Scotland’s space sector has been identified by the Scottish and UK governments as a significant opportunity to develop a thriving and innovative national space economy. With the global space economy projected to grow from an estimated £270 billion in 2019 to £490 billion by 2030, the Scottish Science Advisory Council (SSAC) has prepared a report in response to a request from the Scottish Government’s “New Market Clusters Team” to help identify future commercial and societal opportunities for the sector over the next 10-20 years, aligned with Scotland’s research and industrial strengths.
The Scottish Space Ecosystem
The Scottish space ecosystem involves aspects reserved to the UK government and others devolved to the Scottish Government. The sector has dual-use aspects in civil and defence, with current routes to funding for space projects and programmes coming from various sources. Scotland’s strengths and weaknesses reflect its heritage in contributions to space science missions and the development of the “new space” sector, with a strong focus and expertise in small satellite manufacturing, data analytics, and emerging strengths in the launch sector, potentially providing an “end-to-end” capability.
Supporting the sector is an increasing number of infrastructure assets and the diverse strengths of the academic community. However, with an SME-dominated economy, weaknesses include difficulties in scaling space-related businesses, the lack of a Scottish prime contractor, and challenges in accessing larger programmes.
Future Opportunities and Challenges
Future opportunities for Scotland’s space sector involve consolidating and stabilising the new space sector, including satellite manufacture and launch. Scotland can provide leadership in areas such as sustainable space while acknowledging commercial constraints and exploring ways to alleviate them. Building on expertise in data science and analytics and exploring the use of satellite networking for new public and private services are also key opportunities.
Leveraging academic strengths is seen as a key driver of the Scottish sector, with the breadth and depth in Enabling Technologies serving as an important differentiator. Skills are an area of focus, with greater promotion of the sector in schools and increasing the talent pool through transferable skills and apprenticeships being important considerations.
Looking longer-term, opportunities in emerging themes such as in-orbit services and space resource utilisation are examined. Consideration of competition and collaboration looks at threats and opportunities from comparable nations such as the Nordic countries, and areas where Scotland can learn from the use of legal frameworks in countries such as Luxembourg.
Recommendations
The report makes several recommendations to support the growth and development of Scotland’s space sector:
- National Contracts: The Scottish Government should explore the use of national contracts to support and enable the growing Scottish space sector and associated supply chain.
- Co-created Research Programmes: The Scottish Government should support co-created research programmes between academia and industry targeting innovation in satellite manufacture and operation, and work with relevant agencies to promote wider applicable themes in collaborative funding calls for critical and enabling technologies for Space Science Missions and Industrial Challenges.
- Nordic Collaborations and Legal Frameworks: The Scottish Government should explore collaborative opportunities with the Nordic nations in devolved areas and examine space legal frameworks, including Luxembourg’s, with a view to influencing the UK’s own space legislation.
- Infrastructure and Educational Strategy: The Scottish Government should commission Space Scotland and the Scottish Space Academic Forum to undertake an exercise covering:
a. A mapping of the supporting infrastructure available to the space sector, examining opportunities for shared access to capital assets;
b. A review of Scottish research activity in space “emerging themes” to inform future strategic collaborative programmes; and
c. The development of a strategy for promotion of the space sector across primary and secondary education. - Entrepreneurial Programme for Space Data: The Scottish Government should introduce a focused entrepreneurial programme for space data start-ups linked to existing Entrepreneurial Campus and Techscaler programmes, promoted using Scottish space data start-ups as exemplar case studies and engaging Scottish Development International with assistance to route-to-market.
- Economic Development Interventions: Scottish Economic Development agencies should use existing intervention mechanisms to help pump-prime the application sector for the use of satellite communications networks as an enabler of new innovations in service solutions for public and private services, to reduce cost and improve the quality-of-service provision for economic and societal benefit.
- Legislative Examination and Standards Engagement: The Scottish Government should examine legislation already under development by Scottish and UK legislatures to explore opportunities to include the space environment, and encourage greater engagement, across the sector, with relevant standards bodies.
Summary
The “New Space” sector in Scotland is still in the formative stage, and actions taken now will have significant consequences for the stability and growth of the sector. By leveraging the strengths of the academic and industrial communities in support of the sector, Scotland can derive significant economic and societal benefits for its citizens. As a small country, collaboration will be key to ensuring that Scotland maximises the opportunities that the space sector offers, including collaboration with the rest of the UK and Europe, collaboration in translating academic research into industrial impact, and the formation of successful partnerships across the industrial base and with external partners.
