Notice

Announcement of Opportunity: Responsive Mode Call - Exploration Community Development

Updated 19 October 2023

1. Background

The UK plays a major role in ESA’s Exploration Programme. The UK Space Agency wishes to support the UK exploration community to participate in, and benefit from, our investments in the ESA Exploration programme, and to prepare for participation in exploration missions with partners beyond ESA.

Exploration missions for the purposes of this call are activities that take place in the regions where humans do, or may, in the near future, live and work, namely human presence in Low Earth Orbit, and robotic and human missions to the Moon and Mars.

The UK Space Agency understands that there are numerous ideas and opportunities that could boost space exploration as a sector. Small scale funding is available to organisations that require additional support for activities which will benefit the wider UK space exploration community.

2. Call Themes

The UK Space Agency will, subject to budget being available in any given financial year, make available funds to support activities such as:

• Community building activities
• Establishing networking opportunities
• Showcases and/or organisation attendance at appropriate conferences

Applicants should detail how the proposed activity benefits the UK space exploration community.

Activities that are primarily education based or for the purposes of benefitting the wider public will not normally be considered for this call. Applications of this nature should be directed to the Space For All Fund.

3. Funding Details

Support will be granted to a maximum of £50,000.

Ordinarily, applications may propose activities up to a maximum of one year in duration.

Funding routes will depend on the proposal and value and will be discussed after application but is expected to be a UK Space Agency Low Value GFA.

Match funding is only required where applicable as per the details listed under Subsidy Control.

The UK Space Agency will require a summary report at the end of the completed activity. A report template will be sent alongside the confirmation of a successful bid so applicants know what data they will need to collect.

4. Application Process

Applications should be made in the form of a completed Exploration Community Development template which is available on this call page. Any additional relevant information can also be provided via a single-page .pdf document, although this is not a necessity.

Applications must be submitted via email to SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk with the subject line AO: Exploration Community Development. Your application will be acknowledged by return email within 5 working days. If you do not receive a reply, it is likely the application has not been received.

Applications may be submitted at any time.

5. Review Process

Applications will be reviewed at least quarterly and may be reviewed sooner if resources and time allow. If successful, the exploration team will inform the applicant of the funding route that will be taken for the proposal.

The applicant will then be required to follow the processes attributed to the selected funding route; in most cases this will be the Low Value GFA.

We strongly recommend that proposals are submitted as early as possible and at least three months in advance of any proposed dates to allow for the review process and later funding route processes to take place.

6. Evaluation Criteria

All applications will be reviewed by the UK Space Agency Exploration team. In considering the proposal, the team will use the following criteria:

Relevance to, and priority within, the UK Space Agency Exploration programme (50%)

• Contributions of the project to the development of the community and it’s expected outcomes to UK science and exploration activities as related to the National Space Strategy and the global exploration endeavour outlined in the Global Exploration Roadmap.

Necessity, justification, and timeliness of requested resources (25%)

• Criticality of the proposal to the success of the project.
• Criticality and appropriateness of the length and timing of the grant as related to the expected experiment timeline and planned execution date.

Value for Money (25%)

• Requested costs are appropriate and reasonable
• Value of any leveraged funding (including in-kind and financial)

7. Project Monitoring and Reporting

Following an award and completion of grant agreement formalities, projects will be expected to start on the date noted in the grant agreement, or at sensible time thereafter if delayed for reasonable purposes.

The UK Space Agency will assign a project coordinator to each project to provide oversight of the projects. If appropriate, the grant recipient will provide short progress reports to the coordinator and schedule a progress meeting.

At the end of each project, grant recipients will provide a final report to the UK Space Agency. The template for this report will be sent by the UK Space Agency coordinator with confirmation of an award. The report must not contain any confidential information.

8. Confidentiality

The UK Space Agency is subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It may therefore become necessary for the UK Space Agency to release information in order to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

For those bids not recommended 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 applicants will not be published.

Information submitted for those projects selected for funding will be retained by the UK Space Agency but remain confidential.

Summary information about the proposals selected for funding may be published on the UK Space Agency website and/or UK Space Agency social media accounts.

The contact details you provide will only be used for the purposes of this funding call. The UK Space Agency will not share your information with anyone else.

The UK Space Agency complies with the GDPR. Please refer to its Privacy Notice to find out more.

9. Queries and Further Information

If you aren’t sure your proposal is appropriate or for further information, please contact the Exploration Team via email at SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk or in writing:

Exploration Team

UK Space Agency

North Star Avenue

Swindon

SN2 1SZ

10. Grant Call Additional Guidance

Organisation Eligibility

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

• Grant Recipients must demonstrate the ability to effectively manage a project
• Grant Recipients must have a UK bank account and all grant payments will be made in UK sterling (as per grant funding agreement)
• All project members must have in place and provide evidence of appropriate anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies
• All project members must provide evidence of a process for declaring and managing conflicts of interest
• All project members must be able to provide evidence that they are GDPR compliant
• Projects cannot work in areas that are in active conflict and any travel to overseas must comply with FCDO recommendations
• Projects must pass due diligence checks on company viability (financial standing assessment, governance, conflicts of interest, technical expertise)
• Formal teaming, or equivalent agreements between project partners must be in place within 60 days of grant signature
• Projects must comply with the rules stated in this guidance document.

Guidelines for Projects

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 the UK Space Agency.

Finance Policy

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

Invoices

The 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.

Staff Costs

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

Pay costs

Pay costs are calculated based on your PAYE records. They should include gross salary, employer National Insurance (NI) contributions and employer pension contributions. Pay costs must not include:

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

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.

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.

Overheads

Due to the low value nature of the grants to be awarded under this call, the UK Space Agency will not consider overheads higher than 20%, as per some of our other calls.

Overheads should be stated separately from the pay costs, charged at 20%. This 20% overhead should be recorded in the overhead column in the budget breakdown, this allows you to claim 20% of your pay costs as overhead. This includes both direct and indirect overhead. The overheads relating to contingent workforce / consultants should be included within their daily rate, and not included in either the calculation of the 20% overhead allowance.

VAT Rules

Grant funding is outside the scope of VAT so you cannot charge output VAT on top of your submitted costs. If you incur non-recoverable input VAT costs, you cannot pass this on to the UK Space Agency.

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;
• Input VAT reclaimable by the Grant Recipient from HMRC;
• 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 (i.e. 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.

Travel and Subsistence

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 (e.g. 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.

Grant Funding Agreement

The grant funding agreement template is included as a separate document. 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 call lead and advice will be provided.

Grant Recipient Code of Conduct

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

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.

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

• Technical assessment of the proposed project: including technical viability and sustainability;
• Financial assessment: organisation financial standing/health, assessment of project costs, aid intensity values and match funding contributions;
• Economic impact / VFM assessment
• Commercial: viability and / or commercial sustainability of the proposed solution, market position, demand and / or interest in technology, terms of the grant funding agreement; and / or
• Programmatic: alignment to aims and objectives of the programme, programme plan which demonstrates the project can be delivered within the funding period and the critical path, risks and issues, details on project partners and / or subcontractors.

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

• Technical 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; and
• End of project review: Has the technical and economic value been realised? Lessons learned and continuous improvement.

Grant Applicants who opt to work with project partners, companies involved in delivery of the project under a flow down agreement rather than a subcontractor, will assume all responsibility for partner due diligence.

Applicants will need to demonstrate they have carried out a sufficient level of due diligence with regard to 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.

Annex 1: Subsidy Control

UK Space Agency Subsidy Control Guidance for Grant Applicants

1. The UK Space Agency supports organisations to invest in research, development and innovation. The support we provide is consistent with the UK’s international obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control (see further information at Annex A).
2. Before awarding subsidies, the UK Space Agency must ensure that the subsidy scheme meets the terms of the principles as determined in the UK-EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA):

The principles are that:

• subsidies should pursue a specific public policy objective to remedy an identified market failure or to address an equity rationale such as social difficulties or distributional concerns (“the objective”)
• subsidies should be proportionate and limited to what is necessary to achieve the objective
• subsidies should be designed to bring about a change of economic behaviour of the beneficiary that is conducive to achieving the objective and that would not be achieved in the absence of subsidies being provided
• subsidies should not normally compensate for the costs the beneficiary would have funded in the absence of any subsidy
• subsidies should be an appropriate policy instrument to achieve a public policy objective and that objective cannot be achieved through other less distortive means
• subsidies’ positive contributions to achieving the objective should outweigh any negative effects, in particular the negative effects on trade or investment between the Parties

To ensure this competition provides funding in line with the UK’s obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control the intervention rates detailed in Annex A shall apply unless:

1. the bidder seeks to claim exemption from having to make a financial contribution to the project under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance (previously known as de-minimis under State Aid) rules.
2. the bidder is a research or public sector organisation or charity:

When referring to research organisations, the UK Space Agency uses the following definition:

research and knowledge dissemination organisation’ or ‘research organisation’ means an entity (such as universities or research institutes, technology transfer agencies, innovation intermediaries, research-oriented physical or virtual collaborative entities), irrespective of its legal status (organised under public or private law) or way of financing, whose primary goal is to independently conduct fundamental research, industrial research or experimental development or to widely disseminate the results of such activities by way of teaching, publication or knowledge transfer. Where such entity also pursues economic activities, the financing, the costs and the revenues of those economic activities must be accounted for separately. Undertakings that can exert a decisive influence upon such an entity, for example in the quality of shareholders or members, may not enjoy a preferential access to the results generated by it.

Within the UK Space Agency, this means:

• universities – higher education institutions
• non-profit research and technology organisations (RTOs), including catapults
• public sector organisations (PSOs)
• public sector research establishments (PSREs)
• research council institutes
• research organisations (ROs)
• charities

This list is not comprehensive and is subject to change and exceptions.

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activity will be funded as follows:

• universities: 80% of full economic costs

• all other research organisations: 100% of eligible costs.

Research organisations should be non-profit distributing to qualify. They should explain how they will disseminate the output of their project research as outlined in the application.

Research organisations which are engaged in economic activity as part of the project will be treated as business enterprises for the purposes of funding

Public sector organisation or charity

Public sector organisations and charities can work with businesses to achieve innovation through knowledge, skills and resources. These organisations must not take part in any economic activity or gain economic benefit from a project. They can apply for 100% of funding for their eligible costs under the following conditions:

• they are undertaking research (this may be experimental, theoretical or critical investigation work to gain knowledge, skills or understanding vital to the project)
• they meet requirements for dissemination of their project results and they state in the application how they will do this
• they include their eligible costs for research purposes in the total research organisation involvement
• they make sure they are not applying for funding towards costs which are already being paid by the public purse such as labour and overheads.

Third sector

Third sector organisations are primarily voluntary and community, such as associations, self-help groups, mutuals and cooperatives. Third sector organisations can be non-funding partners in a project.

Bidders must identify the work proposed, and this must be consistent with the work programme described in the technical case. Note that the company size defines the maximum ‘Intervention’ rate (and hence the minimum required PV level) that is permitted (see Annex A). Bidders will be expected to justify the category of work selected.

Bidders must ensure that they supply the correct information that allows the UK Space Agency to award grants within the scheme. It is the responsibility of the grant funder to ensure compliance with the relevant Subsidy Control rules and the bidder to assist the funder in doing this by acting within the terms and conditions of the scheme. Further guidance about subsidy control is available on the gov.uk website.

ANNEX A – WTO – Subsidy Control

Subsidy Control (and State aid where relevant)

The UK Space Agency supports UK based businesses to invest in research, development and innovation. The support we provide is consistent with the UK’s international obligations and commitments to Subsidy Control. These include:

• WTO rules
• the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), (see EU-UK TCA summary and BEIS (Dept. for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) guidance)
• in certain very limited circumstances (e.g. under the Northern Ireland Protocol) EU State aid regulations may also be applied

What is a subsidy?

For the purposes of UK international commitments, a subsidy is a measure which:

1. Is given by a public authority. This can be at any level; central, devolved, regional or local government or a public body.
2. Makes a contribution (this could be a financial or an in-kind contribution) to an enterprise, conferring an economic advantage that is not available on market terms. Examples of a contribution are grants, loans at below market rate, or a loan guarantee at below market rate or allowing a company to use publicly owned office space rent free. An enterprise is anyone who puts goods or services on a market. An enterprise could be a government department or a charity if they are acting commercially.
3. Affects international trade. This can be trade with any World Trade Organisation member or, more specifically, between the UK and a country with whom it has a Free Trade Agreement. For example, if the subsidy is going towards a good which is traded between the UK and the EU this could affect trade between the EU and the UK. It is not necessary to consider whether the subsidy could harm trade, just whether there could be some sort of effect. Subsidies to very local companies or a small tourist attraction are unlikely to affect international trade.

The UK Subsidy Control regime (or where relevant EU State aid regulations) are designed to prevent unfair advantages and distortion of trade: Complying with the UK’s international obligations on subsidy control

More information on the principles of awarding subsidies can be found in the BEIS guidance.

Subsidy Control Categories and Intervention Thresholds

Unless otherwise stated, the following table summarises the maximum intervention thresholds allowable level of support under UK Space Agency grant calls for Financial Year 2021/2022.

Subsidy category	Level of support available
Micro/Small Enterprise	Medium Enterprise	Large Enterprise
Fundamental research	100%	100%	100%
Feasibility study	70%	60%	50%
Industrial research	70%	60%	50%
Industrial research projects involving collaboration/ dissemination*	80%	75%	65%
Experimental development	45%	35%	25%
Experimental development projects involving collaboration/dissemination*	60%	50%	40%

*Collaborations between businesses and research organisations where the research organisation bears at least 10% of the costs and have the right to publish their own research. Procurement/supplier relationships do not qualify.

The following table summarises the UK definition of what constitutes an SME:

Company category	Staff headcount	Turnover	or	Balance sheet total
Medium sized	< 250	≤ £36m	≤ £18m
Small	< 50	≤ £10.2m	≤ £5.1m
Micro	< 10	≤ £632,000	≤ £316,000

To qualify for any category, the company must meet at least two of the above conditions (staff headcount, Turnover or Balance sheet total) within both the current financial year and the year previous.

Anything above the limits for a medium sized company is designated as a large company. For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance. This is a change from the EU definition unless you are applying under State aid.

Other sources of public funding are not eligible as a Private Venture (PV) / match funding contribution.

Academic partners will be funded in all cases at 80% of Full Economic Cost (FEC).

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and EU de minimis awards

The UK-EU Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) has provision relating to Small Amounts of Financial Assistance (SAFA).

For organisations applying for SAFA, the total subsidy which can be given to each organisation is up to a maximum of 325,000 which at current exchange rates converts to £340,000, over a rolling 3 fiscal year period. This threshold is subject to change due to exchange rates and grant recipients should consult the subsidy control guidance for regular updates.

When calculating eligibility for the application of the SAFA provision bidders must include cumulation of EU State aid de minimis grants under the EC’s de minimis regulation for the same 3 fiscal year period. The maximum total under the EC regulation is €200,000. You must complete and provide the UK Space Agency with a declaration as part of your response.

The declaration asks you to tell us about any awards, including those made under de minimis and SDR, (from any source of public funding) over a rolling 3 fiscal year period.

If you have received an award under de minimis for the same period, this will be added to your total allowance under SDR. This means that the total award must not exceed approximately £340,000 (325,000 SDR) for any one organisation. You must declare this allowance to any other funding body who requests it.

No subsidy

This competition does include the provision of funding that is not classed by the UK Space Agency as a subsidy. You should still seek independent legal advice on what this means for you, before applying.

Further information about the UK Subsidy Control requirements can be found within the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement and the subsequent BEIS guidance.

‘No subsidy’ status is only granted to organisations which declare that they will not use the funding:

• in any way which gives them selective economic or commercial advantage

• in any way which would determine the funding as a subsidy as defined by the EU-UK Trade Cooperation Agreement

It is the responsibility of the lead organisation to make sure all collaborators in the project remain compliant with these requirements.

It is important to note that it is the activity that an organisation is engaged in as part of the project and not its intentions, that define whether any support provided could be considered a subsidy.

Applicants can apply for funding for up to 100% of eligible project costs.

Disclaimer

This guidance is not a substitute for taking independent legal advice on your eligibility status, before applying for funding. Every applicant is responsible for securing their own independent legal advice to ensure they are lawfully eligible.

Please note the UK Space Agency is unable to award organisations that are considered to be ailing and insolvent companies. We will conduct financial viability and eligibility tests to confirm this is not the case following the application stage.

If you see an error in this guidance please email commercial@ukspaceagency.gov.uk.