Aerial view of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus

The new ESA research centre in the United Kingdom, formally opened on 22 July 2009, is based at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.

The ESA facility will focus on three areas: ‘integrated applications’, which is the combined use of different space and terrestrial technologies, data and infrastructures to create new everyday applications; climate change modelling using data from space; and developing new technologies for the next era of planetary exploration, including robotics and innovative power sources that could be used on the Moon and Mars.

Following negotiations between ESA, the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the British National Space Centre, the facility at Harwell will initially comprise a small number of staff to be located in existing buildings. As the facility grows, additional specialised facilities may be built and included in an overall International Space Innovation Centre.