Space2Connect2020
On Tuesday I attended the UK Space Agency’s Space Applications Networking Event, also described as Space2Connect 2020. The day-long event, which is in its third year, took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. It’s a great opportunity to catch up with lots of people in the industry and hear about what is happening in the industry. The event started with an introduction from Emily Gravestock (UK Space Agency, UKSA) who highlighted that more than 400 application projects have been funded in the last 5 years across the International Partnership Project, Space for Smarter Government and European Space Agency programmes.
This was followed by a keynote from Prof Jim Al-Khalili OBE (University of Surrey) who talked about how satellites have transformed our lives. The people who worked on the Global Positioning System (GPS) – satellite navigation used by your phone to tell you where you are – won the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. GPS could not work without atomic clocks that can provide the time to an accuracy of billionths of a second. Looking to the future he described the potential applications of quantum technology – quantum key distribution (for secure transactions), teleportation (although at this stage it is for sending information, rather than people! Clearly the world of Star Trek isn’t quite here yet) and the quantum internet.
After coffee break, there was a choice of parallel sessions. I chose “Government use of space data” where there were a few short presentations followed by a panel session. Andrew Richman (Environment Agency) showed how they’re using data including GPS, weather satellites (input to flood forecasting centre) and mapping flooding itself through data from activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters. A recent application was looking at winter time bare soils that can cause diffuse pollution in winter if there are steep slopes, where the recommendation is to grow cover crops. John Hicks (Defra, Centre of Excellence) showcased their work including crop classification (called CROME and available as government open data). Also, an Analysis Read Data (ARD) datacube has been developed from 18 months of Copernicus Sentinel-1 and -2 data. There was then a presentation on the work of the Data Science Campus where approaches to classification and mapping including a study on measuring the global surface water. Lastly, Dr Helen Sykes (Natural Resources Wales) discussed how policy was driving the use of satellite data in Wales, with the bare soil application again also a recent focus.
After lunch, the keynote was Theo Blackwell (Greater London Authority). For City Hall, their key responsibility is over planning policy. Recently started, LOTI (London Office of Technology and Innovation) is bringing 16 London Boroughs together. However, the London datastore has been running for much longer than this and collates open, secure, commercial and sensory data; and their first UKSA project focuses on knowing what is being built. There was then a Global Opportunities panel lead by Afran Chaudhry (UKSA) who is Head of International Policy. Manny Shar (Bryce Space and Technology) discussed that the global space economy is work $360 Bn with three quarters being government budgets. Earth observation and analytics is worth $2 Bn. Helen Simpson (International Travel Advisor, Space Sector) then discussed support for exporting including trade missions. The session was concluded with short talks from Ambiental and Seraphim focused on building a company and gaining Series A funding.
For the last parallel session, I attended “Sustainable Development”. Projects discussed included PRISE (Pests Risks Information Service, lead by CABI and working in Kenya) where there is a strong focus on providing value to the extension services network rather than conflicting with what is already in place. The Earth & Sea Observation System( EASOS) project, led by the Satellite Applications Catapult, takes 3 areas through collaborating with 25 government departments in Malaysia with 10 UK organisations. EcoProMIS, led by Agricompas, is focused on farming sustainability with the aim of “Knowledge for free” and “Decisions for a fee”. The aim is not to sell the service to the farmers but rather collaborate with them to collect data that is then sold, in an anonymised form, to organisations such as insurers that can use it to provide improved services back to the farmers – this is a project that we are involved in too! The last talk of the session was from Ian Coady of DFID discussing the collaborations in Africa that they have started in order to support improvements in data availability for sustainable development.
It was a full-on day with over 1000 people attending, with the event having doubled its attendance each time it has been running. I spoke to a lot of people outside the sessions too, and overall it was a positive day!
