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Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe Farnborough Air Show |
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This is the first opportunity I have had to make a statement on space policy. I am very pleased to have the responsibility within Government for this important subject which brings together research and industry. The sector is at the cutting edge of developing new technology and its uses. Even so, there is a healthy commercial market. The British National Space Centre's survey shows UK industry turnover of £800m and employment of 6500 people in high grade jobs. So, from origins in science-oriented research, space has developed into a multi-billion dollar industry. It is a truly global market in every sense. To stay in that market, British and European industry must remain competitive. The European Space Agency (ESA) has an outstanding record in establishing the industry and a European presence in space. But the markets and the industry, especially the structure of the industry, are changing rapidly. This creates a new challenge for ESA - can it match the pace of change and remain relevant to European space policy? Can Member States as contributors and policy makers help the Agency achieve that goal? I want to use the time available this morning to look briefly at the part which the UK is playing to help to shape the process of change in the way that ESA works. This will lead me onto some specific announcements. I am delighted that Antonio Rodotà, the Director General of ESA, is present today to hear what I have to say. Mr Rodotà came to ESA from a career in the space industry. He therefore recognises the importance of pursuing the major business opportunities in a fast growing market, of developing new commercial space applications to generate wealth and of the need to be industrially competitive. Mr Rodotà is overseeing the development of a new management approach in ESA. He will shortly be proposing a new system for Member States to monitor the Agency through performance measures. More importantly, I expect him to propose specific targets which it will be his objective to achieve against each of those measures. Coming from a commercial background myself, I applaud this approach. But I recognise that for an international organisation to be managed on this basis is radical, and all the more welcome for that. Private sector management systems are important. But there is even more fundamental thinking taking place about how ESA should function into the next century. It concerns essential questions about what ESA is for: how ESA should work with industry to develop not only technology but also competitive companies; how ESA can work in tandem with the developing space interests of the European Union; and how ESA interacts with its Member States. The UK has been a leading promoter of change in these areas and will continue to be so. The Government's positive stand towards Europe allowed us to initiate a debate during our EU Presidency which led in June to the EU and ESA adopting ground-breaking parallel resolutions on the need for further improvements in co-operation in space research. I know that the European Commission and the Director General have already exchanged first thoughts on how to turn that broad objective into real co-operation. The UK has also emphasised in the working bodies of the Agency the need to define new programmes by reference to real user needs and not to be driven by 'technology push'. This has led to substantial re-alignment of the new programme proposals being discussed by Member States. There are further steps to be taken, not least in putting researchers and industrialists closer together to produce optimum trade-offs in satellite design. In the past, keeping these two groups separate has led each to ramp up design specifications, and with them costs. However, I do want to emphasise the positive initial steps which the Agency has taken and respond to them by announcing the UK's commitment to two of the new ESA programmes to which I just referred. These are in the fields of navigation and Earth observation. On navigation, the UK is now committing £5m to take a 25 per cent share of a programme to prepare for the next generation global satellite navigation system. ESA is working closely with the European Commission. This programme has been designed to support the Commission's negotiations at a political level with the US and with other operators of first generation systems. It is a practical application of the EU-ESA co-operation we have sought. The UK will be equal largest contributor to this programme, along with France and Germany. This subscription is to be jointly funded by two of the partners in the British National Space Centre (BNSC): the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). It is a good example of the benefits of Government policies being pursued across departmental boundaries in a co-ordinated way, which is of course the principle on which BNSC is based. I know that Director General Rodotà is keen to see other Member States involve user departments in this way. It opens up new sources of funding for ESA programmes and ensures that there is a well informed end-user for the novel satellite applications developed. In the second area, Earth observation, the UK is committing £4m and taking 20 per cent of the first phase of the Living Planet programme in ESA. This programme has three main objectives: developing our knowledge of the Earth, preserving the Earth and its environment, and managing life on Earth in a more efficient way. Within this programme, the UK is promoting strongly the new ways I have described of scientists and industrialists working together to assess cost/benefit trade-offs. This potentially reduces ESA role as intermediary and should lead to a more design-to-cost approach. The UK will be the second largest contributor to this phase of the programme, ahead of France and all other Member States apart from Germany. In addition to these direct investments in ESA programmes, I am also announcing today a £1.65m investment to be made here at Farnborough in a Processing and Archiving Centre or 'PAC' to handle data from the ESA satellite ENVISAT. Yesterday Mr Rodotà opened the ESA/BNSC stand which features a full scale model of ENVISAT, the environmental monitoring satellite. I hope you will take time to see it. The PAC will convert satellite data into usable form for potential customers and researchers. They in turn will process it into information and develop knowledge which will have scientific and, in many cases, commercial value. This announcement puts into effect a commitment given by the UK when the ENVISAT programme was originally approved. The PAC will receive data from three instruments of most interest to the UK, including the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer - the AATSR. This instrument will measure sea surface temperature to within one-third of a degree, maintaining a long-run series of data to identify the extent of global warming. The DETR has contributed to its development costs. There will be data reception centres in France, Italy and Germany for other instruments. However, the contractual arrangements in the UK will be unique in opting for a public/private partnership arrangement. The PAC will be located at NRSC Ltd who will share profits with BNSC to repay part of the government investment. The total of these announcements is £10.65m over the next two and a half years. In the DTI case they are new commitments within the existing allocation for space. I know that the Director General will ensure that the progress towards reinventing ESA will continue Ministers across Europe will be looking for evidence of this before they are ready to commit to the follow-on programmes which the Agency has in mind if the initial activity on navigation and Earth observation is successful. As we have seen today by the UK's announcement, this means not only space ministers but also other departments with a user interest. Industry too must make advances. BNSC is working in partnership to help firms adopt best practice in their use of benchmarking, in developing supplier-contractor relations, and in developing marketing skills in SMEs. In the next two years, BNSC will work even more closely with the space sector in establishing a Space Industry Best Practice Club as a means of networking best practice. The industry was also successful in bidding last year for DTI funding under the Sector Challenge scheme. The UK Industrial Space Committee (UKISC) has used this to develop with the support of Logica UK Ltd a website - UKSPACE. This will provide a one-stop information source on UK space companies. John Haynes, the Chairman of UKISC, will answer any questions you have about the website when I have finished speaking. You will be able to access it yourself when you visit the BNSC stand. The final announcement I have is that BNSC will be launching a new CD/ROM 'Window on the world' this week. It updates an earlier CD/ROM on satellite remote sensing and uses web technology, with actual web connections for those who are on-line. It has been produced in association with the Remote Sensing Society and is designed for a range of audiences - such as teachers, students and potential users of EO data. In an innovative public/private partnership, distribution costs are being born by the Sunday Times who will include it with next Sunday's colour magazine. This has enabled BNSC to reach a much wider audience than before and brought down unit costs of production considerably. I would like to close by emphasising that space is an example of what the Government aims to achieve in its science policy generally: it creates a flow of world class scientists and engineers; brings innovation into industry; boosts competitiveness; and leads to the development of new companies on the back of research departments - I will be visiting Surrey Satellite Technology Limited at the University of Surrey this afternoon, which is a textbook example of this. The science and engineering base in the UK has been neglected for too long but, as we saw in the Comprehensive Spending Review outcome, this Government is taking significant steps to restore it. |
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Other speeches by Lord Sainsbury of Turville
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