Review of space and underpinning RD&I activities in Wales - R&D Space Consortium

Tender description

This invitation to tender invites proposals from consultants to undertake a review of space and underpinning RD&I activities in Wales and develop a business case for a research and development space consortium.The UK Government recently launched its National Space Strategy, which outlines its long-term plans to grow and level up the space sector across the UK, to ensure that the space economy works for everyone across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Regional hubs, known as space clusters, are being developed through a programme funded by UK Space Agency, with each cluster supporting new and growing companies, building on local expertise, and catalysing investment into the space sector. The Wales cluster is being led by Welsh Government, with activities to be carried out across the whole of Wales.In February 2022, Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething unveiled the Welsh Government’s National Space Strategy for Wales, Wales: A Sustainable Space Nation.The Wales strategy highlights the unique physical and business environment Wales offers companies that are revolutionising capabilities in the space sector and sets out how Wales could become the world’s first sustainable space nation by 2040, leading the way to a greener space.The Wales Space Strategy is focused on growing the potential of current and future developments in the space sector in Wales, and this presents an opportunity to strengthen and expand the work of the Wales Academic Space Partnership (WASP) and Space Wales into a national academic consortium. Harnessing collaborative academic expertise from across the whole of Wales to create critical mass in space technologies with the aim of competing for inward investment in collaborative R&D in partnership with the Welsh industrial, technical and scientific base.