About Us

“We want to help the public sector save money, innovate and make more effective policy decisions using satellite enabled solutions”

The Space for Smarter Government Programme (SSGP) is a strategic, national programme established and led by the UK Space Agency. It was established in 2014 and is delivered in collaboration with the Satellite Applications Catapult.

Desired Outcomes/Benefits

  • Increased awareness and number of public sector bodies using space-enabled services and applications by 2020
  • Accelerate the public sector uptake of space-enabled services and applications to make Government policy delivery and operations more efficient
  • Government use of space services and applications positively contributes to the wider UK space sector growth target by 2030

Ethos

UKSA will achieve its outcomes by:

  • Working collaboratively with the Satellite Applications Catapult, public sector organisations and academia/SMEs/industry.
  • Ensuring effective and efficient management and use of government resources, optimised for the wider benefit of the UK public sector.
  • Supporting wider opportunities for growth in line with UK Space Agency targets

Methodology (RED)

The Programme is structured around three aims:

  1. Raising awareness of space and satellite enabled services:​
    1. Educate and inspire potential new users and dispel the myths over costs and technical aspects
    2. Establish a critical and neutral long-term supplier agnostic relationship with Government Departments to understand their drivers and needs
    3. Create opportunities for Government-to-Government dialogue and Government-to-Industries and Academics dialogue
  2. Enabling access to data, information, people and services:
    1. Identify the barriers that the public sector faces in relation to using satellite technology, data and services. Where possible define and take action to remove them
    2. Understand the wider sector landscape and look to see where efficiencies for Government can be made
    3. Establish a space data catalogue to see where efficiencies can be made
    4. Establish a training catalogue
  3. Demonstrating capability to de-risk and showcase the art of the possible:
    1. Create opportunities through events, competitions, hackathons and data challenges to identify innovative technology solutions to meet public sector requirements. See our and case studies pages for further information.