The UK Space Agency invests around 70 to 75 per cent of its annual budget in programmes of the European Space Agency (ESA). The United Kingdom is a founding member and, after Germany, France and Italy, the fourth-largest contributor. For the years 2022 to 2027 it has committed £1.84 billion, spread across some 98 programmes ranging from Earth observation and navigation and telecommunications to robotic exploration. With sums of this magnitude, the question inevitably arises of what the country gets in return: in contracts for British companies, in technological capabilities, in jobs, and in benefits that cannot be measured directly in economic output. That is precisely what the study examines, both for individual programmes and for the portfolio as a whole. It is the second edition of a systematic assessment and updates both the data basis and the methodology. Its findings feed into decisions on future UK contributions to ESA. Evaluation Office contributes expertise in econometric and evaluation methods to the consortium, which is led by know.space and also includes Ipsos UK.
Cooperation partners
