Author: UKRI

Technologies developed through the five-year SWIMMR (Space Weather Innovation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk) programme are already being used in live forecasting systems. They help the UK respond faster to extreme space weather events. An independent evaluation, carried out by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, highlights how the programme is transforming how the UK prepares for major solar events […]

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has today set out how its prioritisation programme will affect the research projects in its Particle Physics, Astronomy and Nuclear Physics (PPAN) portfolio. Due to increased costs forecast in the future, the research council has conducted a prioritisation exercise for future […]

The 12-month study will gather the first real-world evidence on whether underground farming can be run at commercial scale, using a facility built largely for particle physics rather than agriculture. The study is supported by a UK Research and Innovation Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) STFC Facility Access Fund award for bioscience partnerships. […]

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 […]