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The UK government has allocated £15 million in funding to support research and development for space instruments in the field of Earth Observation (EO) technology. This investment aims to expedite the advancement of UK EO technologies and potentially deploy satellites in the coming years.

The funding will be divided into three categories: Pathfinder projects with budgets of up to £75,000, Fast Track projects with budgets of up to £250,000, and Flagship projects with budgets of up to £3 million. Pathfinder and Fast Track projects focus on developing technological concepts through initial research and experiments in laboratory settings. Flagship projects, on the other hand, aim to progress technology development by conducting trials and demonstrations in vacuum chambers and airborne flights.

The Science, Innovation, and Technology Minister, George Freeman, highlighted the critical role of EO technology in addressing global challenges such as climate change and humanitarian disasters. He emphasized the importance of harnessing the UK’s expertise in this field to secure the future of the planet.

The funding is administered by the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) and is part of a larger £400 million package unveiled in November 2022 to support the UK’s EO sector.

Since 2016, the EO technology programme has already invested £20 million in 57 projects. These include the development of Synthetic Aperture Radar for Oceanography, an Infrared Imager, and a Laser Radiometer. The CEOI’s director, Chris Brownsword, expressed optimism for the new funding call, acknowledging the significant impact of previous calls in fostering collaboration between academia and industry to develop UK-owned technologies.

In addition to supporting EO technology, the UK Space Agency has allocated £3.7 million between 2020 and 2022 for the development of technology dedicated to Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) and debris removal. Currently, more than 25,000 fragments of space debris larger than ten centimeters are present in Earth’s orbit, posing a significant challenge to satellite operations.

The investment in EO technology and SST demonstrates the UK’s commitment to advancing space technologies and addressing the challenges of space debris in order to ensure the sustainable use of space for future generations.

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