Nick was intimately involved in the setting up of the Satellite Applications Catapult, as a key member of the Catapult Delivery team, seconded from Industry to prepare the initial Business Plan submitted to Government. After successful acceptance of the Plan and the subsequent award of the Core Grant from Innovate UK, he was recruited as part of the original EMT, to implement the strategy to create and grow the Catapult. In 2016/17, Nick relinquished his full-time department head role to move to his current Special Advisor position. In 2010, The University of Leicester recognised his leading role at the knowledge exchange interface between the academic/science community and the commercial satellite industry with the award of an honorary visiting professorship in the Department of Geography. In 2016, he was awarded Membership of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to Environmental Science, in the Queen’s 90th Birthday Honours List. And in 2018, he received the Gold Medal Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society award for long-standing and highly-acclaimed services in the promotion of Earth observation and the development of the space sector. Prof. Veck is a previous Chairman of UKSpace, the national Trade Association for the satellite industry, and has also chaired many other industrial, government and academic committees, offering advice for various national policy decisions.