Launch of Ireland’s First National Space Strategy For Enterprise 2019-2025
The Government has launched Ireland’s first National Space Strategy for Enterprise 2019-2025. The national strategy will provide strategic support to Ireland’s expanding space-active industry and research institutes, which work across a range of technological domains and develop technology with both space and non-space applications.
The development of this strategy is extremely timely as the international space sector is currently undergoing a rapid evolution. According to the European Investment Bank (2019), the international space sector has grown by an average of 6.7% per annum between 2005 and 2017, almost twice the 3.5 % average yearly growth of the global economy.
In parallel, the capabilities of space-active enterprises in Ireland have progressed significantly in recent years, with the number of companies engaged in contract work with the European Space Agency (ESA) having grown from 35 in 2008 to 67 in 2018. The development of Ireland’s space-active industry is supported by Ireland’s membership to international organisations including the ESA, the European Union space programmes and EUMETSAT.
Launching the strategy, Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan TD said: “Space-active Irish companies have become increasingly successful within European Space Agency and EU programmes in recent years. As the space economy continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate, there is a growing opportunity for Irish companies to participate. This strategy puts into place a framework for a greater Irish involvement, and enhanced success at a global level.”
The strategy sets out six ambitious goals to achieve by 2025:
- double the space related revenue and employment in space-active Irish companies;
- support 100 companies to benefit from ESA engagement;
- double the value of contracts won through the EU Horizon programmes in space-related activities;
- increase industry, public and international awareness of space and Ireland’s activities in space;
- develop and attracting talent for space-active and related industries; and
- develop a sustainable Earth Observation services sector based on advanced data analytics capability.
The delivery of these goals is underpinned by a target to increase Ireland’s overall public and private investment through ESA. The strategy aims to increase public and private investment in ESA by 50% by 2025, which would see investment grow to an annual level of €32 million.
Tom Kelly, Divisional Manager Innovation and Competitiveness at Enterprise Ireland. said “Last year, 27 companies in Ireland secured European Space Agency contracts valued at €19.3m. Irish companies are at the leading edge of innovation and technological developments within the Space sector in a range of technology areas including development of the next-generation satellites and spacecraft, technologies for human spaceflight, as well as technologies to optimise the use of Earth observation, telecommunications and navigations satellites.”
The National Space Strategy for Enterprise 2019-2025 can be found here
