Scottish Space Agency – A discussion on Scotland’s place in the space industry

Stephen Richard — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 17:08:47 +0000

Primary Author or Creator

Craig Berry

Stephen Richard Mon, 09/06/2021 - 18:08

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Alternative Published Date

July 2017

Category

Research

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

This paper proposes a Scottish Space Agency and Spaceport to make Scotland a world leader in industry sector of the future.

More details

― Scotland should develop a Scottish Space Agency to drive the Scottish space industry in the right direction.

― Scotland needs to invest in the Scottish space infrastructure by developing a Scottish Spaceport, the first in the European Union before such infrastructure and jobs are developed elsewhere.

― 18% of all employees in the UK space industry are based in Scotland (7,000 jobs).

― UK labour productivity in the space sector is 2.7 times higher than the UK average, with Gross Value Added at £133,233 per employee.

― The space sector currently provides £134m net value to the Scottish economy.

― Investment in Research & Development as a percentage of total income has decreased sharply, from 90% in 2012/13 to 3% in 2014/15.

― The Brexit and Scottish independence transitions may cause problems, but it is difficult identify the exact nature of these problems until negotiations are completed.

― Cooperation is vital to keep the Scottish space industry healthy, working with the ESA, UKSA and many other space industries.

― Glasgow has recently sold the largest number of satellites out of all European cities.

― To further enhance the Scottish nanosatellite market, the Scottish Space Agency should look to develop a Federated Satellite System.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Scottish-Space-Agency.pdf

Keywords

Scottish Space Agency

Research & Development investment

Aerospace industry

Technological innovations Scotland.

Language English