The Space Academy team are gearing up for the launch event on 2 October 2008 by Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation at the National Space Centre, Leicester.  This will be a significant day as the UK’s first Space Academy is officially open for business.  Students and teachers can expect a number of events throughout the year as part of this ground-breaking strategic STEM initiative.  The Space Academy is a partnership between the National Space Centre, the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester, the Science Learning Centre East Midlands and STEMNET, and is funded by emda. 

The academy has a novel structure including dedicated Outreach Post-doctoral Researchers at the partner universities bringing cutting edge space science research into the classroom.  This aims to enrich student STEM learning and will provide teachers with exciting examples of using these subjects in STEM lessons.  We also aim to get industry more involved with outreach activities by facilitating workshops and events linking them with higher education and further education institutions. 

As project manager of the Space Academy I am enormously excited at the potential of this project as I believe that with the expertise we have on board it is without a doubt going to be an outstanding success – watch this space! 

Sarah Hill, Project Manager