The UK Space Agency is offering young people in Cornwall expert advice and a share of £50,000 for their ideas of how satellites could improve life on Earth.

The SatelLife competition, now in its fourth year, is looking for innovative proposals that could use data collected from space to benefit daily life, such as growing new businesses, improving health services or tackling climate change.

Emily Gravestock, head of applications at the UK Space Agency, said: “The UK is a world leader in building satellites and Cornwall has a thriving space sector. The use of data from space can solve many of the challenges we face on Earth. We’ve seen in previous years that Cornwall has plenty of talented young people with fantastic ideas, so I would urge anyone thinking about entering to give it a go.”

In the last two years of the SatelLife competition Cornwall has produced four winners, from using data to track plane crash survivors to an illness tracker to map the spread of diseases.

Two teams have previously won the over group projects.

In 2019, Treviglas Academy students Judd Phillips, 15, Calvin Hulance, 14, Matthew Old, 14, and Joel Armstrong, 14, from Newquay, won £7,500 for their idea of an app to allow people to find and rate public toilets as well as reserve them for people in need with hidden disabilities.

In 2018, Ellie Jones, 15, Jessica Knight, 15, Summer Jeffery, 14, and Emily Haddrell, 14, from Truro, won £7,500 for their concept of Surf Safe - a wrist band that uses satellite location data and communications services to identify the locations of swimmers and surfers combined with tidal and rip tide data to provide real time tracking and the location of those in danger.

Other winning ideas from last year’s national competition included tracking abandoned shopping trolleys and fighting crime with drones.

Satellites support the economy and everyday life, and this competition gives young people the chance to test their ideas with space experts and perhaps one day become part of one of the UK’s fastest growing industries.

The UK space sector already supports 42,000 jobs and could create a further 30,000 opportunities in the next decade.

The competition, which is open to those aged 11 to 22 and split into three age groups, aims to support the development of science, data handling and technological skills.

The judging panel will be made up of experts including industry representatives and the UK Space Agency, Satellite Applications Catapult and European Space Agency (ESA).

The UK is the leading investor in satellite business applications across Europe and hosts the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications in Harwell, Oxfordshire.

All winners will go on to pitch their ideas to a panel of ‘dragons’ at the Harwell Space Cluster, Oxfordshire, on June 16 for the chance to win further prizes.

Over the last three years these prizes has included further funding, patent advice and invitations to discuss job opportunities as well as introductions to the other relevant experts for further help.

The link to enter: is www.gov.uk/government/publications/satellife-competition-2020-how-to-enter-and-other-resources

The competition closes on March 3.