Abstract
The State of Imagery is an annual reflection on what Imago has achieved and where we are headed. We intend this document to be both a report and a conversation starter: it shares updates on our progress, highlights emerging opportunities and challenges, and looks ahead to scope how imagery can illuminate the social, economic, health and environmental dynamics shaping our world.
When 2025 began, Imago was a small, ambitious group of academics — full of ideas but short on muscle. Since then, we’ve built a diverse and interdisciplinary team we’re extremely proud of. Today, Imago is a growing collective spanning four universities, made up of researchers, research software engineers and professional services across disciplines and career stages, which develops data products, builds robust infrastructure, and expands our partnerships and outreach. This is what it takes to make satellite imagery more useful, usable and used across social research and policy.
We believe imagery is not just a tool for observation, but a vital resource for understanding and addressing the complex social realities unfolding on the ground. As the relevance of satellite data continues to grow, especially for social and policy research, Imago’s role is to bridge the gap between technical possibility and practical insight.
The Imago website: https://imago.ac.uk/
The Imago Catalogue: https://data.imago.ac.uk/
Imago GitHub organisation with all repositories: https://github.com/Imago-SDRUK/