Final countdown for first
THE first piece of the £100 millionplus Space Park Leicester is months from completion.
The initial phase of the huge scheme will be ready to welcome its first tenants in July. It will act as an innovation, research and incubation facility for academics and private companies.
When work on the whole campus is complete, the work done at the park could eventually generate in the region of £750 million a year for the UK economy and lead to 2,500 jobs.
It is going up close to the National Space Centre, on the northern outskirts of Leicester.
Much of the work done will focus on analysing data sent down from satellites, to help with everything from modelling transport and traffic, to looking at global sea temperatures or deforestation in the Amazon.
Aerospace and technology companies such as Hewlett Packard, Airbus and Amazon have already
FIRST TENANTS EXPECTED IN JULY
signed up as tenants, and lead partner the University of Leicester hopes it could become a catalyst for other multi-nationals to bring millions of pounds of investment to the city.
The second stage will have stateof-the-art robot and AI assisted laboratory facilities for research and development into low-cost satellite production.
A later stage could include a lowcost satellite production line.
The university is working with local, national and international partners including Leicester City
Council and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership.
Space Park Leicester chief executive Grant Bourhill said work was
progressing well in partnership with construction company Bowmer and Kirkland, and the pandemic had only put the schedule back a few weeks.
He said academics and industry specialists would start moving in from early July. Phase 2 is also on schedule and would have its first tenants in November.
He said: “There will be a broad range of companies from engineering to use of space data.
“The first phase is almost 5,000 sq m (54,000 sq ft), which contains a mixture of shared facilities and offices spaces for industry and academia.
“At the time of opening we envisage at least 80 per cent of the space will be allocated.
“The second phase has a similar area and our aim is similar occupancy levels from the start.
“The R&D buildings being constructed at the moment are only the start – our vision for Space Park Leicester
has always included two additional facets.
“The first is to support inclusive skills development and education, which will be crucial as the space sector, and the dependency of much of the rest of the economy on the space sector, grows.
“The second is to create an asset in Leicester that would drive enhanced commerciality both in and from space.
“This could be a national manufacturing facility. Likewise, it could be a data hub, seeding the growth of new businesses, exploiting the use of data from various sources including space. These are under active development currently.
“The space sector today, while large in and of itself, supports over 15 per cent of the entire national GDP. This is only going to grow.
“Therefore we are excited about the potential for space to unleash greater local opportunities, for example in smart logistics, as well as underpin national competitiveness.
“We want Space Park Leicester to become a critical component of the UK’s economic recovery.
“We are also excited about the role that space can play in transitioning our planet towards a lower carbon, net-zero sustainable future.
“Earth observation data, in particular, is very relevant to help mitigate the climate emergency.
“There is one estimate that half the 50 essential climate variables that have to be monitored can be observed only from space. “Space Park Leicester will be the UK headquarters for the National Centre of Earth Observation and this will be an important contributor as we seek to mitigate the worst impacts from climate change.
“The space sector is crucial in supporting our transition to a sustainable future, from underpinning a wide and growing number of industrial sectors, to keeping our country secure.
“Space Park Leicester will build on the enviable heritage and expertise of the University of Leicester to help change our area – and the world – for the better.”
We want Space Park Leicester to become a critical component of the UK’s economic recovery
Grant Bourhill