SPAN were invited to a roundtable discussion hosted by Deputy High Commissioner Elizabeth Bowes PSM at Australia House. The event welcomed Professor Christopher Lawrence and Lieutenant General Larry James, from Monash University, as well as representatives from the UK Space Agency and Australia House. The discussion focused on how Australia’s National Indigenous Space Academy (NISA) is inspiring a new generation of First Nations people to intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
First Nations Australian University students now have the chance to aim high with the NISA internship program, which was founded in Adelaide in 2023 and is funded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and the Australian Space Agency.
The programme, delivered by Monash University, sends students studying in STEM fields to NASA’s JPL in California for a summer internship program in which students partner with a NASA JPL scientist or engineer mentor. If you would like to be connected to the team at Monash University please drop Anushka an email at info@span.ac.uk and we’ll connect you.
Previous Page |08 September 2026
We shared yesterday the news that the Government has published the new UK Space Strategy, alongside its Technical Delivery Annex. Ahead of publication, SPAN was invited to provide a response from our Co-Chairs, Professors Anna Hogg and Mark Sims. Their statement has been included in the Government's announcement:
10 August 2026
Over the summer Anushka Sharma had the privilege of moderating discussions and speaking on panels across the UK space sector, from security and defence at Farnborough International Airshow, to running a session on SPAN at the National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham, and most recently joining a panel on DWC Resilience forum hosted at Fieldfisher
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.
