The European Space Agency (Esa) has officially opened its new British research centre.

欧洲航天局正式开启英国新研究中心。

The facility joins a group of hi-tech businesses and academic institutes that operate on the Harwell innovation campus near Oxford¹.

The UK has been the only major Esa nation not to host one of the agency's technical or administrative² centres.

The facility will focus on science and exploration, with particular emphasis aimed at robotics and climate change.

Esa expects the new Harwell unit to become its hub for "industrial intelligence", an outward-looking venture that seeks to pull new ideas into the agency from the private sector³.

"We at Esa are looking at the Harwell site to see how we can work differently on the techno（现代电子乐） front with industry - not just British industry, but European industry in general," Professor David Southwood, Esa's chief scientist, told BBC News.

The UK government hopes to make the facility the key element of a broader effort at Harwell that will be called the International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) - a place where academia and industry can spark off each other.

"One of the ambitions is to get a better flow of thinking and ideas across existing boundaries," said Dr David Williams, Britain's most senior civil servant with responsibility for space.

This fits with the existing ethos at Harwell. The campus is a joint⁴ endeavour of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), and the international property group Goodman.

It has attracted a range of hi-tech companies, many already pursuing space-related activities. But its most visible occupant is the giant, publicly funded Diamond synchrotron light（同步加速器辐射） source.

Diamond is the UK's largest investment in science for 30 years and probes the structure of materials on the finest scales using X-rays. It is used both by university scientists and researchers working in the private sector.