Objectives of the service
In a digital and electrically interconnected world, contemporary and future business is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of space weather. This project explores the commercial applications of monitoring and forecasting space weather, aiming to make businesses more resilient to the physical, systemic, and financial shocks that may be associated with unwelcome types of space weather.
The consortium, through active engagement with a group of relevant industry stakeholders, seeks to understand the market landscape and key problems of the targeted industries. By further engaging the group in a program of workshops, feedback and proof of concept development, the consortium will develop a technical proposal for a platform that meets the stakeholders needs and utilizes space-weather data to lower their exposure to potentially costly – or even catastrophic – business risks.
The proposed platform will be a realistic concept that could be realised by a subsequent project, and thus participating stakeholders can hope to contribute to the shaping of a real service that they would want to use in future
Users and their needs
The targeted communities are the insurance industry, electricity industry (generation, transmission, distribution) and significant GNSS service users – located generally in, but not limited to, the United Kingdom. The users in these communities all have significant business dependencies on satellite-provided services, such as GNSS or very accurate synchronised timing; or they have significant dependencies on other businesses that do. The activity involves determining their needs and requirements with respect to space weather impacts, and designing a platform that utilises space weather data to address those needs.
Business users currently involved in this project include Lloyds of London, CHC Global, Lockton Companies LLP, AtkinsRéalis. The consortium is actively recruiting more stakeholders into the consultation pool – if you are interested, please do contact us.
Service/ system concept
The goal of the project is to develop a feasible concept for a service platform that meets the space-weather needs identified by the stakeholders themselves during the consultation phase. Exactly what is in the service, and how it is delivered, remain to be determined, but it is likely to be based on network dependency graphs that use known models of critical business components and space-weather data to identify dependency weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and tipping-points of business harm.
Space Added Value
Space weather events pose increasing risks to infrastructure, yet existing datasets from ESA and NOAA are underutilised commercially. This activity aims to increase the value of space weather data assets by identifying market gaps in key areas and proposing a service platform that can better utilise these assets to address market needs. It also aims to provide an intuitive and understandable tool to help mitigate serious space-weather business risks that some companies may currently simply be ignoring, and by doing this it will introduce more resilience into the European economy.
Current Status
As of November 2025, the Project has kicked off and the partners have met in person. A detailed engagement plan has been developed that spans WP100 and WP200. This plan has been partially implemented for WP100 and the team is on the front foot for a first milestone deliverable in January 2026.
Prime Contractor(s)
Subcontractor(s)
