{"id":692,"date":"2024-02-19T12:24:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/?p=692"},"modified":"2024-02-19T12:24:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T12:24:50","slug":"kent-joins-space-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/2024\/02\/19\/kent-joins-space-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent joins Space East"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kent is to become part of\u00a0Space East<\/a>, the rapidly growing cluster group for the space sector in the East of England, which has recently expanded to include the county of Kent.<\/p>\n

The University will add to Space East\u2019s expertise and studies in space and satellite technology to support regional agriculture and food industries\u00a0<\/i>with ambitions to develop space-based agriculture to support human habitation in\u00a0space\u00a0.<\/p>\n

As a member of Space East, the University will contribute to data sharing across academic projects and improve the application of space technology for the region and the UK. The cluster also provides an exciting opportunity for the University and business communities across the Suffolk, Norfolk and Kent to increase their networks and unlock new partnership opportunities, especially the 160 plus companies based at the Kent\u00a0Discovery Park<\/a>\u00a0working across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, healthcare,\u00a0technology\u00a0and professional services sectors. The University will host a launch event for local businesses,\u00a0academia\u00a0and cluster members in June to help shape an action plan.<\/p>\n

Kent has an impressive history of space research, with its internationally renowned\u00a0School of Physics and Astronomy<\/a>\u00a0having delivered leading science subjects for over 50 years. As a member of the\u00a0Eastern Arc<\/a>, Kent already has a strategic collaboration between founding academic cluster members the universities of East Anglia and Essex.<\/p>\n

Space East has also appointed\u00a0Nigel Mason<\/a>, Professor of Molecular Physics, as the University\u2019s lead representative. Professor Mason has had leadership roles in many national and international research programmes and is the lead coordinator of the\u00a0Europlanet Research Infrastructure<\/a>, Europe\u2019s largest forum for planetary sciences. Outside Europe, he works with the emerging space communities in India and Africa.<\/p>\n

Professor Mason said: \u2018I\u2019m delighted that the county and the University of Kent have joined Space East, providing the opportunity for researchers and businesses to collaborate across the region with an emphasis on using space to support agriculture and developing materials to be used across the space sector.<\/p>\n

\u2018Kent has long been the UK\u2019s gateway to Europe \u2013\u00a0I hope it will also become one of the UK\u2019s gateways to space.\u2019<\/p>\n

Stuart Catchpole, Cluster Manager of\u00a0Space East<\/a>, says: \u2018The heartbeat of any cluster is its community and the opportunities presented by its diverse membership, engagement, knowledge capabilities and expertise. We\u2019re delighted that Kent and the University of Kent, through Professor Nigel Mason OBE has joined Space East, growing the cluster and providing even greater opportunities for our members to connect, collaborate and exchange knowledge to drive forward the space economy in our region.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re particularly excited to explore how space technology can support the terrestrial agricultural sector as well as space farming.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kent is to become part of\u00a0Space East, the rapidly growing cluster group for the space sector in the East of England, which has recently expanded … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37654,"featured_media":693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[99361,20367],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/physastro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}