CEOI ‘crucial’ to maintaining UK’s position at forefront of Earth Observation expertise
The Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation is crucial to the UK maintaining its position at the forefront of Earth Observation expertise and capability, according to a new independent report.
Earth Observation (EO) science is fundamental to humanity’s understanding of our planet, its climate and natural processes and its adaptation to global changes and EO satellite services contribute billions to the UK’s economy.
Funded by the UK Space Agency, the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) is helping the UK to become a world leader in Earth Observation technologies by supporting organisations which are developing innovative EO satellite instrumentation.
A new report evaluating the effectiveness of the CEOI programme says it is funding innovative projects that are leading to ‘enhanced technological progression and promising mission concepts’.
It confirms that the CEOI is playing a ‘crucial role’ in ensuring the UK is ‘a significant player in global EO technology development’ and suggests that increasing its funding could deliver further value to the UK’s EO capabilities.
Dr Nicolas Lévêque, Director of the CEOI, said: “The UK is becoming a global hub for high-quality Earth Observation data that is being used to address pressing climate, weather and environmental challenges.
“The CEOI represents a critical funding route for the development of early-stage EO remote sensing technology in the UK space sector. These technologies often face high risks and low profitability challenges and many of the respondents to this report acknowledge that their projects would have stagnated or not existed at all without our support.
“We enable them to grow to a position where they can access international funding from the likes of the European Space Agency and take their technologies to the next level and our focus on these early-stage technologies is enhancing the UK’s international competitiveness.”
The report on the CEOI was commissioned by the UK Space Agency and produced by RAND Europe, know.space, Luca Budello and Aravind Ravichandran.
The authors found the CEOI programme has been important in advancing technology readiness levels of emerging EO projects in the UK. They praised the CEOI’s expertise and networks for enabling collaborations between the government, academia and industry which had strengthened the UK’s EO and space sectors
CEOI-supported technologies have featured on four successful satellite launches between 2015 and 2023, seven additional launches are in progress, five projects have been selected for further study and 11 more are planned for future launches.
Nearly 90 per cent of organisations supported by CEOI said it had strengthened their capacity to participate in international missions and more than 96 per cent reported gaining reputational benefits as a result of their relationship with CEOI.
The report also found that the CEOI had played a key role in facilitating access to additional funding and European Space Agency missions and had elevated the UK’s international reputation in the EO sector.
The present value of UK benefits from CEOI supported projects totals at least £30.2 million to date.
However, the report notes that the actual value for money of CEOI projects will only be realised in the long term, potentially years or even decades after the initial funding, due to the time it takes to incorporate the early-stage technology development CEOI supports into Earth Observation missions.
It adds that that many significant benefits of CEOI, such as scientific progress, enhanced collaboration and benefits to adjacent sectors, are non-monetisable, suggesting that quantitative estimates may underestimate the programme’s full impact.
The report can be read in full at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-the-centre-for-earth-observation-instrumentation-ceoi-final-report/ceoi-evaluation-final-report
To explore CEOI news, events and opportunities, visit https://ceoi.ac.uk.
