This second edition of the OECD Handbook on Measuring the Space Economy is the result of many years of close co-operation between the OECD Secretariat, the ministries and space agencies represented in the OECD Space Forum, national statistical offices, private sector stakeholders, OECD colleagues and national delegates. We warmly thank all the experts who kindly contributed substance and comments in the course of the project.
The report was drafted by Claire Jolly, Marit Undseth, Mattia Olivari and James Jolliffe, from the OECD Space Forum in the Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), with Barrie Stevens, senior advisor, kindly providing comments.
The OECD Space Forum Secretariat wishes to acknowledge with sincere thanks the support provided by the organisations forming the Steering Group of the OECD Space Forum: the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Canada; the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), France; the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Germany; the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Italy; the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea; the Netherlands Space Office, Netherlands; the Norwegian Space Agency and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Norway; the Swiss Space Office, Switzerland; the UK Space Agency, United Kingdom; the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States; and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The publication has greatly benefited from insights collected during OECD Space Forum workshops and seminars, with over 500 experts involved in substantive discussions in the past six years:
Online seminars, held on 4 May and 8 June 2021, on “Space Economy Measurement and Surveys”: The objective of these seminars was to understand the state-of-play in ongoing space economy surveys and related analysis from countries around the world.
Online workshop, held on 9 October 2020, entitled “What's Next for the Space economy in the Era of Covid-19?” The workshop assembled agencies and space industry representatives to discuss recent evolutions in statistical indicators.
Workshop, held on 2 October 2019 at OECD Headquarters in Paris, entitled “Linking Policies and Indicators: A Fresh Look”: The main objectives of the workshop were to: 1) highlight new strategies in place at national and regional levels to attract and sustain space industry and investments; and 2) review the availability and quality of existing and experimental indicators used by public organisations to take stock of recent or ongoing programme evaluations and impact assessments.
A meeting of the group of Space Agencies Technology Transfer Officers (SATTO), on 21 February 2019 at the International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France: The objective was to discuss different national practices in technology transfers.
Workshop, held on 27 April 2018 at OECD Headquarters, Paris, entitled “The Transformation of the Space Industry: Linking Innovation and Procurement”: The objective was to review administrations’ practices and their need for specific statistics.
Workshop, jointly hosted by the OECD Space Forum and Space Agencies Technology Transfer Officers (SATTO), held on 21 June 2017 at the French space agency CNES, entitled “Technology Transfer and Commercialisation (TTC) from Space Programmes: Enabling Conditions, Processes and Economic Impacts”: The objective was to discuss measurement of space technology transfers.
Workshop, held on 22-23 June 2017 at OECD Headquarters, Paris, on “Economic and Innovation Indicators for the Space Sector”: The main objective was to take stock of recent public efforts to collect and analyse data and indicators related to economic development and innovation in the space sector, sharing experiences with stakeholders from OECD countries and beyond, including industry associations.
Workshop, held on 10-11 March 2016, at OECD Headquarters, Paris, entitled “Data to Decisions: Valuing the Societal Benefit of Geospatial Information”. The event was hosted by OECD and organised in collaboration with NASA, USGS and the GEOValue Community: It was the first technical workshop assembling so many economists and scholars from academia and research institutes to specifically discuss the value of geospatial information and satellite data. The workshop brought together around 100 participants from 22 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam). (See Chapter 5 on impacts.)
Workshop, held on 25 May 2015, at OECD Headquarters, Paris, entitled “Taxonomy in the Space Economy: Defining, Describing and Classifying Actors engaged in Space Activities”: The main objectives of the workshop were to share practical information about taxonomies and data collection to support national policies and agencies’ priorities and to build consensus on basic definitions and perimeters for space-related activities to improve international comparability.
Special thanks go to Hendrik Fischer and Mara Grunewald from the DLR and David Haight, Aaron Parsons and James Jarvis-Thiébault from the CSA, who contributed original material for the Handbook based on Canadian and German experiences in space industry surveys (see Annex 4.B). Further special thanks go to Tina Highfill at the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the US Department of Commerce, as well as Pierre Lionnet at the Eurospace industry association, who kindly provided valuable inputs during the drafting of this publication.
Finally, we thank colleagues from the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation for their careful review and comments, notably Alessandra Colecchia, Head of the Science and Technology Policy Division, and Fernando Galindo-Ruedo, senior economist, coordinator of the activities of the OECD Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI).