§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps she is taking to develop a strategy for ensuring that the purely scientific aspects of Earth observation from space are fully integrated into the research council system. [9423]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 18 July 1997]: Mechanisms are already in place, through the British National Space Centre partnership and the responsibilities of the Natural Environment Research Council, for ensuring that the scientific aspects of Earth observation are fully integrated into the research council system. NERC, as well as the Office of Science and Technology, is a partner in BNSC and NERC staff are fully involved in the definition and implementation of BNSC's EO activities. NERC's responsibilities include the promotion 456W and support of high-quality basic, strategic and applied research in EO and NERC expenditure on such EO research is currently about £6 million a year.
§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what steps she is taking to ensure that the United Kingdom investment in the European Space Agency Envisat Earth observation satellite yields the fullest returns to the United Kingdom in terms of its commercial, strategic and scientific potential. [9437]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 18 July 1997]: The United Kingdom has been more successful than any other ESA country in winning announcements of opportunity for scientific and strategic exploitation of data from ESA's European remote sensing satellites. We are also one of the leading countries in the development of commercial applications of Earth observations. The British National Space Centre is aiming to continue this success by working with ESA, the EU, Government Departments, industry and academia to ensure an effective infrastructure for processing, archiving, and distribution Envisat data combined with continuing promotional and applications development support.
§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what additional funding the United Kingdom space science mission will receive to compensate for PPARC's inability to fund the appropriate United Kingdom involvement in some of ESA's science missions. [9434]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 18 July 1997]: The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council received an allocation from the science budget of £200.65 million—including provision for its international subscriptions—for 1997–98. Within that allocation, it is for PPARC to determine its priorities, including deciding whether and at what level it should participate in ESA missions.
§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the President of the board of Trade what monitoring PPARC undertakes of the comparative industrial spin-off of its space science expenditure including the ESA subscription against that of its expenditure on ground-based astronomy and particle physics. [9433]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 18 July 1997]: As the only research council which exclusively supports basic research, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council's mission requires it to "take account" of the potential for contributing to the UK's industrial competitiveness, as opposed to the requirement on the other research councils to place "special emphasis" on this issue. Nevertheless, PPARC seeks to ensure that UK industry benefits from contracts for the construction of major facilities, and that technologies developed for research are exploited in industry.
PPARC is developing performance indicators to help to monitor the number of contracts won by UK companies, and the extent to which the academic community collaborates with companies. As contracts placed by ESA are linked to the level of the UK's subscription, and the high-technology contracts placed by the Gemini telescope project are linked to the level of the UK's participation in the project, there are already good opportunities for UK companies to win contracts. While UK companies already benefit substantially from contracts from ESA, they have not done so well at winning supply contracts 457W from CERN—although they have been more successful at winning service contracts. To address this, PPARC, jointly with the DTI has appointed an industrial co-ordinator to promote to UK industry the opportunities that the new large Hadron collider at CERN will provide.
The PPARC industrial programme support scheme — PIPSS—was launched in 1994 to promote technology transfer from technology research groups to industry. Thirty-four projects totalling £1.6 million have been awarded over three years.