Kristina Tamane

Working in the space sector in Scotland, through the incredible University of Edinburgh, is the most exciting career opportunity I have ever had. I relocated to Edinburgh from England, where I enjoyed a varied career in both public and private sectors. Over the last 10 years I worked in project management, continuous improvement & change management, development and training, education, recruitment – building up a host of transferrable skills along the way.

There are so many exciting opportunities arising in space and data, with the development of five space ports in Scotland alone (out of seven in the UK) and the immense value derived from space and complimentary data (drone, IoT) at the University of Edinburgh.

The space sector is welcoming and closely linked, whereby companies and educational institutions work together to drive innovation and come out with impactful and practical solutions to global problems. To date, I’ve had the pleasure of working with world-leading remote sensing experts to predict land slides from space, address deforestation globally and develop tools to help in the climate change battle we face as humanity.

One of the value-added aspects of being in Edinburgh is that you are surrounded by history and exist in an ecosystem full of diverse people who have their unique perspectives to bring. This diversity enables space data analytics to come together with novel visualisation techniques and VR to drive real change in governmental policy, as an example.

Edinburgh is strongly on its way to become the Space Data Capital of Europe – and I am excited to be a part of this journey.