Time to Find Your ‘Space’ to Live in Leicester

There are so many benefits when you Live in Leicester that it would be impossible to single out even the top 100 let alone the top ten, but one of the major attractions has got to be the ever-changing, exciting face of our great city.

Just as New York is a city that never sleeps, Leicester is never caught napping when it comes to embracing the past, present and future.

This is incredibly evident with the ongoing project to create a £75 million space park in the city. As new images are released of the development, it is a good time to ponder the project and marvel at yet more exciting changes and progressions taking place in our heart of the East Midlands.

The new images were created by the University of Leicester and give a new insight into the project which is underway in Belgrave on the site of what was the campus of the John Ellis School. The project is a partnership between the university, the Leicester and Leicestershire Economic Partnership and the city council and highlights our ambitious nature as the city strives to become a hub of space-related industry and research.

Work by council employees has started to prepare the 15-acre site in a £5 million package of works which include anti-flood measures and the development of cyclist and pedestrian access linking the site with the Abbey Pumping Station and the National Space Centre nearby. Around two miles of cycleways and footpaths are being upgraded in the area.

Sir Peter Soulsby, the city mayor, said that he was very excited by the project, which would transform a site that has lacked purpose since the school was demolished around 20 years ago. He called the location ‘wonderful’ given its proximity to the Abbey Pumping Station and space centre and added that the scheme would allow to the university to expand and further establish its global reputation in the space field.

The field is big news right now given that a consortium of British universities has just been awarded almost £5 million of Research England money to go towards national initiatives aimed at enhancing innovation and research in the country’s space industry.

The British government wants the national space sector to own ten per cent of the global £400 billion market by 2030. This goal will need a coordinated approach involving both academic establishments and industry if it has a chance of being achieved.

The University of Leicester is part of what is known as the Space Research and Innovation Network for Technology (SPRINT). The network, which also includes the universities of Edinburgh, Surrey and Southampton, along with the Open University, received a £4.8M Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) award. The grant should allow for the support of SMEs in working with higher education facilities, offering them an unprecedented level of access to academic facilities and expertise.

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