"Within the Agency, we want to ensure the evidence on the impact of our policies and the benefits that they produce for the UK are the best they can be.
It is important that every pound spent by government represents real value, and it’s our job to ensure that public funds are spent on activities that provide the greatest possible outcome. With this in mind, we are pleased to highlight two new publications that help us to improve our evidence base.
Produced by London Economics, this document provides more in-depth information on the economic impact of the UK space sector.It highlights the sector’s high growth, high productivity and export-intensive nature, and delves into the expansive user benefits and enabling effects of space technologies. By providing evidence on trends within the industry, it helps us to understand how we are progressing towards our growth targets and how our policies are making a difference.
UK Space Agency Evaluation Strategy
The Agency’s evaluation strategy sets out our approach to measuring the impact of our policies and understanding how they have been delivered in practice.
It shows how we plan and carry out evaluations, and outlines the main questions that our programme and project managers consider at each step. The strategy shows that reliable and robust evidence on the difference that our work has made is essential for making good decisions on funding priorities.
Our funding covers a huge range of activities from working with the European Space Agency (ESA) on programmes such as Rosetta, through to national programmes such as development of the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE).
We are currently collecting a range of information on our programmes. The commitments and principles set out in the Evaluation Strategy explain how we are seeking to further strengthen our evidence base with new information.
Many of our programmes are at early stages and the long term nature of space programmes means it will often be years until we can understand their full effect.
Collecting the right data and building good evaluation processes from the very start means we can:
- Track progress
- Make sure we are doing the most to maximise benefits
- Improve evidence on the impact of our funding
I hope these documents give you a better idea of how we work to deliver well-targeted, effective policies that deliver the best outcomes for the UK space sector."
- Will Lecky, Space Economist
Leave a comment