The UK Space Agency has announced plans to move its headquarters to the Harwell Space Cluster in Oxfordshire. The agency is also planning to open regional offices across the United Kingdom.
Currently headquartered in Swindon in the southwest of England, the UK Space Agency is expected to move to its new headquarters in Harwell, Oxfordshire, in June. This new location is a stone’s throw from ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT).
In addition to the relocated headquarters, the agency is also opening regional offices in Cardiff (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland), and Leicester (England). Northern Ireland, the final of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom, has not been tapped to receive a regional office. The UK Space Agency will also retain offices in London and Swindon.
“This is a transformational moment for the UK Space Agency, responding directly to the feedback that the Agency should be embedded in the sector,” said UK Space Agency CEO Dr. Paul Bate. “Our new headquarters, located at the UK’s biggest space cluster in Harwell, will connect to regional offices in Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Leicester, and our existing London and Swindon teams, helping us recruit space talent from across the nation and deliver the National Space Strategy.”
The opening of the agency’s new regional offices is in line with the government’s “Levelling Up strategy,” which aims to “spread opportunity more equally across the UK.” Additionally, relocating its HQ to one of the country’s Space Clusters is consistent with the country’s Space Industrial Plan, which outlined a need for the committed support of space clusters across the United Kingdom to drive collaboration between key actors and catalyze further investment.
The Cardiff regional office will be the first to be opened, with the ribbon-cutting ceremony expected in April. The relocated HQ will open in June, followed by the office in Edinburgh later in the summer. The agency has not revealed when it expects to open the doors of its Leicester office.
