Academic Partnership and Knowledge Exchange

COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

We support the development of academic research, and its routes to the market, by strengthening partnerships and boosting the commercialisation of your ideas. We have strong relationships with many research organisations across the UK, and actively collaborate on research and innovation projects.

We can help you to identify and make use of the world-leading research and innovation happening all across the UK in Research Organisations. We can also support you in capitalising on, and commercialising, cutting-edge technologies and solutions.

We aim to engage and collaborate with researchers and innovators, whether they focus on a specific sector or not. By encouraging non-sectoral researchers and innovators to apply their knowledge to space-derived challenges, we can bring new ideas and collectively help to innovate and grow the UK’s space sector for a better world.

SUPPORTING ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS

The Satellite Applications Catapult supports a range of research projects and programmes across Research Organisations in a variety of ways.

We have membership across numerous advisory boards, including for research projects and programmes, and Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT).

The Satellite Applications Catapult administers the Space Placements in Industry scheme (SPIN) for university students on behalf of the UKSA and itself hosts a number of placements each summer. We also host researchers through the Researchers in Residence (RiR) programme, managed by the Innovation Launchpad Network+.

We have developed, and now maintain, the Space Enterprise Community (SEC), providing a platform to engage across a range of stakeholders including researchers and innovators.

The Satellite Applications Catapult are currently working to enhance the Academic Expertise Portal filter in our Space Capabilities Catalogue; this work, which is ongoing, will enable a clear view of the wide-ranging academic capabilities that the UK has on offer. If you want to know more about academic portal or become a part of it, please contact our Academic Engagement Lead on ke@sa.catapult.org.uk.

Examples of opportunities to engage and collaborate with the Satellite Applications Catapult include:

• Collaborative research and co-development of projects
• Horizon scanning for future priority technology areas
• Regular meetups and co-organised events
• Support with innovation and scale-up programmes
• Webinar series
• Workshops, hackathons and sandpits
• Placements and residencies for students and researchers via the SPIN and RiR schemes, respectively

Activities such as these enable wider impact of research and innovation, Knowledge Exchange (KE), reduce skills gaps, and will ultimately enhance the growth of the UKs already flourishing space ecosystem.