Reform was delighted to host a panel event, titled ‘Winning the space race: Boosting the UK space sector for growth and innovation’, as part of our 2023 Conservative party conference programme in Manchester.
Joining us as panellists were: George Freeman MP, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Rt Hon Lord Willetts, Chair of the UK Space Agency, Suzie Imber, Professor of Space Physics, University of Leicester, and Professor Richard Ambrosi, Director, Space Park Leicester.
Um something unusual in the policy world that I inhabit and I’m so interested in which is to say a unequivocal success story for the UK a success story in the world of scientific research achievement and exploration but also a success story that branches into economic achievement Economic Development and one of the
Things I’m really interested in exploring today is the way that those two objectives those two successes marry up and the way that policy can help to create the conditions for further success in the UK space sector we’re sitting here now we’re actually in the seventh decade of human space era and
You’d know it looking at the way that the UK space sector is growing it’s growing it’s something like three times the pace of the rest of our economy by certain estimates it’s worth billions of pounds it’s employing tens of thousands of people and the ambition of the people
Involved in the space sector both of the government and Stateside and in the universities and private sectors means that there’s every child that they can continue to grow in the future as well so the UK punches above its weight in terms of scientific achievement with a home to pioneering achievements in lower
Orbit science in the development of new kinds of satellites Innovations and telestoppy both radio telestopy and light telestopy very low earth orbit thinking and one of the key questions I suppose today is to think about the extent to which we are supplying and helping to inspire the skills among
Young people and adults that will be required for a growing space industry as well because achievements so far a growing part of our economy is made to flourish as well so how can we do that how can we attach that if you forgive me the boosters that are
Required to keep this rocket in high orbit well that’s what I’m hoping our panel here today will be able to help us to answer I think we’ve assembled the perfect group of people to start to think about and address these kinds of questions um so starting to my immediate left we
Are of course to invite George Freeman the minister of State in the department of society Innovation and Technology but you often describe yourself as the minister of the space that you should I do yes yeah so that tells us a little something about what you think about
This part of your briefly as well to George’s left we’ve had of course the right horrible Lord and Willis who apart from having a story cabinet a shadow Covenant career is also the chairs 2022 Professor Susie imber is perhaps one of the most well-known faces the UK
Space and space science having won the 2017 BBC 2 Series astronauts do you have what it takes spoiler warning she did what it takes and it will be a I think an aspirable potential astronaut candidates but of course he’s also a professor of space physics at the University of
Leicester also joining us from Leicester we have Professor Richard and Rosie who is the executive director of space Park Leicester and I should add that all of this has been made possible thanks to our partnership with our fantastic sponsors today at the University of Leicester so blessed thanks to them as
Well so I’m going to start proceedings very simply by asking to run down the table from my immediate that starting with you if that’s all right George to give us a brief overview of your take on that set of questions about the future of space policy what explains our
Success how can we ensure it even more importantly true thank you um I just worked out today yesterday that this is my 31st Party Conference and I first came in 1992 that’s pretty good he was his first one was from 1776 76. we’ve got some incredible Talent on this
Panel so I’m going to stick to one bit of this agenda which is really the economic bit how do we rather than the scientific you might be surprised at here but how do we really attract the billions that we need into the UK space economy to make it a a globally impactful sector
Um and I just thought I’d say how wonderful it is to start a Party Conference if it’s on Space the conservative party novels on space with a pack room and I think he knows all about that due to David actually when I was working with David at Bayes and you
Set out the eighth grade Technologies subsequent governments have tried seven of them have tried five I’ve tried three I think the eighth grade nailed it um you put space in there and I think that as much as anyone to get people to understand it and I’ve put it right at
The heart of my portfolio um before I get my three points out I’d just say you’re aware we’ve created the department for science innovation technology we’ve taken all of the science portfolio that David and I had at base um it was three-fifths three and a half
Fifths of the whole of the base budget but a sidebar in terms of the ministerial it was a net zero economy and we put it together with all the digital bits of dcms dcms and Canada used to say we’re the digital City depart so you can tell that the whole thing needed
A bit of tidying up so we pray to the department um for science Innovation and technology and I’m the minister of all of the research budgets uh ukri the research councils all the public sector of service establishments innovate UK and The Innovation piece and my mission has been
To try and take that science research agenda from the sort of Dusty byways of Academia and white and put it right to the mainstream of UK economic thinking so that we get out of the Lumen bus cycle of doing fast economics which I would suggest driving bus politics and
Build a really sustainable long-term future I happen to think we’re on the cusp if we get this right to the new Victorian golden age of investment pouring into Britain we as the new victorians designing the agutek clean tech uh for the world leads it’s a massive Global challenges and there is
No greater laboratory in the world than the UK we’re not just a lab we’re an innovation economy an enterprise economy and if we get the city financing it and our Regulators leaning in and creating the regulatory lit runways we could actually generally be on the cusp with an extraordinary
Period where our grandchilds will say tell us how you got out of a decade of boom and bust and turbulent chaos and unlocked a new era of prosperity it’s there waiting for us and that’s what drives me on every day and I think there is no sector at which that’s more true
Than space so let me describe what I learned I didn’t know exactly when I started um there’s obviously we’re moving from an era of a cold war in Russia move on from now China and America big vertical Sovereign commercial sovereignty big programs to dominate this new frontier
And a global economy that needs to use space particularly the low earth Orbits for satcoms and Communications and 101 really exciting applications so it’s in that context that I suggest our future isn’t to be a military superpower space is to be the people who create the Regulatory and multilateral global commercial ecosystem
In which companies can access space safely easily and use a harness the extraordinary capability of the space sector to drive economic and and um I think that’s our challenge if we do nothing then I think China and America will dominate the whole thing and they’re very good at dominating these Supply chains
Essex a great company but we’re going to be Spectators on the space economy if we don’t actually move and decide how Britain can operate and I think this goes to the heart of our post brexit challenge I think there is an opportunity for us to be one foot in Europe not in the
Political and monetary Union but in the cluster of European nations allies Partners I’m Delight to go back in Horizon including Copernicus but one foot internationally there are if you look at the league table of other space Nations by asking officials or who’s in the second division
Are we top of the second division I asked no Minister it’s uh Japan Canada Switzerland France Italy as well where are we well we’re sort of out on our own we’re sort of um a deep space science Nation highly respected and we have incredible sort of Downstream so I’ve described this as a
Formula One pit Lane for the space economy we’ve got incredible expertise on some British Target companies sorry satellites uh cubesat reaction engines Astro and stevenage now so we may not have the AstraZeneca and the GSK the big primes but we’ve got an incredible ecosystem Downstream so I
Think the challenge for me is how do we really get the capital uh and get that sector plugged in globally so that we may not have a car but there are a lot of Formula One engines and cars out there that all need Services by the UK
Sector so that that’s how I’m thinking of it so I my three points are firstly if ever there was a sector that needs an industrial strategy this is it and David and I were calm carrying Advocates back in 2010 uh for the conservative party to embrace industrial strategy for the 21st
Century uh we don’t need beer and sandwiches and trade unions party number 10 doing deals on cropping up failing companies we mean the active State working with private sector in Partnership to create the infrastructure the framework we’ve done it in life sciences and we could do it in a number
Of other sectors and that’s what I’m doing in D said and I just made that point because I think the part of this path has been a bit shy of those words um it sort of has Echoes of um failed and corporatism and I beg to differ I think the Americans French the
Germans the Italians have all been doing this for years and I think sometimes laughing at how the Brits do all the science we back all the amazing technology we do all the research we’re going to give it away and I I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this party saying well we’re
Patriotic uh economically ambitious globalists who want this this economy to really be impactful so that’s my first point the second is if you look at the space economy in the UK it’s probably drop it as well 17. or billion we should remember half of that as a sky TV
Subscriptions but I didn’t say that to the little it but we need to be aware that that is the use of space at the moment for satellite satcoms the other half is the irony the manufacturing or the supply chains and if any of you haven’t been to Glasgow please do I work
There Toyota a city transformed largely by the space industry Satellite City incredible investment platonix and Quantum and when the labor leader of Glasgow city council says to me Minister the transformation in this city in the last eight years over the month is something to the whole that tells you
Something about the power of this space sector in Glasgow in Cornwall in the Guildford M3 Corridor down to the south coast in Leicester um all around the country it’s an distributive Network it’s a huge opportunity to drive that Regional leveling up that we really need and
There are some big crimes looking at the UK saying you’ve got brilliant r d brilliant universities a brilliant tradition of Space Science are you really serious about growing a supply chain I think that question hangs over me every day and the answer is yes so let me come to my third point which
Is one of the levers of and there are three I want to particularly highlight one is procurement it’s all my whiteboard Innovation Nation there are two pieces going across from the catapults deployment of funds skills keep leaders pick up procurement of Regulation whether you voted for them or
Didn’t I didn’t but we’ve got one these are new powers by state aid and we’re not we’re not by slow-moving the European regulation I think we should use them and here’s an opportunity so across government we’ve just asked every Department how much space data you use
And the first thing is they don’t really know them that’s fine they’re all finding out and secondly is they’ll be surprised by how much it is and I’m looking at whether we couldn’t create a procurement framework where every department and defra particularly if we’re going to modernize the way we
Do compliance to Agri environment has got a big demand for this which have been in totally gets it couldn’t we create a framework where departments subscribe to the purchase of space data couldn’t we go one further and create an sdri and say by the way we want all lots
Of little companies to support this and we’ll if you’re compliant the space agency think you’re good enough will give you a validation climate part of the UK space procurement program there are lots of little companies that would be a huge validation internationally so there’s a procurement bit um I’d go further
I mean in life sciences we’ve just placed six billion of procurement on normal vaccines in return for a multi-billion r d this is the new game and we’re doing it we haven’t done anything like that in space when you look at what the mod the Ambitions the
Med has in space now their procurement is very much the nodes procurement but I think there’s a huge opportunity for us to lean in with them some of it will be secret scroll stuff and other business but there’s quite a lot in there that we
Could do a proper UK as we do with Bae submarines which shipbuilding with space and without compromising our defense we could just might procure second is regulation this is the one I’m really focused on I can see a huge opportunity in the space sustainability agenda 8 000 satellites up there and three thousand
Redundant 95 money in assured imagine for a minute a Motorway system that you’re invited to drive on in which every third vehicle particularly the big ones are parked across the lanes in fact they’re driving around 95 of vehicles are uninsured there’s no Regulatory Compliance on manufacturing standards is that a moment where you’d
Like to drive up I would suggest not so um what I’m uh working on is couldn’t we create a very basic space sustainability standard if you are compliant if your satellite doesn’t just contribute to junk can be retrieved can be in flight service by brilliant companies like astroscale if
It’s got basic compliance we’ll give you more competitive Insurance quicker licensing and cheaper Finance in the city of London and I think we could make the city of London then without having a prime base here that would be lovely but in the interim we could make it the headquarters of global sustainable space
Financing don’t take it from me because when I went to the city you can leave me round table with Lloyds and seraphim everyone and ask them they said Hallelujah yes is that exactly right they’ve put together the type and we’re going to be unveiling it in a couple of months
That one challenge to me was and here’s my third Point Minister don’t do a union actually can you make sure some other countries are with us so I went straight off to Japan to Canada to Switzerland and said look rather than starting Beijing and Washington why don’t we the smaller
Responsible Sovereign space Nations create a kind Mark that everyone could come with us on if we took a lead did the high heavy lifting would you join us the answer was yes and I’m delighted to say that the Canadian minister champagne magnificent there is coming over in the Autumn to sign
And support that kind mark and I think the Swiss May well come along as well I don’t I don’t want to bounce them into it but now when the Swiss flag the Union Jack and the Canadian flag three flags that stand for international standards staff to support
A kind Mark I think we’ll start to see people say hooray and London will become Owen Lloyds in short the first ever satellites so I want to suggest that a big part of my job is using those leaders to make sure that we don’t just have a brilliant science Community but we
Create a big economy skills is key and we’ve got some brilliant people on my left who will talk about how we grow money wonderful fascinating thank you so much and George that was fantastic and it’s great to have you as a minister and I have to say when George convenes the
Meetings and brings together me and Paul Baker and the space agency and your officials we always have really good discussions and as you can see George is committed and enthusiastic and expert um and in many in some of the stuff I was going to say George has already
Covered absolutely making it clear that space is useful and promoting its usefulness across Whitehall there’s a definite relevant priority around sustainability a very exciting and interesting agenda and I should add that for me personally having been the five happy years Church of the University of Leicester it’s great to
See the role that University of Leicester participated in order so I would just supplement George’s remarks with a few quick other observations first of all the there is a a race on for who gets launch in northern Europe as we shift from equatorial world or still be large-scale equatorial launch
But as you start looking for launching your smaller satellites into Polar orbit there is a race on and of course New Zealand has got the Antarctic option and for us in the northern hemisphere there’s the north of Scotland there’s Sweden there’s Norway and it’s a close race I think Norway are
Now moving quite fast we have one advantage which George is always advocated which is we’ve got a legal and Regulatory regime in early the fact that we’ve got legislation around space launch going back to 2017 great Advantage for us and puts a bit ahead of Norway in Sweden and of course
We had a new key the first test of that regulatory regime and in fact regulatory regime can work the horizontal launch in crowded airspace in a airport also used for civil purposes then you can be pretty confident it can work in almost any environment a sex afford and also Northern Scotland
Mainland and companies like Sky Aurora and orbex and of course the developers of sex award is incredibly exciting so we’ve got a real opportunity there um I would secondly add to George’s list the lunar economy after 50 years when it’s been quite sort of special unusual lunar exploration the next 10 years
We’re going to see more missions and activity in the midst of 50. 50 it’s going to be a lot happening and one of the things which George strategically LED for us over the last season ministerial was the UK getting a role in partnership with Italy actually in Luna comms there is a service
Delivery opportunity of the people who provide the calm satellites around the room so that every Mission doesn’t have to take up its own homes and that is now something a lunar Pathfinder in which the UK has a significant opportunity so having basically not been involved in any lunar
Activity for 50 years we’re now becoming a serious player that’s another opportunity for us and I would put thirdly on my list the Leo constellation issue George and I were both Advocates of the government taking a strategic web fact is that Leo constellations are crucial strategic assets and we’re very
Fortunate to have one of the world’s Leo cancellations and operated out of Shepherd’s bush in West London and the obviously the new transaction the merger with util set is a big change but we still hope and believe that the UK can take this provides a big opportunity for the
UK and especially for a supply chain as we look to gen 2-1 website so I’d add those three items to the list and perhaps just to comment on a couple of other points So speaking as a chair of the space agency our space agency is nothing but doesn’t operate on the same
Scale as the French or German or even Italian space agencies an advantage it means that we don’t try to do large amounts of detailed technological design work in-house means we’re much more open to working with the private sector and our our North Star metric our priority at the space agency
Is to promote private sector space activity and we try to use our our modest budget we try to use our budget most effectively to promote private activity and uh it’s interesting still when people come from Esa and compare what we do with other space agencies
They see that that is a very good way of seeing your role and it is an unusual perception role it’s not how many other of the National Space agencies see there well I think that’s a great contribution we can make and then my final observation like thinking of the interventions about that
From this is I um never forget a very wise observation that Jean-Jacques daughter made the former general of Visa because I was turning up and making the point that British ministers and representatives always mean we’ve got to focus on getting a business return and promoting business opportunities and he said yeah
He understood that will happen Prince always came along and said that but he did at the end point out but by the way when I am summoned by a head of government a very senior minister across Europe from an Easter member State who want me to come and see them and brief
Them it is almost always about something you’ve done in science it’s almost always about a scientific mission that we’ve sent to a distant planet or to an asteroid and he’s so he reminded me that even on his evidence of what actually got National political interest we shouldn’t forget the
Importance of just doing the space based so yeah so I’m a space scientist and I work I’m working on a mission right now Becky Colombo when it’s going to Mercury or get there in 2025 and researchers in my field there’s all sorts of equipment from the James Webb Space Telescope you
Think about space weather we do all sorts of different things and I think one thing that makes us a little bit different perhaps is that the time scales on which we work are really long so this Mission I’m working on now they started thinking about it in the year
2000s get to Mercury in 2025 it will be there for a year maybe two years we hope we’ll see uh and that’s most of someone’s career so when we’re thinking about employment and skills we have to be thinking really long term we need people who have the expertise to design
And build instruments on these missions um and then we need to keep them for an extended period while emissions and development and launches and when it gets there and then on to the next mission so we can use this so our time frames are really really long and I
Started thinking about kind of skills in the workforce a few years ago like I accidentally ended up being on a realism television series about astral selections I look back and think how did that happen um and it got me really interested in in thinking about okay I’ve got all these
Videos of me floating around on a micro gravity plane and squashed in a centrifuge or all these things how can I use that to try to encourage multiple to get into stem because we all know we have a problem here I’m sure it’s no surprise to anybody that we need to get
More young people into stem and think about things like a levels if you have less than five percent of the students taking physics only don’t know that number it’s been really stubborn for a really long time and of that about 23 to a female we see big social economic buyers big ethnicity
Buyers as well and we have a mountain to climate and we’ve been trying hard over the years and we don’t seem to have shifted the balance and so I began to wonder you know whether we could start to think about about that and whether I could play a role with my silly videos
Floating around the answer is yes actually um in lots of ways so I’ll talk a bit about what we’re doing but this is not unless a specific program you’re a universities across the country that are working really hard on this and I think we can get a bit stuck in thinking that
Our job is to educate people age 18 and above but we need to work more on the pipeline getting people to that stage and you might think that a professor doesn’t necessarily belong in a primary school but actually I think we do because actually we’re the people that
Can say I have a great career in space this is what I do this is why I love it this is what you could do and there’s lots of evidence that by the time someone gets to Secondary School they’ve already decided if they want to do
Science or not so just working with a level students isn’t enough you’ve got to go back earlier and and not just reach the student but maybe reach the teachers maybe the local community you know we know the people’s parents families and Community influence their decision making in life so that’s quite
A big task isn’t it I’ve set myself a challenge there but there’s lots of ways that we can do that so whether that’s sending our undergraduates our PhD students our staff into schools primary schools secondary schools showing them some cool equipment that we have access to that maybe they don’t
Um we just started a residential program working with young people from widely participation backgrounds bringing them onto campus for weekends we live in Halls of residence I live in Hall of residence with them for the weekend which is a bit it’s been a long time you know we do physics we introduce them
To the university as a place that welcomes them that feels like a place that they can do don’t know anybody who’s going to University so that’s a big step for them and we’re setting up a homework program where kids from local schools can come to campus or after school we’ll support
Them I’m going to revise My GCSE maths and physics and a level maths and physics we’re going to give them a little taste of our research just to entice them to think about what they can do and we’re going to give them free hot meals before they go home again that’s
Just a few things that we’re doing this is replicated across the country so you know universities play a role not just in educating our own students but in supporting the pipeline all the way through and I think that’s important and then the other thing I was just
Going to mention is that uh maybe I shouldn’t be saying this but I don’t think University is necessarily the path that every student wants to take and I think we have to recognize that there must be different Pathways sent to the space sector that aren’t just a levels
University don’t we go and so we and maybe you’ll mention this have been talking a lot and thinking a lot about this over recent years thinking about apprenticeships and what we can do in that sector I think we have a level four and a level six apprenticeship and
Thinking about also just helping people to transition across to the space sector because there are lots of people out there with lots of skills that we need that are working in other sectors and I think it’s important for us to consider Pathways for them to come from wherever
They are and end up supporting our space economy however we can so there’s a few things that we’ve been thinking about I’m sure a lot of people are thinking about that too um and yeah I think the future is really bright if we can get this Workforce situation sources thank you
So perhaps I’ll touch on a couple of points um uh building on what was said already I think one of the one of the key things to me is that obviously the space sector is in a dynamic instead of change has been for a long time that’s
Not showing enough size of a beta I think one of the elements that we need to also take into consideration is that emerging space variations are investing quite heavily in the space sector so the space sector is becoming increasingly competitive with more countries uh developing their own their own launch
Capabilities their own Technologies so we have to be mindful of that one of the other aspects that’s that’s key for me is that when we think of sustainability we should be thinking this is Luna the the Earth Moon ecosystem taken into account says lunar space as well as the lunar surface so
When we think about regulation given all of the emphasis that we are seeing in terms of going back to the Moon uh extracting resources from the lunar surface we should be thinking about how do we sustainably explore and exploit the space environment and I think there are there
Are a number of of strands to that one it’s not just about the the regulation it’s also about the technologies that allow you to explore and exploit space sustainably uh the the other strand that I wanted to build on was the Partnerships and the importance of Partnerships particularly with our allies
Um one of the key things that was signed earlier this year was the Atlantic declaration uh that is quite an important development because it opens up the potential for greater interaction and collaboration between the UK and the United States but we should also not neglect the the smaller emerging and existing space growing
Nations um so from a from A spacebar Centric perspective we see the importance of underpinning Technologies the UK has developed and is developing transformational technologies that could have a significant impact on exploration on Institute resource utilization uh on developing the the lunar economy in addition to addressing some of the
Um Global challenges by focusing more on Earth observation and and science can help alleviate some of those global challenges so there are those those important strands from from Leicester specific perspective we are building those International Partnerships we are supporting the development of uh transformational Technologies by working with Partners in
Academia and Industry and the importance of of those Partnerships also straddles the academic industrial Dubai so focusing on developing a cluster in the in the heart of the Midlands that will build those International Partnerships attracting with investment and also create a more Dynamic academic industrial activity in the heart of the UK
So I’ll stop there and hand back to the chair thank you thanks so much I mean I think four fascinating interventions and contributions there ladies and gentlemen you’re about to witness an act of great self-control and that is I’m not going to pitch any follow-up questions to our
Speakers today simply because I think we want to maximize the type of intersections to ask questions as well I’m aware I saw you taking lots of notes there uh George so you may have the same response for you but perhaps we can integrate them into the Q a section
That’s just about to begin the only note I’ll give to our audience as I begin the Q a is that actually we don’t have a roving mic capability so I’ve been asked people to speak up and when they do so please introduce themselves at the beginnings of their
Questions as well so please do raise a hand if you’d like to ask a question well if you could all hear us thank you again so hands here yes thank you um manufacturing research center part of the cast World Network and we wanted to add something to your list actually
Which is the opportunity to think about space-based Power Systems and the work that worldwide is doing around the novel nuclear reactors and non-pro reactors which could be incredibly use when it comes to empowering lunar explanation or deep based missions and so great opportunity there to build on a
Strength of a good deal comments on that and just to double down on the Midlands and the East Midlands and we see huge potential around RV Western sold out of around a lot of nuclear working very closely with companies in that area a great opportunity there and I’m going to
Add one final point if I can which is stem is fantastically North stem it’s really good at the work that you do I think we need more stem politics I think we definitely need more stem in the Civil Service as well actually so if you can reach out to some of my former
Colleges or service that would be friends all right let’s take one more question and then I’ll come back to the panel um yes um okay great uh thank you very much uh James kennel ViaSat formerly uh formerly from in master very much appreciate your comments and maybe um marrying together
Um from Minister and also from from Richard that was starting to go in the direction of thinking about sort of what what sort of space power does the UK want to be um and you know we talked about the various different divisions and potentially being being in the in the
Pit Lane and it was strike me that thinking about the UK is a space Power and where I want to be would be a far more flexible and fit for purpose way of putting in place metrics that we can track progress and incentivize um activities conscious that I’m sat
Next to probably the pre-m space Economist who developed most of the metrics that we use um that we use at the moment and and finally a comment on Space sustainability I think it’s true that we could consider ourselves as a pit Lane providing all sorts of services but just in which for
Example the Clean Air Act fundamentally transformed the way in which we go about power um setting up industrial facilities Etc the post CFC responds to Ozone Etc created a whole new set of economies there taking a leadership on Space sustainability could prove to be very far-sighted as a whole Space sector will
Totally have to reimagine itself in the next 10 or 15 years and the present crimes might not be the future crimes a whole new set of players there and the size of the price could be absolutely immense thank you thank you so they will take a couple more questions but let’s let’s
See if the chemicals to respond directly yeah but very briefly a Rich’s point of space powers really well made and I think one of the ways we shouldn’t could think about the space economy is it’s the test bed laboratory for many of the technologies that we need on Earth and you know what
The realities of space me you have to do everything with micro complicated with the little economy you know growing crops we’re going to be doing New Life Science food so it’s a laboratory for Technologies on a particularly in energy and I think the space-based solar is worth
Looking at them I first was asked again supported as Minister and by civil servants to the point said with me this is absolutely array and space um I think it’s my job to say well I mean why not it’s not bad so I I think there is something really interesting in
There and um the small pieces also a key part of it and on um James well your your points is well made I suppose my answer question what’s the space Power is a soft power I think we have a huge opportunity as we go from a wild west of
These American competition to a laying the regulatory paths for sustainability and that’s why I’m doing it but there’s something else that if you take the view that we can’t clutch the lower Earth orbits with metal will stop scientists doing the open sites then one of the interesting things
About dset is with our Lord I’ve got the power to regulating Spectrum from dcms as well as so that gets really interesting I’d like us to be the people who say look we want one way of gen 2. to be able to deliver for the European Union if they want to have a
Completely encrypted secure common satellite system which they don’t want us to be carved off for some weird reason but I understand so if they want to do that then Spectrum technology and Spectrum licensing we should be rewarding the technologies that expand the efficient use you know Spectrum not
The people who Chuck up the most metal so either the regulatory piece isn’t just good for carrying the Next Generation with us I think this isn’t just billionaires playing with rockets this is the it’s like it’s also very smart technology and on the Civil Service one of the
Things we’re doing in decent is trying to push their mind they’re good officials but I was in venture capital I know my stuff but I’m 50 50 days and so we’re going to try and get 20 of decent staff at any one time to be embedded in the sector the sense of
Staff from the sector and try and make decent a place that is genuinely mixing kindness and other executive expertise it’s a challenge a ceremony our public secretary is committed to it and I think that would really help because there is no one person who knows everything the key is
Just keeping up to date and being aware of what’s going on it sort of sits behind some of the questions we’ve got already actually which is we’re obviously in a moment where everything is very expensive I mean quite literally things have been more expensive as we sit here government
Attention is divided there’s a thousand things demanding a government time your position as the minister if you see that more than anyone else how hard are you finally get to advocate for the kinds of projects you’re describing to us within government um look I think politics has always been
Tested right I mean there’s no there is no golden Corridor to the magic lever of um there you go Daniel is a genius and working in the background surgery and getting money for science it’s not easy um so you know that’s the first answer the second is I think um
By taking the approach I’m taking which is every department has an interest in this if you haven’t realized it and um I think that really helps I think moving the agenda on from could we have the biggest rocket could we to hang up this is an economy that’s growing and driving leveling up
Investment from Glasgow to Leicester to Cornwall that really helps so I think how we advocate for it um but also just reminding people that we rely on it every day for a million functions to be a party or photo so I think it’s winnable and I relish to them Charlie
Yes um just to touch a little bit on the power generation piece I think one of the key things that perhaps is is less visible is that last year there was a significant investment that was made through the European Space Agency into what we call the endure program your program is centered on
The development of nuclear powered margins for space now what is also perhaps not evident is that we are actually going to be launching radioactive power Technologies in a few years time as part of the European Space Station this is a university of Leicester National nuclear laboratory activity that spans over a decade
So if we think about reactors as as the future the radio Austin power Technologies are now so in terms of unlocking the ability to extract resources in situ and have responsible sustainable lunar service exploration the UK has the industry the supply chain the capability to lead globally in nuclear power
Technologies of space so that when I was talking about underpinning technology that is enabling where the UK can face significant role on a global stage that is one very good example of how we can bridge between Academia and Industry and have a global impact yeah when we talked to NASA it’s one of
The UK assets they are most interesting he’s one of the way one James’s question about us as a space Power and that is what kind of space Power because there are different perceptions which are complementary but also involve trade-offs one picture is dynamic enterprising a place where private
Companies around the world want to set up a shop because of all the work that George does on issues like the financial services and Insurance Plus advantages such as regulatory aging to a geographical location however there is a very different agenda which comes from the security people
And the biggest single change in science and technology policy in the past 10 years has been the arrival of the security interest not present when I started as the ministry in 2010 and for them the issues are do we have a security requirement what is is there a national requirement
Do is is our model own or collaborate or access that is a framework that you bring if you come from a security background and start thinking about technology like space and there isn’t they are two very different ways of seeing work security people because to be honest
I’ve got more money more resource more influence but the fact is that sometimes in the space agency there’s some wild and wacky American entrepreneurs got a fantastic project and he’s he or she is thinking of located in the UK and we think well if we if we offer a bit of
Money we might get 100 million dollar investment that’s fantastic and then someone turns up from the security side of the government said hang on a second do we have a national requirement do we need to own or collaborate or access with this so there are two different
Ways of analyzing what you do instead and I think we’re still finding our way to striking the right balance between them I’d be interested Susie if you think that that is that philosophical difference that classic tension between these different adaptations is different mentalities of our space and space
Science might feed through to the points you were making about diversifying and ensuring the skills are there for a growth expected yeah I mean it’s something I was thinking about something yeah oh no I was thinking actually a little bit about um so the Royal Society have commissioned some work on the future
Space and there’s piece of work which hopefully we published next year is is under construction at the moment is looking at 2075 and Beyond and that also sort of feeds back into what I mentioned earlier I was talking about our mission time skills maybe they’re 20 or 30 years but actually some
Of the work that we’re doing now has to be much more Forward Thinking than that because the things we put in place now influence what we’re going to be doing in 2075 and Beyond and we commissions um some chats with the German public we invited
Them to come and talk with us about a load of different topics to try and get kind of what do people really know about space and when they get their information from what are they interested in do they know the kind of things that we’re talking about and we
Ask them where they get their space needs from hoping they say oh scientists like you Susie that’s where we get our species from and the answer is um not even the news it’s things like um books science fiction you know if that’s what people are getting their
Space needs from then we have a lot of work to do so anyway it’s a really interesting piece of work but I was interested in looking far more further forwards than where we’re discussing at the moment then check out this Royal Society piece it’s it’s going to be really interesting
What we’re seeing is is increasing demand for continuous professional development programs particularly in different sectors of the economy but also straddling across events side given that the defense machine in terms of space is growing there is a need for people who are already imposed to gains new skills and
Exposed to what it means to build the develop and put something into space so we are seeing increasing Demand on that front so that’s at one end of the spectrum but we’re also seeing increasing appetite in the other regular Spectrum for apprenticeship programs so so the the
Whole skills landscape within the UK is changing and and universities will have to adapt to that change of landscape and from your point of view are those demands being met or is there before you’ve just got the skills go I think that I think we’re we’re trying to meet
Those demands but I think that the demand will increase and there’ll be a gap and we’ll have to address that Gap thank you all right um right let’s try and take three quick questions to put to the panel then uh starting with uh Simon here yes um
And one of my roles there is to do exactly what we’ve been talking about we encourage smes to come into the country I’m active being involved in the moment I think he placed 100 jobs somewhere maybe in the western area or maybe in southern um but it comes back to the issue of
Opportunity procurement risk I’m in clarifying your points about changing the procurement Paradigm because of the money they don’t have guys they need to come out and focus on the project so they make their work to that point it was like I’d inherently to pick up a pace on procurement if you
Possibly can have a huge and our skills on meeting a globally interesting person on Wednesday in what message would you like me to take to her because she’s got access to some fantastic people and organizations to really accelerate the UK’s place since then I would say that actually
The way to do it so I tried to go to I went to 100 school I spoke to like 60 000 kids single-handedly and that is quite exhausting so my advice would be partner with others who already have networks that happen to if you if this person would
Like to kind of showcase what they don’t know what that company could do and their Workforce you know want to get involved partner with it doesn’t have to be universities there are lots of Charities out there as well to to make your message go further so so that they
Don’t have to attempt to sort of single-handedly change the world because that was that was a challenge so okay I’m going to take two more questions yes sir so professor John Ward from North Pembroke University to come into the skills piece I guess around apprenticeships with Crossing University
And how do we fund stem Fe and HP appropriately and what appears at the moment to be a a sort of policy void in the age of the sector for funding discussion of funding okay thank you very much and we’ll take our final question yes just for the fact please industry
Um I think it’s a great job for each other amazing um with other entrepreneurs from the from the space sector a few weeks ago protocol singing uh some ideas together I think this concept of uh governments building um the procurement Agency for for space companies is really really important and
I think one of the things that’s Vision um missing in our thinking about how spaces is funded is that we meant to promote the sort of early development of Science and that’s all been great but other countries do things differently think about America has been the the greats of entrepreneurial
Um sort of Beacon having reworked but we forget that the American government has a massive project the most spread of that budget in space so so that I think that really comes during practice that you know there are a few months left perhaps of this um of this government employee Bridge after
Getting the campaign Illinois for the next election um uh whilst there are uh it’s great to see that there are new initiatives coming out of the space agencies more grants uh on that sort of thing to have the patient time to attract fundamentally further we meant to have
Initiatives that you can make the difference in literally in the next few months the difference of the time that you want to make the difference so I think that that’s really important thank you so no pressure there so I’m going to deal with procurement but I think David uh
At Susie Richard are linked new skills not least because David was minister of Science and universities and I’m responsive University Research but not students Rob House University deals with schools and I think I think there’s an issue here that every cluster I gave to I ask it’s the Northeast I
Look at what North whangarei are doing um in Cornwall and it’s obvious there’s a sort of three five ten year job requirement job creation and when I asked has anyone actually written this down by sector or by photography and spoken with VIP about it that doesn’t seem to be happening and so
I think there’s a real issue David I’d be very interested in your response as to how we work out online it’s a strong message of support for across government framework you know we haven’t got the SBI the American scheme remember was a validation for smes if you’ve got the tick You Were Us
Procurement compliant and then they had the darker budget behind it which is the US defense establishment you could be a little starter with a brilliant technology SBI compliant Tech big procurement we haven’t got scared of Africa we’re not in the US military but I think we could duck and dive and
Be smart and build a framework across government so that it’s not just me as space Minister and the nod over there it’s government recognizing that satcom’s space data is key for lots of sectors not least defra I mean one of the challenges we have now post-con
Agriculture policy is to send out the UK Agri environment compliance framework if that’s based on teenagers and clipboards visiting every Farm saying how many flowers have you got not going to work we need to be using space data really well it’s very accurate we could build a really small space-based economy Richard
Bennion totally gets that so I think the procurement piece I totally get and on the um point about the budget and the immediate short term Jeremy Hunt is really interested in the sector I take the challenge I think the world is looking at the UK and saying are you guys really serious
About this and I think there’s a budget moment it’s not all about money but it’s a moment and then there’s one in the spirit and I think the part of the reason it’s wonderful having David space agency you know we we’ve got two windows and Jeremy Hunter is really interested in the
Sector as long as I asked he’s sensible and it’s not just give us billions or you know but we can show how this can drive growth from around the country I think we’re giving the treasury who are interested in that for this conversation we as a sector have got to put a strong
Case yeah well and we’re following on as George passed the tricky issue of University financing I mean there is there are real pleasures of the University although the university sector I think is is agonizing about new strategies it’s very simple if you you basically freeze the fees for 10 years because
Then the real unit of resource available for educating each student falls quite considerably and this is having a direct impact on R D funding because it used to be the case that you universities made a profit on overseas students and use that to help fund research much of which is
Is only funded at 75 or 80 of full economic costs now the net revenues from overseas students are used to cross synthesize domestic students because domestic students cost more to educate than the level of the fee and that means there is a hidden cut in r d spend
Being delivered because of the freeze in student fees my view is that it should have long thought that it would be perfect reasonable once a parliament to say there should be a review of of the calibration of the system is what’s the right retain the threshold given what’s
Happened to earnings what’s the right fee level given what’s happening to the cost of educating students the interest rate charge became very controversial the reason I completely understand you’ve been changing it so it was just the basic model of graduate repayment is endlessly flexible and the problem is it’s got stuck
And he’s got a stuck at a level which is putting increasing pressure yeah absolutely and I think actually one of the things that we struggle with is keeping our best graduates to stay at the universities in the UK we see a lot of people going abroad they might stay
With us for undergrad go to a PhD as well they might stay with us for a PhD we’ve invested a lot of time and money not grudgingly but we have you know in their education and we’d love to keep them and they get an amazing job offer
From somewhere else and off they go is you know we have this brain drain so yeah we also would love to see the UK being a more attractive environment for people to be career scientists and work longer in universities for sure and Richard that’s a big part of what your
Work involves well the big part of what we’re doing is baseball is trying to retain the graduates because by attracting industry into the cluster and creating greater economic activity that should allow us to to retain more of our residents and creating more jobs in the region so that’s that’s the challenge
Where we’re addressing on a day-to-day basis okay well thank you um unless anyone on panel has one last call in our final minute yeah then I am going to have to say to our audience I’m so sorry but we are all out of time I’m sorry can we get to
Everyone’s questions but I thought the question we didn’t have were really really helpful um install the effects are fantastic today [Applause]