Invest in Oxfordshire hosted a UKTI Space-Related Technologies Sector Briefing Tour on Thursday 12th July 2012

Representatives from UK Trade and Investment in London and also Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the US spent the afternoon finding out more about the world-class space sector cluster in Oxfordshire and what we can offer potential investors. This included how we can support companies looking to engage directly in activities in space and also those looking to utilise space-related technologies to develop new applications for products on earth.

The visit to the county was particularly well-timed given the announcement that the Harwell Oxford science and innovation campus has been selected to host the new UK centre for satellite innovation, the Satellite Applications Catapult. This is scheduled to be operational later in the year and will support companies to develop new products utilising data from satellites.

Delegates benefited from presentations by Andy Bennett, ESA Technology Transfer Network Broker at the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre; Chris Bee, Head of Business Development from STFC; as well as a tour of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Space.

Michael Lawrence, CEO of French-owned company Magellium based at the International Space Innovation Centre at Harwell Oxford, also addressed the delegation. He explained why the company, which specialises in signal and image processing, geomatics, innovative learning technologies, robotics and intelligent systems, decided to set up its UK base in Oxfordshire.