ECONOMIC IMPACT FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF LEICESTER DEVELOPMENT REVEALED

New figures suggest Space Park Leicester has generated some £89 million for the economy in its first 12 months.

The £100 million development, led by the University of Leicester with backing from the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership and city council builds on the university’s decades of expertise in space research, innovation and education.

It also comes as the Space Park joins a new Space City cluster on the northern edge of Leicester, which will create one of the biggest enterprise zones for space-related activities in the UK. The economic impact figures were provided by the university.

Since opening, the space park has won international investment, created 125 new jobs and hosted more than 200 events and visits.

More than 20 businesses and organisations are now based there or have operations there, including Rolls Royce, Airbus, Northrop Grumman, Satellite Applications Catapult, CGI, EarthSense and Maxar. The National Centre for Earth Observation also has its headquarters at Space Park Leicester.

Management are currently in talks with potential investors about phase three of the space park’s plans, a manufacturing base for small-scale satellite production.

The site’s executive director Professor Richard Ambrosi said: “We are proud of the success achieved in this first year and since the opening of Space Park Leicester and look to the future.

It is a testament to the talented team of people working tirelessly across science, engineering, operations and commercial functions. We continue to build on our heritage in the space sciences and look forward to increasing our collaboration with industry, national and international partners.”

He added: “Our ambition for the future is captured by our growing science portfolio and plans to physically expand into a commercially focused additional phase of Space Park Leicester called Digital Space Futures.”

The Space City partnership includes Space Park Leicester, University of Leicester, DOCK, National Space Centre, Leicester City Council, and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), and is part of the Loughborough and Leicester Science and Innovation Enterprise Zone.