Square Mile looks to the chancellor to realise space ambition • City, University of London

Financial Times letter calls on government to target the City of London as a global centre for space finance within the next decade.

By Mr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published Monday, 13^th November 2023

A letter to the Financial Times this week has called upon the government to state an explicit target in the forthcoming space sector plan that the UK and the City of London becomes the pre-eminent global centre for space finance within the next decade.

It outlines the strength in the City of London’s legal community and the UK’s long involvement with the space industry through its world-leading science and technology base and satellite manufacturing capabilities.

Signatories of the letter include Professor Sir Paul Curran, immediate past President of City, University of London, and President of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society; Ehsan Razavizadeh, former Managing Director of the London Space Innovation Centre, and Visiting Fellow at City, University of London; Sally Bridgeland, Chair, Impax Asset Management Group and Non-Executive Director of the Pension Insurance Corporation, RSA Insurance Group and Royal London; and The Lord Cromwell.

The London Space Innovation Centre was established at City, University of London in 2020. It acts as a hub for coordinating and promoting multidisciplinary research, education, and enterprise projects in space-related fields. It also facilitates collaboration between academia, industry, and the public sector with a focus on connecting the space sector in London with other sectors and industries.

City, University of London is the only university in the UK to combine space operations, space economics and space law in its Space Mission Analysis and Design MSc. The course has been specifically designed to develop the careers of both professionals and graduates. Professor Paul Curran advised on the content and development of this MSc course.

Reflecting on the call on government, Professor Nabil Aouf, Co-Director of the London Space Innovation Centre at City, University of London said:

The UK set a very ambitious space strategy and made a plan of substantial funding of programmes aimed at developing viable and resilient solutions of dual use, both civil and defense, which maintain the UK as a science and technology superpower, able to collaborate internationally with the big countries leading the space sector in the world. Through the London Space Innovation Centre, City is already leading a number of international programmes related to space autonomous systems missions.
The City of London’s financial centre provides a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the promotion and expansion of the space finance sector: to set the bases in terms of regulation of space activities, while financially sustaining the development of engineering solutions for space missions that the UK aims to lead, internationally, in the near future.

David Stupples, Professor of Space Engineering, also of the Centre, said:

The UK plays an increasingly important role in space missions, space science and engineering, and has developed an ambitious Space Sector Strategy to maintain its position in the global top five space players.
The City of London’s Financial Centre is well placed to become the world leader for space finance supported by space-related legal services.
I support the signatories calling for a better-defined government target within the Space Sector Strategy to promote the City of London as the pre-eminent finance sector for space.