  To study a nuclear system in the Skyrme model one must first construct a
space of low energy Skyrme configurations. However, there is no mathematical
definition of this configuration space and there is not even consensus on its
fundamental properties, such as its dimension. Here, we propose that the full
instanton moduli space can be used to construct a consistent skyrmion
configuration space, provided that the Skyrme model is coupled to a meson. Each
instanton generates a unique skyrmion and we reinterpret the $8N$ instanton
moduli as physical degrees of freedom in the Skyrme model. In this picture a
single skyrmion has six zero modes and two non-zero modes: one controls the
overall scale of the solution and one the energy of the meson field. We study
the $N=1$ and $N=2$ systems in detail. Two interacting skyrmions can excite the
meson field through scattering, suggesting that the meson and Skyrme fields are
intrinsically linked. Our proposal is the first consistent manifold description
of the two-skyrmion configuration space. The method can also be generalised to
higher $N$ and thus provides a general framework to study any skyrmion
configuration space.
