Members of the SmartSat team recently participated in a number of space events held in Singapore in conjunction with the Singapore Air Show to make new connections and investigate new opportunities for SmartSat’s successor organisation, the Australasian Space Innovation Institute (ASII).
This represented a great opportunity to talk about the transition from SmartSat to ASII and to start creating awareness in the region. The trip was conducted as part of a South Australian delegation coordinated by the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC).
(L-R) ASII Business Growth Consultant, Professor Rafael Kargren; ASII CEO & Managing Director, Professor Andy Koronios; South Australia Regional Director for Trade & Investment Southeast Asia, Natalya Twohill; ASII Defence & National Security Advisor, Peter Kerr; and Trade and Investment Manage South Australia, Nadzirah Ali.
Highlights of the visit included hearing first-hand from the Singaporean Minister for Manpower and Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology, Tan See Leng, that the Office of Space Technology and Industry (OSTIn) would be transitioned to the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS). The NSAS will have a greater role in space operations with a focus on Earth observation in low lattitude and equatorial regions. The agency will maintain its focus on international collaboration with industry and academia, and this does represent opportunity for ASII. One of the drivers for the creation of the Singapore Space Agency is the rapid expansion of the space sector across ASEAN nations and the need to provide focused support to Singapore industry to share in this growth.
Attendees of the exclusive ASII hosted breakfast at Rise Restaurant in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Professor Andy Koronios (middle) talks to representatives from government, industry and academia.
The team also met with the Australian High Commissioner to Singapore, Allaster Cox, who provided valuable advice on collaboration with Singapore. This is underpinned by an Australia-Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed in 2025, which focusses on Defence collaboration, economic resilience, transition to net-zero and other issues. It complements an existing Memorandum of Understanding on Collaboration on Innovation and Science, signed in 2016.
ASII hosted a breakfast to announce the new business. This had an excellent turnout from government, industry and academia and allowed our CEO, Prof Andy Koronios, to provide an in-person update on the new ASII business model and our aspirations for regional engagement.
ASII Defence & National Security Advisor, Peter Kerr, at CYSAT Asia.
In addition to the Space Summit (the signature event), ASII also attended the Singapore Space Symposium organised by Nanyang Technology University and the National University of Singapore and the first CYSAT-Asia event, a conference on Space Cybersecurity co-organised by SGInnovate and CYSEC, a Swiss organisation that spun out of the University of Geneva.
The visit was very successful and facilitated numerous meetings with government organisation, including ASEAN space agency representatives, industry and academia and identified a number of areas for potential collaboration around technologies developed by SmartSat.
Peter Kerr
Defence & National Security Coordinator