ASA and FrontierSI collaborate to drive growth for space industry

FrontierSI has committed to work with the Australian Space Agency to usher in a new era of growth for the Australian space industry, with the signing of a Statement of Strategic Intent and Cooperation in Melbourne on Friday.

FrontierSI is a not-for-profit company that provides expertise in spatial mapping, infrastructures, positioning, geodesy, analytics and standards.

The Chair of FrontierSI, Dr Gillian Sparkes FAICD, said, “The Australian Space Agency and FrontierSI share the goal of developing a globally respected Australian space industry, so we are delighted to commit today to work with the Space Agency and others to benefit the Australian space industry. We will work together to deliver the benefits for Australians that will flow from the advancement of the space and spatial sectors.

“FrontierSI has a critical role making the information from space usable for downstream industry sectors including the agriculture, health, mining, built infrastructure, transport, energy, defence and environmental sectors,” said Dr Sparkes, explaining that “with a focus on collaboration, our agile team skilfully bring the right expertise together at the right time, to deliver spatial services and solutions to complex problems”.

Australia’s 10-year plan for the civil space sector is outlined in the Australian Space Agency’s ‘Advancing Space: Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019-2028’. The Australian Space Agency is working towards tripling the size of Australia’s space sector to $12 billion, with the aim of creating 20,000 jobs by 2030 through increasing national space capabilities; promoting responsible regulation, risk and space culture; and building the future workforce.

Dr Megan Clark AC, Head of the Australian Space Agency, said, “FrontierSI’s collaboration model, together with its focus on developing downstream markets for space-derived information services, align with many of the objectives and priorities outlined in the Australian Civil Space Strategy — particularly supporting next-generation positioning, navigation and timing infrastructure, Earth observation services and leapfrog R&D.”

Dr Graeme Kernich, FrontierSI CEO, said, “The spatial sector and its influence on other industries has experienced enormous growth over the past decade. We are now seeing unprecedented use and dependence on space and spatial technologies. Above all, FrontierSI enables collaborations that deliver high-impact solutions for our partners and clients.

“FrontierSI has a long history of commitment to this sector and we look forward to a new era of collaboration with the Australian Space Agency that will enable industry to develop new services that integrate current, emerging and future space and spatial data innovations,” Dr Kernich said.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Andrey Armyagov