An international company specialising in the development of advanced antenna systems will set up an operation in Scotland after a £2.5 million R&D grant from Scottish Enterprise.

Celestia Technologies Group UK Ltd (CTG) will establish a facility to develop a fully electronic scanning antenna for use with satellite-based aircraft Wi-Fi applications (www.celestia-tech.com).

The subsidiary of Netherlands-based Celestia Technologies Group will initially be based at Heriot-Watt University, while it identifies a suitable location; it plans to create 18 jobs.

Crucial to attracting CTG to Scotland was the country’s growing space sector; it has been estimated that this could be worth £4 billion to the Scottish economy by 2030.

The R&D grant was announced during a visit to CTG’s base at Heriot-Watt by Fiona Hyslop, Scottish government’s Secretary for the Economy.

CTG UK was established in 2017 to take advantage of opportunities in the emerging UK space sector.

It intends to develop a flat-panel antenna (incorporating multi-beam and phased-array technology) to link aircraft with a communication satellite for in-flight broadband.

CTG chairman José Alonso said: “The grant will allow the company to establish a centre of competence for scanning antennas in Scotland and continue its expansion in the UK.

“We are delighted to contribute to the creation of knowledge-based jobs in the Edinburgh area.”