Author: UKRI

Seven UK start-ups have joined the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre UK (ESA BIC UK), to develop technologies that address industrial challenges and deliver practical benefits in space and on Earth. Together, they aim to boost productivity, efficiency and decision-making across sectors from construction to environmental monitoring, helping strengthen the UK economy and the […]

An international team has discovered a third planet orbiting the nearby star Beta Pictoris. The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b, the first planet discovered in the same system. It is among the lightest exoplanets ever imaged from the ground. This first clear detection of Beta Pictoris d […]

As part of his visit, he officially opened the UK Space and Defence Gateway. The Gateway is aligned with the principles of the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s (SMI) Astra Carta, a global framework launched by His Majesty, as Prince of Wales. These are designed to ensure the space sector supports a sustainable future. During the visit, […]

UK astronomers are celebrating the launch of the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which began last night from a mountaintop in Chile. A milestone that the UK astronomy community has spent more than a decade preparing for, it’s the start of one of the most ambitious studies of the cosmos ever undertaken. […]

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden have completed the first experiment using one of the new HiLUX laser systems. These are based at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Central Laser Facility (CLF) on the Harwell Campus. About HiLUX HiLUX is […]

A prototype quantum sensor developed by a UK collaboration has demonstrated, for the first time, that a key principle behind next generation quantum detectors can work under realistic conditions. The study, published in Nature, shows how comparing two atom interferometers operated along a common baseline allows important experimental noise to be effectively cancelled. This enables signals to […]

Six spin-outs, in areas from biomanufacturing in space to environmentally conscious fashion, have progressed during a UKRI Research England pilot. It demonstrated the success of pooling resources by universities sharing Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and expertise. The pilot sought to test whether shared TTOs, a collaborative model for universities, may support universities with smaller research […]

Aston University and the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Hartree Centre are joining forces to accelerate the development and industrial adoption of neuromorphic computing across the UK. The initiative focuses on brain-inspired computing technologies with the potential to transform the design, power and real-world application of future artificial intelligence systems. The collaboration will set […]

The discovery of the first planets outside our Solar System (exoplanets) came in the 1990s and thousands more have been identified since then. Most exoplanets discovered so far do not resemble the planets found in our Solar System. There is a much greater variety of planetary types, but scientists don’t yet know why. Understanding alien planets As a result, the field has evolved from finding new exoplanets, to studying […]