Innovation and collaboration – within the UK, internationally, business-to-business and business to academia – are essential to maintain this growth and to help the UK compete in the global market."

With a forecast growth for the global space market of between five and seven percent per annum to 2020 and nearly 10% growth over the last ten years in the UK, the space sector is an increasingly significant area of high-value manufacturing where UK businesses excel. UK businesses already cooperate and compete globally on satellite build projects, instrumentation, data exploitation and application development.

David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, commented on the opening: "The UK space industry is worth an estimated £7.5 billion, and to continue this success businesses need the right environment for sustainable growth and innovation. That is why space is part of our growth review launched at the Budget. ISIC provides excellent facilities for the private sector and academia to work together, encouraging them to develop new space applications and supporting the £10 million National Space Technology Programme announced in the Budget."

The ISIC was announced in March 2010, initially supported by £12.5 million in funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. It is located at Harwell alongside the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the European Space Agency’s UK office. ISIC is a not-for-profit company with partners from industry and the public sector and began trading on 1 April 2011.

Dr Barbara Ghinelli, Executive Chair of ISIC said: "We are very excited about ISIC; we believe it is the catalyst that will bring UK space activities and capabilities together and position us to win a larger share of a growing global market. ISIC integrates four cutting-edge facilities - an Earth Observation Hub, a Security and Resilience Unit, a Visualisation and Application Centre, and a Concurrent Design Facility as well as linking to the wider Harwell Space Cluster which includes the ESA Centre, the ESA-STFC Business Incubator Centre and a growing number of commercial companies. Built around these facilities will be a supported innovation environment, encouraging the sharing of ideas and stimulating growth amongst aspiring space and non-space businesses. ISIC will operate in a hub and spoke model, linking national and international capabilities."

ISIC industrial partners include Astrium Satellites (a world-leading satellite manufacturing company, SSTL (the world’s foremost low-cost satellite company), Logica (a world-leading space software company) and VEGA Space (a specialist in spacecraft operations and operations software). Public sector partners include STFC, NERC, TSB and the UK Space Agency, as well as the University of Surrey.

ISIC Press Contact

• Karen Rogers
  ISIC Ltd
  Tel: +44 (0)1707 368 000
  Mob: +44 (0)7841 066 839