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Space Industry Advisory Group (SIAG): Terms of Reference

Published 7 May 2026

1. Introduction

As part of the government’s Industrial Strategy, the Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan (published in June 2025) included a commitment for “a new formal Space Industry Advisory Group to be created comprised of government and industry representatives that will advise on the government’s decision-making, strategy development, and delivery of the UK’s industrial space ambitions”.

The UK Space Agency, part of the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), is leading on the implementation of the Space Industry Advisory Group (SIAG) on behalf of all government space interests in support of the “One Government” approach to space. The term industry is used to represent both commercial industry and academia (henceforth referred to as ‘the sector’). The SIAG will be ministerially chaired and will bring together the sector to provide HMG with representative sector views and enable them to raise issues directly with government. As an integral part of the UK’s approach to space strategy, policy and delivery, summaries of SIAG meetings will be shared with the Space Strategy & Delivery Board and Space Ministerial Forum.

Secretariat of the SIAG will be provided by the Space Partnership Director.

All arrangements for the SIAG’s operation, including membership and Terms of Reference, will be reviewed annually. All sector SIAG members will submit a declarations and interests form annually to DSIT so affiliations and potential conflicts of interest are recorded. Changes to interests should be notified as they arise, and potential conflicts of interest should be noted at the beginning of any meeting.

2. Purpose of the Space Industry Advisory Group

The SIAG has been formed to:

• provide industry and academia with increased visibility of, and the ability to support, HMG decision-making in space through ministerial engagement and valuable insight from senior representatives of the UK space sector
• provide an opportunity for the sector to provide expert advice (including on the international competitiveness of the UK space sector), views, opportunities, challenges and threats directly to HMG
• provide industry and academia insight into Ministerial priorities and the ability to advise on what decisions might mean for the sector

3. Responsibilities and Approach

The SIAG is an advisory board only and will hold no formal decision-making powers. The SIAG will provide an opportunity for candid discussions on strategy and policy development along with implementation, opportunities and threats. Unless otherwise advised, discussions of the SIAG will be held under the Chatham House rule, whereby any content of the discussion that may be shared is not attributed to any individual speaker or organisation. Given the nature of some issues discussed during the SIAG, there are likely to be some topics where discussions will not be able to be disclosed beyond the SIAG.

The remit of the SIAG will include:

• a regular opportunity to enable the Minister/DSIT to engage candidly on policy and strategy, development and implementation. The sector will provide direct feedback to Ministers on those ideas
• agendas to include opportunities for academia and industry to raise specific concerns or opportunities, including presenting to ministers on academia and industry proposals for long-term plans
• the ability to provide feedback on behalf of the sector on delivery of the One Government approach and Space Publication
• the opportunity to identify actions to be taken forward in support of the SIAG.

Agendas will be developed jointly between SIAG members (or their nominated representatives) and the UK Space Agency, supported by the Secretariat and signed off by the UK Space Agency Director on behalf of the Minister(s). The final agenda and any discussion papers will be issued five days before the meeting, wherever possible.

As with all policy development, DSIT will consider information from several sources before recommending a course of action to Ministers. SIAG recommendations will be recorded in the meeting minutes. Ministers retain full decision-making authority regarding space policy. DSIT does not regard any conclusions that the SIAG reaches as being binding on the SIAG members or on the organisations that they represent.

4. Frequency and Duration

The UK Space Agency will facilitate a maximum of four SIAG meetings per year, chaired by the responsible Minister for Space. SIAG meetings will be one hour in duration and will be hybrid, with members encouraged to attend meetings in person where possible. Members will be notified of meeting dates as far in advance as possible. Members will be reimbursed for standard class travel costs associated with attending the meetings.

5. Sector Membership

Members are senior representatives from the UK’s space sector, across both industry and academia. They are selected on their ability to represent the views and experiences of this diverse sector of the UK’s economy, based on their to-date contributions to the Space Partnership Board in addition to their previous activities representing the breadth of interests within their communities.

Role	Name of current holder	Additional affiliations
UKspace Chair	Doug Liddle	Director and co-founder, Apogee Missions Advisory Ltd; Professor in Practice, University of Surrey
UKspace SME Forum Chair	Andrew Davies	President, Stellar Solutions Aerospace Ltd
Satellite Finance NetworkChair	Joanne Wheeler	Managing Partner, Alden Legal. Regulatory Advisory Group Co-Chair
ADS Vice President, Space	Kata Escott	UK Managing Director and Head of Country, Airbus Defence and Space
UKspace Vice-Chair	Ben Stern	Key Account Manager, SSTL
CEO, Satellite Applications Catapult	John Abbott
SPAN Co-Chair	Mark Sims	Professor of Astrobiology and Space Instrumentation, University of Leicester
SPAN Co-Chair	Anna Hogg	Professor of Earth Observation, University of Leeds
SUN Co-Chair	Lucy Berthoud	Professor of Space Engineering, University of Bristol

A member will not normally be permitted to delegate their place at a meeting to a substitute except where:

1. the member is unable to avoid being absent from the meeting
2. that absence would significantly affect the quality of the discussion; and
3. the designated substitute for that member has been agreed with the secretariat in advance

A member who is unable to attend the meeting in circumstances where the conditions for sending a substitute are not fulfilled may provide written comments in advance of that meeting to the secretariat.

5.1 Additional attendees:

The Space Partnership Director, in their capacity as secretariat will attend the meetings to facilitate and take minutes.

HMG officials from relevant government departments will be invited to brief the SIAG and support the minister. The most appropriate HMG attendees will be decided in advance based on the topics to be discussed at a particular SIAG.

Where agreed, sector subject matter experts might also be invited to support discussions.

6. Definition of terms

Acronym or Term	Definition
SSDB	Space Strategy and Delivery Board
SMF	Space Ministerial Forum
SP	Space Partnership
SPAN	Space Academic Network
SUN	Space Universities Network
ToR	Terms of Reference
UKspace	Trade association for the UK space industry and includes ADS and techUK representatives on its Board