The 28th Biennial ELGRA 2024 Conference was held in Liverpool, UK from September 3–6, and the SPAN team were delighted to jointly hold the conference with ELGRA. It was a great way to raise the profile of SPAN with the international community and meet the wider community as well as engage with Space Agencies such as ESA, NASA and JAXA.
The event provided insights on gravity-related R&D, including an in depth track on plant biology in space with the ISLSWG track , new research on space materials and astronaut health.
To kick of the ELGRA Conference, Kate Robson-Brown, Co-Chair Space Academic Network (SPAN) welcomed guests in the opening ceremony on day one in Liverpool.
This was followed by the Cross Agency Panel with updates from:
Libby Moxon: UKSA (UK Space Agency)
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): Lynn Harrison
European Space Agency (ESA): Sebastien Vincent-Bonnieu
German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Thomas Driebe: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt
Professor Elisa Raffaella Ferre, Secretary of ELGRA (European Low Gravity Research Association) and Head of the School of Psychological Sciences for Birkbeck, University of London chaired the session with:
Topics like as mentoring, diversity, and ways in which we may improve our assistance for career transitions were discussed. As well as career pathways for early-career scientists, post docs and mid-senior level workers transitioning back into a research or professional role in the space sector.
On Friday, as the ELGRA Conference came to a close, the UK Space Agency hosted an interactive workshop about the future of gravity-related R&D and microgravity as we look ahead to the moon and Mars. The afternoon session included an interactive session on the future of gravity-related R&D, as well as panel talks from UK Space Labs and a fireside chat with SPAN’s Co-chair Mark Sims with Anushka Sharma. The interactive session will provide you, the UK microgravity community, an opportunity to tell the Agency what you think the future of gravity-related R&D should look like. The panel talks will give you the opportunity to hear from other experts in the field.
The workshop was well attended and attracted diverse perspectives with the SPAN Project office in attendance it has informed insights which will be included in the SPAN white paper on the Future of Funding which will be shared with the community shortly.
It was fantastic to amplify the work of SPAN to a new community and make new connections with the wider UK-based and wider international scientific community. It was wonderful to meet Lynn Harrison, Deputy Program Scientist, Space Biology at NASA.
We are so delighted to welcome our new members to SPAN and look forward to engaging with you all in the coming weeks and months.
24 June 2026
SPAN Town Hall reinforced SPAN's role as the national voice of the UK space academic community and highlighted the growing recognition across government that academia is central to delivering the UK's ambitions in space through research excellence, innovation and strategic collaboration.
28 March 2026
SPANS’s Space Data White Paper This paper generated to review space data state of the art and areas where policy and investment can underpin the UK ambitions in Space
04 March 2026
Space firms to scale-up and thrive in Britain with government backing for bolder strategy
