£2.5M for satellite data pilots

The pilot projects, which have been awarded grants of up to £400,000 each, will trial new solutions that use satellite data and services to support transport, logistics, and financial services. 

One project with Sports City Management Company aims to enhance visitor travel to the Etihad Campus, which is home to Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and the new Co-op Live arena, by reducing congestion and increasing the sustainability of fan travel.  

The project will support the development of an AI-enabled travel demand solution, using satellite data from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Open Access Hub and Sentinel satellites, to predict patterns in the travel of music and sports fans at major events. Coupled with machine learning, this provides transport operators and event planners with insight into congestion points, public transport requirements, and crowd flow. This will be tested in a partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

Elsewhere, Octopus Investments has partnered with Treeconomy, a company that uses AI and remote sensing to measure the impact of nature restoration projects. This project will use a variety of satellite-based Earth observation data sources including Landsat and Sentinel-2, as well as AI and localised drone-based data, to support the monitoring and evaluation of nature projects and a suite of core environmental metrics to inform investment decisions.  

This will increase confidence and improve the allocation of private finance towards high-quality, measurable and trusted nature, and conservation efforts.

DSIT Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms, Chris Byrant, said: “This government is embracing the power of technology to improve lives and support businesses to thrive. We have a fast-growing space sector in the UK but for too long we have struggled to tap the huge potential of satellite data to drive positive change in the real world. These new projects seek to unlock this potential by combining data from space with cutting-edge technologies here on Earth.”

Unlocking Space for Business is delivered by the UK Space Agency to foster innovation by combining satellite data and services with other data sources and technology, to drive benefits for businesses. This could include new revenue growth, operational efficiencies and environmental, social and governance (ESG) benefits. 

As well as the grants, Unlocking Space for Business has provided exploration workshops, networking events, learning and development sessions, and online resources to support companies in their understanding of what satellite data and services can mean for them. They run alongside Contracts for Innovation, formerly the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), which support the development of new ideas and technologies.

Dr Craig Brown, Investment Director at the UK Space Agency, said: “These new grants and contracts are just some of the ways the UK Space Agency is kickstarting growth and creating high quality jobs to position the UK as a leading space economy.  

“Unlocking Space for Business is set up to identify and help tackle barriers facing organisations that have not traditionally used satellite data or services, or considered how space can benefit their bottom line. From AI powered satellite-derived climate models to maritime incident avoidance and easier football fan travel, these projects will help accelerate innovation and investment, and showcase the untapped potential of space data to support a range of UK industries.”

The grants form part of a wider ‘Unlocking Space’ programme from the UK Space Agency focused on growing the UK sector by championing the benefits of space to stakeholder groups outside it, including investors, businesses and public bodies. This includes the new GovBridge project to demystify the government procurement process and help space companies refine their business offering to better suit requirements across the public sector.  

It also includes Unlocking Space for Investment, through which the UK Space Agency has invested £8 million in the UK Innovation and Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) to create a space portfolio managed by Future Planet Capital. The fund aims to address the critical funding gap early-stage space companies face at pre-seed and seed stage, and is part of strategic efforts to leverage private investment to grow the space sector, which is a key priority for the UK Space Agency. 

Main photo credit: Photo/Map: Arne Müseler / arne-mueseler.com / CC-BY-SA-3.0