The Satellite Applications Catapult (SAC) has been set by BIS on the Harwell Campus to foster the development of applications from Earth-orbiting satellites. The space sector is seen by Government as a major contributor to economic growth, and its Innovation and Growth Strategy aims to increase significantly the contribution of this sector to the economy during the coming decades. An important role of the SAC is to bridge the "valley of death" between research in this area and commercial applications. The SAC is not a funding body as such but it is able invest in academic-industry collaborations, and it is keen to broker such collaborations.
The SAC is interested in developing closer links with the University of Cambridge and its collaborators (e.g. the British Antarctic Survey), and is willing the consider placing a Knowledge Exchange Fellow here to develop science-enabled but commercially directed activity with the satellite applications sector. The areas of interest are diverse and relevant to many disciplines where this university has high expertise, including (to list a few) machine learning and "big data", signal processing, plant science ("agritech"), food security, energy security, environmental risks and hazards (e.g. earthquakes, flooding, air pollution), climate change, sustainability.
The SAC and University of Cambridge researchers will meet at the Maxwell Centre to explore areas of matching interest and chart the way ahead. Please contact Prof. Alan O'Neill (ao406@cam.ac.uk) if you would like to learn more.