Skills development to harness space opportunities

According to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, jobs in Irish companies with European Space Agency (ESA) contracts are expected to almost double from 4,500 in 2020 to 8,000 by 2025. Christopher Brown and our Space Advisory team explore how businesses can upskill in preparation.

However, despite the enormity of the opportunity that space commercialisation offers, many businesses remain unaware of its likely impact on their sector, and potentially lack the skills and knowledge necessary to participate to their full potential. To avoid missing out, businesses need to act now to understand the commercial space value chain and upskill as necessary to push their potential for value creation. 

We see a broad opportunity set for Irish industry in commercial space. In particular, we think businesses operating in Ireland’s highly-developed agriculture, manufacturing, IT, logistics and transport sectors can develop a wealth of novel business models, particularly in the midstream (ground-based support of space hardware) and downstream (exploitation and application of space data) sections of the value chain. 

It’s important to stress that businesses entering the commercial space ecosystem aren’t required to be ‘space companies’ in the conventional sense. Rather, they have the opportunity to use space-derived technologies and data to hone and improve existing services and products, as well as develop new revenue streams from servicing space-based enterprises with their traditional products and offerings.

Obvious examples would be the scope we see for manufacturers to exploit space tech to manufacture precision agriculture products, or for farmers to use these products to grow production. Likewise, there are clear opportunities for utilities, transport, manufacturers, and any major asset owners to employ satellite data to protect assets and optimise their usage, as well as verify supply chain claims. 

For the vast majority of businesses, however, upskilling and knowledge acquisition will be a prerequisite to taking advantage of these opportunities.