Open call for evidence

Positioning, Navigation and Timing Growth: call for evidence

Published 30 June 2025

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/positioning-navigation-and-timing-growth/positioning-navigation-and-timing-growth-call-for-evidence

Introduction

The National Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Office has started work on Action 9 of the Government Policy Framework for Greater PNT Resilience to develop a PNT growth policy, including R&D programmes, standards and testing to drive innovation for PNT based productivity.  

More evidence is needed on the UK PNT market to develop policy interventions to drive PNT growth. The National PNT Office will use this call for evidence to:

  • fulfil Action 9, and
  • inform the development of PNT growth strategy

Call for evidence description

The PNT Growth call for evidence will kickstart the development of PNT growth strategy and the drive for resilient PNT adoption and innovation for PNT based productivity.

This call for evidence is seeking views on the UK PNT market and R&D landscape, barriers to market entry, commercialisation and user adoption.

Why we are consulting

The purpose of the call for evidence is to:

  • better understand the UK PNT market landscape and identify where the UK is best positioned for PNT growth
  • highlight the barriers to market entry, commercialisation and user adoption

The National PNT Office will use this call for evidence to inform the development of PNT growth strategy. In particular, this evidence will help the National PNT Office:

  • understand the current UK PNT market landscape and where the UK is best positioned for PNT growth
  • determine the potential growth impact of key PNT technologies, identifying priority technologies for support
  • establish priority sectors where adoption leads to the highest growth potential
  • identify and assess the barriers to market entry, commercialisation and user adoption
  • gain industry perspectives on how best to support development from research to commercialisation
  • identify strengths and challenges for the PNT service/product industry and its supply chain

We are seeking responses from:

  • PNT businesses (selling or using PNT)
  • PNT end users
  • PNT academics and researchers
  • members of a professional body
  • members of a PNT-related catapult
  • members of the public with an interest in PNT

How to respond

You are invited to answer 38 questions.

You do not need to answer every question. The majority of questions are optional, so please only respond to those that are relevant to you. The survey automatically saves responses as you progress, so you do not need to complete the survey in one go. You may like to have a look at all the questions first before answering.

To help us analyse the responses, please use the online system wherever possible and ensure you have submitted your response before exiting the questions.  

Submit your online responses here.

This call for evidence is open until 11:59 pm on 25 August 2025.

If you are not able to submit responses using the online form, please contact npnto@dsit.gov.uk for alternative ways to contribute.

In exceptional circumstances, if you need to submit a hard copy, please contact us at npnto@dsit.gov.uk and we will advise how to do this. Should you require another format (e.g. braille or large font) please contact alt.formats@dsit.gov.uk.  

Thank you for your interest in responding to this consultation.

About PNT

PNT services are vital for the UK economy, Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sectors and wider society.  PNT underpins essential services such as our telecommunications, emergency services, finances and transport. PNT has the potential to deliver significant benefits to the UK economy, with new opportunities emerging through PNT adoption and innovation. Already, sectors such as agriculture, aviation and drones, road and rail are using PNT to increase efficiency and solve sector-specific challenges, but there is a need to go further to exploit the benefits that PNT offers – especially for resilient PNT.   

The UK’s PNT is almost completely provided through Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), primarily the US Global Positioning System.  There are many potential major disruptions to GNSS-provided PNT, including hazards such as severe space weather and threats like cyber and physical attacks.  A 2023 report by London Economics estimated that the economic costs to the UK of a 7-day GNSS outage to be around £7.6 billion. Harnessing PNT technologies which provide resilience, and are not dependent on GNSS, is both a market opportunity and a pressing national need.  

Following the publication of the Government Policy Framework for Greater PNT Resilience, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is taking forward action to drive PNT-enabled economic growth, ensuring that all people, regions and economic sectors can benefit from PNT.

Glossary

  • GNSS-independent PNT - PNT products or services that can operate independently from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
  • GNSS-dependent PNT - PNT products or services that use or rely on signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
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