Notice

Announcement of opportunity

Updated 25 October 2023

1. Background and Strategic Context

The UK Space Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and plays a major role in delivering the government’s National Space Strategy. This includes supporting a thriving space sector in the UK, which generates an annual income of £17.5 billion and employs 48,800 people across the country.  

UK Space Agency delivers projects and programmes that will help to:  

• catalyse investment to support projects that drive investment and generate contracts for the UK space sector.
• deliver missions and capabilities that meet public needs and advance our understanding of the Universe.
• champion the power of space to inspire people, offer greener, smarter solutions, and support a sustainable future.

This value proposition directly addresses how the UK Space Agency plays its part in implementing the National Space Strategy. Making the UK one of the most attractive countries for space-sector businesses of all sizes and for talent to grow and thrive is also a key priority, which we aim to deliver through supporting a national space ecosystem that creates employment across the UK, boosts exports, and attracts investment. 

2. Accelerating Investment Opportunity Purpose

The UK Space Agency is looking to fund investment focused high impact programmes aimed at accelerating high potential UK companies and supporting them through their investment journey. This intervention is being delivered as a pilot programme and differs from current support provided to UK space accelerators by specifically targeting accelerators associated with private capital funds. We will accept proposals from existing organisations or programmes as well as new funds or programmes created as a result of this intervention.

Therefore, the UK Space Agency is providing £500,000 in total, to fund a grant competition to accelerate the investment journeys of high potential UK companies. We will select up to four individual proposals of up to £125,000 each to support in this pilot programme.

3. Invitation to submit grant proposals.

The UK Space Agency is inviting proposals from suitably qualified organisations to undertake high impact investment focused activities and interventions.

Proposals will clearly demonstrate in the context of this programme:

• the activities or programme they plan to deliver
• the anticipated outcomes
• how they will approach identifying suitable participants
• how many companies they intend to support or the quantity of interventions they plan to deliver if traditional acceleration/business support is not proposed
• how they will support the raising of private capital investment in line with objectives of this opportunity
• how much private capital investment they anticipate their activities could leverage
• if supporting business is proposed, what additional support do they offer
• the investment networks they have access to and how they will be leveraged
• how they will approach making investing in ‘space’ more attractive and perceived as less risky to more investors

4. Timetable and Conditions of Opportunity

The opportunity will open on 13 October 2023 and will close at 12pm GMT on 26 November 2023.

The table below outlines the expected timetable for this Accelerating Investment Opportunity.

Accelerating Investment Opportunity Opens	16 October 2023
Deadline for submission of proposals	26 November 2023
Review and Evaluation of proposals	Early December 2023
Due diligence	December 2023
Notification of unsuccessful proposals	Mid December 2023
Notification of successful proposals	Mid December 2023
High level feedback to unsuccessful applicants	Late December 2023
Grant funding agreement preparation and negotiation	Mid December 2023
Grants to be signed by	2nd January 2024
Commencement of grant	22nd January 2024
Grant funding Agreement ends	31st December 2024

Please submit any questions about this Opportunity to SpaceAccelerator@ukspaceagency.gov.uk, questions submitted to any other UK Space Agency email address will not be considered. All reasonable efforts will be made to answer questions and the final deadline for the submission of questions 20 November 2023.

5. Mandatory requirements

All proposals must complete and submit Annexes A,B, C2,and D2 with any supporting documentation by midday on 26 November 2023.

Proposals must be feasible within the budget, range and timeframe offered, and demonstrate a high probability of successfully meeting the aims of the opportunity.

Proposals must include consideration of the private capital investment or the opportunities that will realistically lead to catalysing such investment.

Proposals must demonstrate that the investment sought from the UK government represents clear value for the UK public, through measurable benefits for the UK economy.

All proposals will need to demonstrate that they have an effective structure in place for managing the administration of the grant requested and demonstrate that they have a sound approach to planning to achieve their programme aims on time and within budget.

As part of the application for funding, applicants must review and accept the terms of the UK Space Agency’s published grant agreement. Only minor amendments will be considered. This will enable projects to start soon after evaluation and selection has been completed.

6. Organisation eligibility

There are a series of requirements for eligibility to receive grant funding:

1. All applicants must provide brief and relevant company or organisation background information, including areas of expertise and CVs for key personnel.
2. All grant recipients must have a UK bank account and all grant payments will be made in UK sterling (as per Grant Funding Agreement)
3. Applications from consortia must identify the lead or prime organisation with whom the grant funding agreement would be placed and will be responsible for the delivery by any other organisations forming that consortium
4. The prime organisation will be responsible for managing the project
5. Prime organisations must be able to demonstrate the ability to effectively manage a project
6. Prime organisations must be a UK company with a UK bank account and all grant payments will be made to that company (as per grant funding agreement)
7. Partnerships with companies based internationally are eligible for grant funding, providing the Prime is registered and based in the UK, and the benefit of the funding is felt within the UK
8. All project members must have in place and provide evidence of appropriate anti-bribery and anticorruption policies
9. All project members must provide evidence of a process for declaring and managing conflicts of interest
10. All project members must be able to provide evidence that they are GDPR compliant
11. Projects cannot work in areas that are in active conflict and any travel to overseas must comply with FCDO recommendations
12. Projects must pass due diligence checks on company viability (financial standing assessment, governance, conflicts of interest, technical expertise)
13. Formal teaming, or equivalent agreements between project partners must be in place within 30 days of grant signature
14. Projects must comply with the rules stated in this guidance document both during the pre-award and post-award delivery period

7. Exclusion Criteria

The UK Space Agency reserves the right in its absolute discretion to:

• Waive or change the requirements, including the timetable, of this Opportunity through a formal amendment, initiated by the Agency
• Seek clarification in respect of an applicant’s proposal
• Disqualify any applicant that does not submit a compliant proposal in accordance with the instructions in this Opportunity
• Disqualify any applicant that is guilty of misrepresentation in relation to its proposal or the proposal process
• Withdraw this Opportunity at any time, or to re-invite proposals on the same or any alternative basis
• Disqualify applicants where support may conflict with the government’s foreign policy and international commitments or may pose a threat to national security
• Choose not to support any proposal as a result of the proposal review process and the findings of due diligence (including sound financial management)

8. Funding

Following the evaluation process, successful bids will receive a maximum grant award of £125k. Only the highest-ranking applications that sit within the Agency’s overarching funding and affordability envelope will be funded. All projects should be complete by the end of December 2024.

All projects must be match funded by the applicant and project partners. Match funding amounts differ depending on the activity completed and the size or type of organisation involved in the proposal. Further detail on the level of match funding required and the maximum UK Space Agency contribution can be found in section 9 of this Opportunity document and Annex A.

The same financial checks will be undertaken on a small or micro company as we would with a medium or large company. All companies are expected to demonstrate sound financial and programme management procedures.

Grant payments will be made following successful completion of applicable milestones and will be made to the Prime organisation only. Milestone completion criteria will be agreed, linked to each milestone deliverable, with evidence required to demonstrate that each milestone has been completed successfully and costs have been expended in accordance with the principles set out in this document.

9. Subsidy Control and Match Funding Requirements

All projects must include match-funding from the applicant and project partners. The size of match-funding will differ depending on the activity completed and the size or type of organisation involved in the proposal. Please note that as the UK has left the European Union, the information concerning match-funding requirements have been updated. The UK is now under a Subsidy Control regime, but in certain circumstances, European Commission State aid rules may apply. Further detail on the level of match-funding required and the maximum UK Space Agency contribution can be found in Annex E. It is the responsibility of all applicants to ensure that they are complying with the relevant requirements, and you may need to seek your own independent legal advice.

Financial checks will be undertaken, such as business viability, and all grant recipients are expected to demonstrate sound financial and programme management procedures. The Grant Applicant checklist at Annex I and Finance Policy below outlines the mandatory financial requirements for the grant.

Grant payments will be made following successful completion of applicable milestones and will be made to the Prime organisation only. Milestone completion criteria will be agreed, linked to each milestone deliverable, with evidence required to demonstrate that each milestone has been completed successfully and costs have been expended in accordance with the principles set out in this document and the information in Annexes A and B.

10. Mandatory Eligibility and Scope

After the deadline for application submission, valid applications will be sent for assessment.

Only applications that meet the following mandatory eligibility criteria and scope of the Opportunity will be sent for assessment:

• Alignment with the aims of the purpose of the Accelerating Investment opportunity as set out in section 2 of this document
• Alignment with Subsidy Control regulations as detailed in Annex A
• Alignment with page counts and information requested in the Application Form as detailed in Annex A
• Proposal made by a single lead organisation, acting alone or as the Prime of a group of organisations
• Evidence of the requirements as set out in this Opportunity document have been met

Acceptance of the terms and conditions of the UK Space Agency’s published grant agreement (only minor amendments will be considered).

The UK Space Agency reserves the right to declare applications as out of scope.

11. Assessment of Applications

Applications that meet the mandatory criteria above will be assessed by an independent advisory panel. This panel will consist of independent UK Space Agency reviewers drawn from academia, industry or government.

Proposals will be assessed and scored by an external panel against a range of criteria, with criteria weighted to reflect their relative importance to the final score. A detailed copy of the scoring system and weighting can be found in Annex F. The criteria to be assessed will include:

• The investment focused activity proposed- 35%
• Relevance to the requirement -25%
• Benefit to the UK, UK Space Agency and investment that will be catalysed – 20%
• Management and planning – 20%

Assessors will provide scores for each question in the application. All applications are assessed on individual merit. UK Space Agency will make the final decision regarding funding, using the panel’s recommendations and wider relevant legal, policy and financial considerations. UK Space Agency will also take into account the available budget across the funding period, the value for money offered by the proposal, and the requested amounts of funding for each project across a balanced portfolio of projects.

To aid our consideration, Annex F provides guidance for evaluation criteria for proposals and sets out the minimum information that all submissions must include.

12. Application Guidance

These Guidance Notes complement the Opportunity document and are designed to assist your completion of the Application Form (Annex A).

The application template has been provided. No adjustments to the formatting, size, or other parameters are permitted.

All sections of the Application Form are mandatory, including Section 7 on benefit to UK and catalysing investment and completion of North Star metric form (Annex C-2).

Should any part of the application overrun the specified page or word limit, we will only consider material up to the designated page limit that is in the correct format.

All applications forms must be completed in Arial font, size 11, and submitted electronically as an A4 single document, in line with the template.

13. The Application Process

Please note the following information regarding this Opportunity:

• We strongly advise that the Grant Applicant Checklist at Annex I are read prior to submission
• Upon receipt of an application, you will be issued with a receipt note within 24 hours of the application deadline. If you do not receive this, please contact SpaceAccelerator@ukspaceagency.gov.uk
• If your organisation is the prime for more than one application, each of these must be submitted separately
• Only use acronyms where a term is mentioned frequently throughout the proposal. If you do choose to use an acronym, do not assume that the reader knows what it means, and be sure to define it, bearing in mind that individual sections of the application may be read separately during the selection process

14. Project Milestone/Deliverables Plan

Proposals must set out payment plans noting that:

• payments will be made in arrears on acceptance of progress reports, deliverables and final reporting
• Payment to be made once costs have been incurred
• should actual costs incurred be greater than the value of the milestone value, these costs will be borne by the Grant Recipient, unless the additional expenditure has been agreed with the UK Space Agency ahead of the costs being incurred and a Grant Change Notice (GCN) executed
• payment of the grant will be made in the form of staged payments together with a final payment on successful completion of the project. To reduce administrative burden please ensure a proportionate number of milestones linked payments
• the first milestone should reflect a significant stage in the project and cannot be made on completion of the kick-off meeting (T+0) as this is not eligible for a milestone payment value
• payment plans must be constructed to include and reflect major project stages and intermediate deliverables

The work package structure should be outlined and clearly linked to the relevant milestone/deliverables, eg through a GANNT chart or an equivalent project plan. Critical paths and dependencies should be outlined where possible.

The milestone and work package plan will be captured using information in the financial template (Annex B) and the Application form (Annex A) such as GANNT charts and further schedule details.

15. Evaluation Criteria

After the deadline for application submission, valid applications will be sent for assessment.

Only applications that meet the following mandatory eligibility criteria and scope of the Opportunity will be sent for assessment:

• Application documentation complete and received headed ‘Accelerating Investment Opportunity – UKSAG23_0090’ and the name of your organisation name to both SpaceAccelerator@ukspaceagency.gov.uk and Commercial@ukspaceagency.gov.uk, before the deadline for submission of proposals
• Application signed and all mandatory check boxes completed
• Alignment with the aims of the purpose of the Accelerating Investment opportunity as set out in section 2 of this document
• Alignment with the Subsidy rules
• Alignment with page counts and information requested in the Application Form as detailed in Annex A
• Proposal made by a UK single lead organisation, acting alone or as the prime (the lead) of a collaboration or consortium
• Evidence of the requirements as set out in this Opportunity document have been met
• Acceptance of the terms and conditions of UK Space Agency’s published grant agreement

The UK Space Agency reserves the right to declare a project proposal as out of scope or incomplete.

16. Reporting/Meeting Requirements

Following an award and completion of grant agreement formalities, activities will be expected to start as soon as possible, and no later than 3 weeks after grant signature. The UK Space Agency will assign a Project Coordinator to oversee the projects with the following methodology:

• The project coordinator will initiate each project via a kick-off meeting which should be accompanied by a short presentation on the activities to be delivered by the project team
• The grant recipient will provide regular progress reports to the coordinator, and the schedule for these will be agreed at the kick-off meeting
• The grant recipient will provide milestone/deliverables within the proposal in Annex A
• The grant recipient will provide reporting on the progress of the project to evidence the milestone/deliverable has been met. On acceptance from the Project Coordinator of the evidenced milestone/deliverable and supporting financial evidence, the grant recipient will be invited to provide an invoice detailing the spend against each budgetary category for that milestone/deliverable
• At the end of the programme a final report and an executive summary are to be provided to the UK Space Agency. The executive summary must not contain any confidential information, as this may be uploaded onto the UK Space Agency website. All other reports should be marked commercial in confidence where applicable

17. Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation surveys will be periodically released by UK Space Agency and grant recipients will be expected to respond. This may include a requirement to respond following the close of the grant funded period.

There will be an ongoing requirement as part of the Grant Funding Agreement to report the realisation of North Star metrics and secured investment.

18. Grant Funding Agreement

The Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) template is included (Annex G-1). Applicants must sign up to the terms as set out in the grant funding agreement.

No material changes to the terms will be considered. Minor changes may be considered if an applicant can demonstrate that agreeing to the provision within the Grant Funding Agreement would result in the applicant breaching its statutory or regulatory obligations. Grant applicants wishing to propose changes should not make changes directly to templates but engage with the programme lead and advice will be provided.

The UK Space Agency require that all partners in a Consortia application have signed a Collaboration Agreement (CA) within 30 days of grant commencement date. The CA should as a minimum reference the terms of the Grant Offer.

The Letter and GFA specify the work division, intellectual property arrangements and a dispute rectification process. The UK Space Agency will, in event of a dispute between partners, expect for the dispute to be resolved within the terms of the CA.

19. Grant Recipient Code of Conduct

All organisations in receipt of grant funding must abide by the UK government Code of Conduct for Grant Recipients.

20. Confidentiality

The procedure for handling and assessing the bids and notifications will be as follows:

• All proposals and notifications will be held in confidence by the UK Space Agency, except to be shared with evaluation panellists
• Information relating to the proposals may also be shared with other UK government departments, agencies and arm’s length bodies
• Summary information on all successful proposals who receive grant funding will be made public, including the summary of the proposal (from Section 2 of the Application Form), the amount of grant funding awarded, and the identities of organisations involved
• For those bids not recommended by for funding, documentation will be retained by the UK Space Agency for reference. The proposals will not be visible to any others, and the names of any unsuccessful bidders will not be published
• All other documentation relating to bids selected for funding will remain confidential within the UK government

Information submitted as part of a proposal, or subsequent commercially sensitive information submitted as part of the grant agreement, will not be disclosed by us save for in so far as we consider necessary, in our absolute discretion, to comply with our legal obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004 or any other legal act, requirement or obligation. Where permitted by law, we will attempt to notify you of any such disclosure.

21. Finance Policies

21.1 Cost Recovery

The funds from Grant funding are on a cost recovery basis only. Grants are solely intended to cover the cost of delivering the agreed activity or goal. Any surplus funds not spent will be lost to the project unless there are alternative arrangements agreed.

Grantees cannot receive any funding from other grants/contracts to undertake the same activities.

Grant funding cannot be rolled over between financial years without explicit consent from UK Space Agency.

All partners must use a separate, project-specific, bank account or project accounting code for project funds to enable a clear audit trail.

22. Eligible Expenditure

22.1 Invoicing

UK Space Agency will only pay on actuals therefore we expect invoices may differ from forecasts. Should actual costs incurred be greater than the value of the milestone value, these costs will be borne by the Grant Recipient, unless the additional expenditure has been agreed with the UK Space Agency ahead of the costs being incurred and a Grant Change Notice (GCN) executed. The invoice should exclude VAT.

22.2 Staff Costs

Staff costs must be calculated on a cost recovery basis only and broken down by pay costs and overheads separately.

22.3 Pay costs

Pay costs are calculated based on your PAYE records. This is to include gross salary, employer National Insurance (NI) contributions and employer pension contributions. For any PAYE elements outside of that please check eligibility ahead of applying. Non PAYE costs or pay allocated margins or cost allocations are not eligible. Examples that are ineligible include but are not limited to:

• Any profit margins.
• Commercial charge-out rates
• Allowances for bonuses and benefits in kind
• Business development

These pay rates will be subject to checks during the negotiation stage by internal or external teams to ensure that day rates reflect actual costs. High payroll costs will be challenged and evidence (such as pay slips, etc) must be provided to justify that the rate is on a cost recovery basis only.

When making grant claims against labour costs, actual costs claimed must be supported with timesheets of those individuals who have worked on the project. If this level of detail is not achievable then any other arrangements should be agreed in writing during the due diligence checks and subject to Agency approval.

In the budget breakdown, you are asked to provide a pay cost per day. Using actual gross monthly payroll costs, please assume 260 working days in the year, less annual leave and public holiday entitlements.

23. Overheads

Full overhead recovery or full absorption costing is not eligible.

We understand that organisations calculate overheads in different ways. This section offers 4 options for overhead costs:

1. No overheads. You can select this option if you are not incurring or claiming grant for your overheads
2. The 20% of labour costs option allows you to claim 20% of your project pay costs as overhead. This includes both direct and indirect overhead. Selecting this option allows us to review a successful grant application much faster as no further documentation is needed from you
3. The calculate overheads option asks you to complete calculations for claiming direct and indirect overheads. Any value claimed under this method will need to be reviewed by our project finance team if your application is successful. This is so we can assess the appropriateness of the overhead value you are claiming
4. Where an organisation qualifies and applies for Full Economic Cost (FEC) recovery, your application should be supported by the latest signed off Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) return or equivalent financials to support the requested amount. Academic partners will be funded in all cases at 80% of FEC

Please note that once the overhead is calculated and approved it cannot be exceeded at any time throughout the project life.

For option 3 you must complete the overhead calculation spreadsheet and return with your grant submission. Full guidance and the spreadsheet are provided in annexes D-1 and D-2.

24. VAT Rules

Where money is given freely to an activity and the donor receives nothing tangible in return, the activity is treated as non-business for VAT purposes and is outside the scope for VAT. The UK Space Agency grant funding is outside the scope for VAT. Any VAT incurred within the project costs cannot be passed to the UK Space Agency. This includes both input and output VAT whether recoverable or non-recoverable from HMRC.

25. Travel and Subsistence

Any travel and subsistence incurred during the delivery of grant funded projects should be accounted for in the overall cost of the proposal. However, the following outlines the guidelines for travel and subsistence costs. Value for money must always be considered. If for any reason the set limits cannot be adhered to (eg, to accommodate a reasonable adjustment), you must seek prior written approval from the UK Space Agency. No claims for alcohol will be accepted. The UK Space Agency reserves the right to not settle claims which have breached these guidelines. All expenditure must be supported by actual, itemised receipts.

Limits:

• Accommodation: £140 per night
• Breakfast: £5
• Lunch: £5
• Dinner: £15

Travel:

• All travel claimed must be using Economy rates
• Tolls, ferry costs, parking, and congestion charge: receipted costs for ferries, and tolls bridges and roads unavoidably incurred during your business journey may be claimed. Reasonable parking charges may be claimed. Receipted congestion charges unavoidably incurred on your business journey may be claimed

26. Ineligible Expenditure

The following costs are ineligible:

• Payment that supports for lobbying or activity intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, government, or political parties, or attempting to influence the awarding or renewal of contracts and grants or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action
• Using grant funding to petition for additional funding
• Payments for activities of a political or exclusively religious nature
• Goods or services that the Grant Recipient has a statutory duty to provide
• Payments reimbursed or to be reimbursed by other public or private sector grants
• Contributions in kind (ie, a contribution in goods or services, as opposed to money)
• Depreciation, amortisation, or impairment of fixed assets owned by the Grant Recipient
• The acquisition or improvement of fixed assets by the Grant Recipient (unless the grant is explicitly for capital use – this will be stipulated in the Grant Offer Letter)
• Interest payments (including service charge payments for finance leases)
• Gifts to individuals
• Entertaining (entertaining for this purpose means anything that would be a taxable benefit to the person being entertained, according to current UK tax regulations)
• Statutory fines, criminal fines, or penalties; or liabilities incurred before the issue of this funding agreement unless agreed in writing by the UK Space Agency
• Employee paid benefits and bonuses
• Alcohol

27. Due Diligence

The UK Space Agency will carry out due diligence on grant applications as required using internal and, where necessary, external subject matter experts. The scope and degree of due diligence will be determined by the value, nature, and complexity of the grant scheme. All applications will be subject to basic checks such as credit reports and Companies House checks.

28. Pre-Award Due Diligence

Additional pre-award due diligence may include, but is not limited to:

• assessment of the outcomes and impacts of any proposed activity.
• financial assessment: organisation financial standing/health, assessment of project costs, aid intensity values and match funding contributions.
• economic impact/VFM assessment
• programmatic: alignment to aims and objectives of the programme, programme plan which demonstrates the programme can be delivered within the funding period and the critical path, risks and issues, details on partners and / or subcontractors

29. Post-Award Due Diligence

Post-award due diligence may include, but if not limited to:

• assessment of milestone deliverables against acceptance criteria to allow milestone payments to be released
• Financial: assessment of expenditure for each milestone payment and reporting on planned costs, follow up review of financial standing/health if it is a multi-year project
• Commercial: change management including any variations to time, cost, scope, or GFA terms; review of milestone deliverables as required
• Programmatic: project progress and impacts of any delays, risk assessment and mitigation activity
• End of project review: Has the technical and economic value been realised? Lessons learned and continuous improvement
• The UK Space Agency commissioned and funded financial audit of Grant Recipient, and if applicable project partner, costs

Grant Applicants who opt to work with project partners, ie organisations involved in delivery of the project under a flow down agreement rather than a subcontractor, will assume all responsibility for partner due diligence. The UK Space Agency require that all partners in a Consortia application have signed a Collaboration Agreement (CA) within 30 days of grant commencement date. The CA should as a minimum reference the terms of the Grant Offer Letter and GFA, specify the work division, intellectual property arrangements and a dispute rectification process. UK Space Agency will, in event of a dispute between partners, expect for the dispute to be resolved within the terms of the CA.

Applicants will need to demonstrate they have carried out a sufficient level of due diligence about their proposed project partners and subcontractors. Applicants will need to demonstrate they have carried out minimum checks at proposal stage, which may require further scrutiny if the proposal is to be funded.

To meet this requirement, applicants can provide evidence of due diligence carried out supported by the resulting information or submit a partner reasonable assurance statement. The evidence should be consistent with the checks that we would conduct on our Grant Recipients, for examples, financial standing, technical ability and scrutiny of the breakdown of costs. Any costs associated with project partner due diligence is considered a bidding cost and is to be borne by the applicant.

Applicants must provide evidence that they, and project partners have in place of appropriate anti-bribery and anti-corruption internal policies, and a process for declaring and managing conflicts of interest.