Space Park Leicester facilities to be showcased at Farnborough Air Show

Experts from Space Park Leicester will promote the opportunities available at the £100 million East Midlands facility to visitors from the global aerospace and defence communities at the prestigious Farnborough International Air Show this week.

From Monday 18 July to Friday 22 July, Executive Director of Space Park Leicester, Professor Richard Ambrosi, an expert in space instrumentation and space nuclear power systems, will help visitors explore the opportunities for innovation, collaboration and exploration at the impressive science-driven hub for innovative research, enterprise and education, which opened to partners last October.

Across the week he is to be joined by a team of experts including Professor Martin Barstow, Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science at the University of Leicester, Vinay Patel, Commercial Manager at Space Park Leicester and Professor Mark Sims, Professor of Astrobiology and Space Instrumentation and Director of Leicester’s Space Research Centre.

Professor Ambrosi said: “We are delighted to have a presence at the returning Farnborough Air Show, and look forward to meeting people face-to-face to share what we have to offer at Space Park Leicester and across the wider University. 

“Space Park Leicester is a cluster of scientists, students and partners that form a vibrant academic and industrial community. It is collaborative, it unites industry and staff – it’s these close links that can really help to accelerated scientific discovery and generate utility beyond science, and enable the UK to capture a greater share of the growing global space sector.”

Since opening, Space Park Leicester has proved an incredibly popular location with around 20 organisations moving in in just 12 months. These include Rolls-Royce, AST Space Mobile, Bluesky, CGI and Kleos Space.

Future plans will build on the park’s exciting community of international, national and local industries in both space and Earth Observation, digital health, environmental management and monitoring, data and digital, optical systems and UK Government agencies.

Professor Ambrosi explained: “Phase 3 of Space Park Leicester will see the construction of Digital Space Futures. DSF complements the end-to-end research, scientific depth, skills and training capability offered by the University of Leicester and Space Park Leicester. It will be a commercially operated facility that will enable companies to scale the manufacturing of space systems. This digital factory will maximise the use of state-of-the-art advanced technologies and we look forward to sharing our plans with visitors to the show.”

Space Park Leicester has been designed to support increased collaboration between University of Leicester researchers and educators and the private sector, creating high quality knowledge-based jobs, building the skills base through training, and contributing to economic growth and resilience of the economy.

The project is led by the University of Leicester in partnership with Leicester City Council, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) and partners.

To find out more information, visit the Space Park Leicester website.