Notice

Announcement of Opportunity: 2021 Exploration Science AO Grant Call Guidance

Published 28 June 2021

Call for Proposals

Closing date for full proposals: 4pm on Monday 26 July.

1. Scope of Call

The UK Space Agency is making funding available for science research that supports human spaceflight exploration.

The purpose of this AO is to support UK based researchers who have already secured facility access to microgravity and space environments research platforms, and whose research supports the objectives of ESA’s Exploration Programme, particularly the human exploration strand, of which the UK is a participating member.

The total grant fund to be distributed across applicants is £500,000 for the 2021/22 financial year, to be awarded for this year only, though applicants will be invited to set out further funding requests, if required for up March 2025. There will be no firm commitment from the UK Space Agency to fund anything beyond March 2022.

If setting out work beyond this scope, proposals must reflect that further funding is possible, but not guaranteed. The aims and objectives of the proposal should be broken down as such, and each part should be achievable in the respective timeframe, with clear outputs to be completed by 31 March 2022.

UK Space Agency has approved budget for expenditure up to 31 March 2022 only and cannot commit to any expenditure beyond such point. Provided sufficient funding for future years is approved, the UK Space Agency intends to offer further funding to successful applicants in future years subject to a review of proposals and progress made by such date.

This scheme is open to academics from the UK or overseas, working at UK Research Organisations, who have already been selected by ESA or other bodies for access to microgravity or space environments facilities.

The UK Space Agency would welcome proposals that include (but are not limited to):

• Support for academics including promising early career researchers, Post Doctorate Research Assistants and lead academics
• Support for PhD Students (please contact us for further details)
• Related travel costs
• Equipment costs (to support experiment preparation)

2. Aims and objectives

This call will fund UK based academic researchers who have already secured facility access to microgravity and space environments research platforms, and whose selected research is targeted at scientific questions that predominantly support the objectives of ESA’s Exploration Programme, of which the UK is a participating member.

This research is a priority for the UK Space Agency, as it supports exploration aims to be an active and leading country in human exploration and is critical to the long-term goals of the UK and ESA in human exploration of the solar system.

Research that is predominantly aimed at terrestrial benefits, rather than the ESA roadmaps supporting exploration, fall under the remit of UKRI, and as such supporting this research is of a lower priority within this call.

3. Timetable

• AO Published: expected to be 28 June 2021
• AO Closes: no later than 4pm on 26 July 2021
• AO Results announced: expected to be week commencing 16 August 2021
• Grants to start: 1 September 2021

4. Award value

Awards should be in line with studentship, PDRA/researcher salary costs or justified grant related costs. This is funding from the UK Space Agency, though it is administered through STFC on behalf of the UK Space Agency.

Awards will be made in line with standard STFC criteria, in accordance with their financial rules (including the standard FEC application and for the length of the grant. Please make sure you and your institution are fully aware of these before application.

Reasonable costs will be permitted, but it should be noted that all costs must be justified and that the appropriateness and justification of sums requested will form part of the assessment criteria.

5. Award length

The initial award end date is 31 March 2022 and the scope of work should reflect this. This call commits funding that will end on 31 March 2022. If setting out work beyond this scope, proposals must reflect that further funding is possible, but not guaranteed. The aims and objectives of the proposal should be broken down as such, and each part should be achievable in the respective timeframe.

Proposals must clearly demonstrate how projects could be terminated at the end of March 2022 having delivered clear outputs.

6. Grant terms and conditions

All awards will be subject to UKRI standard grant terms and conditions, with the addition of the following specific clauses from the UK Space Agency as grant funder:

• The UK Space Agency reserves the right to cancel, re-profile or reduce the award subject to announcements from government Comprehensive Spending Reviews or other financial constraints.
• The UK Space Agency also reserves the right to cancel or reduce the award in the event of the project being cancelled or descoped.
• The UK Space Agency reserves the right to terminate the grant within a 6 month notice period should it be deemed programmatically or strategically advisable to do so.
• The Grant holder agrees that as a condition of receiving any Funds they shall provide the UK Space Agency with all information, reports, statistics, study results and data reasonably requested by the UK Space Agency to track and assess progress and performance of the Project.
• In conjunction with the UK Space Agency, the Grant Recipient shall monitor the delivery and success of work packages it has allocated Funds to throughout the Grant Period to ensure that the aims and objectives of the work package are being met and that this agreement is being adhered to.
• The Grant Recipient shall not publish any material referring to the Funds or this agreement without the prior written agreement of the UK Space Agency.
• The Grant Recipient shall acknowledge the role of the UK Space Agency as grant funder in any materials that refer to the Project and in any written or spoken public presentations about the Project as it relates to this agreement. Such acknowledgements (where appropriate and with UK Space Agency’s written consent shall include the UK Space Agency’s name and logo (or any future name or logo adopted by the Grant Funder).
• In using the UK Space Agency’s name and logo, the Grant Recipient shall comply with all reasonable branding guidelines issued by the UK Space Agency from time to time.

7. Grant payment

Payments will be made to the lead research organisation quarterly and the first payment will be made once the formal offer letter has been accepted by the research organisation.

The final payment will be made after the submission of the final reconciliation report at the end of the grant. These processes are administered by STFC. Please note that the UK Space Agency remains the funder.   ##Evaluation Criteria and Assessment of Applications

In considering the proposal, the panel will use the following criteria and scoring mechanism:

• Science excellence of the proposal (as judged by the call that has already awarded the facility access) (30%)
• Relevance to UK Space Agency Exploration human spaceflight goals, cross-disciplinarity and timeliness (30%)
• How does the proposed activity contribute to the UK exploration activities and the European Space Agency SciSpace roadmaps ?
• Justification and appropriateness of requested resources, including consideration of why UK Space Agency funding is appropriate, compared to other funding bodies. (20%)
• Is this the right funding mechanism for the proposed activity? Should it be funded via UKRI or other science funding bodies? Does this research fall under the remit of UKRI?
• Team membership - the research record of academics applying for support funding (10%)
• Impact and outreach plan (10%)
• How will you use the research to inspire others? How will you communicate the results of your research to fellow academics?

The grant scheme scope is limited to academics who have already secured facility access through a peer reviewed scheme (usually an ESA call). As such no peer review process will be undertaken, but applications will be reviewed for remit, and discussions with relevant parts of UKRI will take place to explore remit and priorities to ensure that funding is appropriately allocated.

The review panel will be made up of programmatic and technical representatives from the UK Space Agency and independent academic reviewers across a broad range of science disciplines who will consider all proposals against the evaluation criteria outlined above.

The panel will make a final assessment and ranking of proposals. The panel, in finalising the awards to be made, may take account of the distribution of awards in terms of subject, type of award and institution.

8. How to Apply

Please read all this call guidance carefully. Contact the UK Space Agency at SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk if you have any questions on any aspect.

NOTE: UK Space Agency is the funder of this grant and we use the UKRI grant application system through STFC to administer grants.   You will need to create, but not submit, an application on the Je-S system through the following steps:

1. Please fill in a Je-S form via https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/ for a STFC: * Standard Proposal as the document type * Standard as the scheme * Urgency Grants – Open Call as the Call/Type/Mode

and produce a .pdf of the completed form. To do this, follow document actions –> print document –> select print format as ‘pdf’ –> download the print.

1. Send this .pdf file, along with the relevant annexes (as listed below as a single PDF document is preferred), to SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk, to arrive before the closing date.

For full details in using the JeS application system, please refer to the JeS Handbook.

Annexes should include:

• PDF of the unsubmitted JeS form (please complete all standard sections)

• A Case for Support that complements the JeS form, of no more than 4 sides (to include project plan, monitoring of progress and management plan, justification of resources requested, impact and outreach plan).

• Letter from ESA (or other agency) confirming successful award of access to facilities
• Academic CVs of named staff in the proposal (if research staff are yet to be employed, please include a short job specification instead).
• Letters of support (if relevant)
• Details of current funding

Please note: it is the responsibility of the proposal Principal Investigator to clear their submission with the relevant finance and research offices of their institution. Such clearance must be obtained prior to submission.

Applications must be received no later than 4pm on 26 July 2021. Applications received after this will not be considered.

  ##Monitoring and Evaluation and Reporting

All grants awarded will require the awardee to report on impacts and outcomes annually through the ResearchFish process as per UKRI grant terms and conditions, both during the grant period and for 5 years afterwards.

In addition, during the grant period, quarterly written reports will be required to be provided to the UK Space Agency detailing the activity carried out within the scope of the grant. Regular progress meetings will also be held between the grant holder and the UK Space Agency to monitor and evaluate progress for the length of the grant.

9. Confidentiality

The information you supply on the application form will be treated in confidence and used by the UK Space Agency in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules.

All applications are made in confidence.

10. Contact

Any questions concerning this call should be directed to:

Libby Jackson Human Exploration Programme Manager SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk