The UK Space Agency has announced the first recipients of the first phase of its £20 million International Bilateral Fund, helping them to forge R&D collaborations with organisations in other countries, including Australia.
According to the Agency, “While some projects will focus on enhancing those relationships to unlock future economic opportunities for the UK, others will focus directly on science missions and technologies with strong commercial potential”.
The collaborations involving Australian partners — each of which will receive up to £75,000 of the initial £2.1 million investment — are:
- University of Glasgow (UK) and the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth Consortium (Australia) — Development of a novel approach to lunar regolith sampling.
- University of Exeter (UK), University of Leicester (UK) and an international coalition across the USA, Japan, Canada and Australia — Development of fluorescent deep space petri pods.
- Deimos Space (UK), SJE Space (UK), Silentium Defence Trading (Australia) and Exa Research (USA) — Complementary use of different sensing technologies to increase coverage.
- Telespazio UK (UK), Symbios Communications (Australia) and National Physical Laboratory (Australia) — Developing a new quality assurance platform for Earth observation data.
- Vertical Future (UK), University of Cambridge (UK), University of Adelaide (Australia), Axiom Space (USA) and Saber Astronautics (Australia and USA) — Autonomous agriculture to support space exploration.
- Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (UK), Assimilia (UK), RALSpace (UK), CSIRO Space and Astronomy (Australia) and Smartsat CRC (Australia) — Creation of an integrated ground-to-space national water quality monitoring system.
- Assimila Biosecurity (UK), Cervantes Agritech (Australia) and CABI (Australia) — Using Earth Observation, climate and weather data to predict and manage biosecurity risks.
- D-Orbit (UK) and High Earth Orbit Robotics (Australia) — Responsive in-orbit inspection service.
“Working with other space agencies and organisations across the globe through our International Bilateral Fund allows us to draw on skills that enhance our homegrown expertise and capabilities, drive up investment in the UK, and support world-class science and discovery,” said Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency.
“Projects such as these highlight the many ways in which we can collaborate with the global space community to help humanity push the boundaries of space innovation and unlock commercial opportunities that will benefit our economy now and in the future.”
