Cross-faculty grant to investigate the socioeconomic benefits of space exploration

OU researchers have been awarded a one-year £307,000 contract by the European Space Agency to investigate the socioeconomic benefits of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) exploration programme.

Dr Manish Patel, Senior Lecturer in Planetary Sciences and Dr Leslie Budd, Reader in Social Enterprise, have formed a cross disciplinary team between the OU’s Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the Faculty of Business and Law. The study, called the Benefits of the ESA Exploration Roadmap for Socioeconomics (BEERS) will assess several on-going and upcoming space missions, ranging from low Earth orbit, to the Moon and Mars, to determine what the foreseen benefits are for the European community and economy.

This will involve determining the economic and social benefits, by using novel approaches for assessment of spill over benefits from space exploration into the various aspects of European economies.

“We beat some strong competition to win this grant,” said Dr Patel. “It signifies a new area of excellence developing in the university – the study of socioeconomic benefits of space exploration. We have a long heritage of space exploration at the OU, and a huge expertise in economic analysis – this grant unites these areas of expertise into a new area of study and the outputs will help inform the ESA Ministerial Council late next year, where the European member states collectively decide on funding lines for exploration missions.”