The Government has confirmed a new £40m International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) is to be built at Harwell's Science and Innovation Campus, creating 700 jobs over five years.

As we reported in December, the centre will be a centrepiece of British space research as part of the launch of the UK Space Agency, although its headquarters will initially remain in Swindon.

The centre, which will be built alongside the expanding European Space Agency facility on the campus, will establish centres of excellence in the use of data from satellites, predicting climate change, and advising on the security of space systems.