2 April 2014 – The UK Space Agency has announced a reorganisation taking effect 01 April 2014 .This is in response to the Government’s commitment to support industry deliver a UK space sector worth £40bn a year by 2030.
The space sector set out this ambitious target for growth in 2011 in the Innovation and Growth Strategy which included a call for the creation of a dedicated space agency for the UK and a significantly increased UK subscription to the European Space Agency. The Government has delivered on both of these recommendations amongst others. In recognition of the level of ambition that industry has set, the Government has now increased the size of the UK Space Agency by 50% over the past year to 60 staff today.
The addition of new staff will help strengthen an Agency that is working across the country and around the world on behalf of an ambitious UK space sector. In addition to providing leadership for ESA’s world class science missions, Agency staff will be assisting industry as it competes for new European contracts, as well as working to attract inward investment and export UK excellence in manufacturing and satellite data services overseas. The UK Space Agency is also strengthening its support for the development of the UK Space Gateway at Harwell Oxford.
The new structure in place today sees four Directors working with the CEO David Parker to form the senior management team; Catherine Mealing-Jones is Director of Growth and Peter Finn is Chief Operating and Finance Officer. Recruitment of new colleagues to take up the roles of Director of Policy and Director of Programmes will be completed soon.
To complete the reorganisation of the Agency, two key documents will be published shortly setting out the activities the Agency will be undertaking over the coming years. These are:
- Government’s response to the Space Growth Action Plan (PDF, 3.6 Mb) which will set the direction of our future work
- the Agency’s corporate delivery plan for 2014/15
An organisation chart will be published on completion of the recruitment to the remaining two Director level posts.