The economic impact on the UK of a disruption to GNSS
This report researches and assesses the impact of a 5-day loss of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems on the UK economy.
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Details
Like all modern economies, much of everyday life in the UK is reliant on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). It is sometimes called the invisible utility.
GNSS provide signals from satellites orbiting in space to give us accurate information on positioning, navigation and timing. These systems have a large range of uses but, until now, the economic benefits haven’t always been well understood. It is not clear what the economic impact of a GNSS outage would be on the UK.
This report looks at what would happen to the UK economy if GNSS were unavailable for 5 days.
The report had 5 aims:
- identify the economic sectors and industries supported by GNSS in the UK
- quantify the economic benefit that these technologies and services bring to the UK
- estimate the economic impact (both government and private sector) of a disruption to GNSS of up to 5 days
- identify the cost and effectiveness of mitigation strategies
- carry out a high-level assessment of the impact of UK public funding of GNSS
Background to the report
Innovate UK, the UK Space Agency and the Royal Institute of Navigation commissioned this report.
Innovate UK supports businesses by:
- providing funding to improve their products and services
- helping them find the right connections to solve problems
- connecting them with expert advice, specialist support and facilities, through the Knowledge Transfer Network, Enterprise Europe Network and Catapult centres
The UK Space Agency has invested up to €30 million in the navigation innovation and support programme at the European Space Agency. This enables companies to develop new products and technologies using the funding and expertise of the European Space Agency.