The UK could redirect about towards its own space programmes by the end of this year if it can’t fully participate in the European Union’s orbital efforts, according to UK science and research minister George Freeman.
Ongoing issues related to Brexit negotiationsĚýcould see the UK shut out of Copernicus, the EU’s Earth-observing satellite programme, as well as , such as Horizon Europe and Euratom.
Freeman says time is running out to find a solution. “If the phone doesn’t ring in the next few weeks and months, I think it’s unconscionable that we can go into the end of this year without an alternative plan for Horizon, Copernicus and Euratom,” Freeman told the Financial Times’s on 9 June. Horizon is the EU’s €95 billion collaborative research funding programme, the largest in the world, while Euratom is a complementary funding plan focused on nuclear research.
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“If we are blocked from Copernicus, I’m determined we’ll make that opportunity to invest the same money we would have invested and work with other countries and grow a really strong commercial Earth-observation sector,” said Freeman.
Freeman didn’t specify what an alternative plan might look like or when it might be announced, but a spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said that, in the event that the UK is locked out of EU science programmes, it “will introduce a comprehensive set of alternative programmes to promote global science, research and innovation collaboration”.
Even if the schemes go ahead, there could be drawbacks for UK space companies that are involved in Copernicus. Although the data from Copernicus is publicly available, UK companies and research groups are working on tools that are used to collect that data. “If you’re involved in building systems, you’re able to then have more of a say on what those systems are, which obviously is valuable,” says at Earth-i, an Earth-observation company that makes some Copernicus instruments.
Other companies, like Deimos Space UK, have invested heavily in Earth-observation technology that is partly reliant on Copernicus data.
“If the UK is out of the Copernicus programme, it could make it less attractive to exploit these technologies in the UK and could focus future company investment in our branches in EU member states,” says David Petit at Deimos UK. “This will limit the return on investment for the UK branch and negatively impact our capacity to retain skilled people in the UK.”
While an alternative UK scheme could potentially improve on Copernicus services in some areas, “it will be difficult to cover the range of services that the Copernicus programme is offering”, says Petit.
However, certain features of the UK space industry, such as its pioneering use of small satellites, could make an alternative funding programme a net positive if detailed properly. “We have to see it as both a challenge and an opportunity to build complementary systems,” says Hawkins. “And go about it in a way that the UK is really good at.”
An alternative UK space funding plan could also help smaller UK-based companies not currently involved in European schemes and encourage new companies to form, says Will Whitehorn, chair of Seraphim Space Investment. “A really strong procurement policy by a national agency can work really well in growing an industry – NASA has proved that in America.”
