SIAA Key Dates and Notes

Below are a few notes on current activities and upcoming events from SIAA Chair Brett Biddington.

1. The first SIAA Executive Council (EC) meeting will be held in Sydney on Thursday 24^th February. The EC will elect the office holders at the meeting. Michael Davis will be sending to you all more details of the meeting - timing, venue and agenda in the next few days. ALL members are invited to attend the meeting.

2. Please put a diary note against 31^st March, the likely date for the first Space Industry Innovation Council meeting for 2011. The meeting is scheduled to be held in Sydney and the afternoon session will be some form of open forum. The details of timing, venue, structure and sought outcomes will be available closer to the date.

3. Last week, the UK Ministers for Defence and Foreign Affairs visited Australia and held counterpart talks with Ministers Smith and Rudd. The links below will take you to the communiqués issued at the conclusion of the talks. As with last November's AUSMIN talks, space figures prominently. At some point these policy developments may be expected to turn into business opportunities.

AUKMIN 2011 documents:

• Joint Communiqué (Word)
• Second joint statement on Australia - United Kingdom Defence Cooperation (PDF) and Australia - United Kingdom Strategic Policy Partnership (same PDF)

4. The floods and recent wild weather, and its aftermath, underscores the important, perhaps critical, role that Earth observation satellite systems play in the planning, warning, recovery and reconstruction phases of disasters. (See related recent SIAA blog post.) Over the coming months, it seems likely that the Commonwealth and various State Governments will receive many offers of help satellite data providers of all sorts. It will be important for the space industry to present a balanced and realistic picture of the potential role of Earth observation satellites in future disaster preparation, response, and recovery.

5. Recently a space security meeting was held in Delhi, India, co-organised by the Secure World Foundation, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Observer Research Foundation, and the Jawaharlal Nehru University. More information on discussions at the meeting can be found here.

6. It is anticipated that the fourth and final round of the ASRP will be opened in mid-late February. Applications will close six weeks later and it is expected that successful applicants will be announced in May. It is possible that DIISR may seek a small amount of funding in the 2011 budget for follow-on rounds of the ASRP, however this will be dependant on the economy and the PM's determination to balance the budget in 2012-13.

7. The ISU/UniSA Southern Hemisphere - Summer Space Program (SH-SSP), is concluding this week in Adelaide. Several SIAA members have been involved with the program, which is generating an amazing amount of energy and enthusiasm and shows a great deal of promise for the future.

In summary, in this Year of the Rabbit, the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times" has never seemed more prescient and relevant. Risk breeds opportunity. Played right, we have an opportunity this year to advance the interests of Australia's space industry substantially.