Notice

Announcement of Opportunity: 2022 Exploration Science - Microgravity

Published 1 April 2022

This notice was withdrawn on 12 April 2022

This funding opportunity has now closed.

Announcement of Opportunity

2022 Exploration Science AO Grant Call Guidance

Closing date for full proposals: 11th April 2022, 16:00.

Scope of Call

The UK Space Agency is making funding available to support the preparation of experiments that use microgravity and other space environment research platforms.

The purpose of this AO is to support UK based researchers who have already secured facility access to microgravity and space environments research platforms, primarily through the ESA SciSpacE Programme.

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 welcomes proposals for resources and related costs to support experiment preparation and implementation. This could take the form of (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)
• Travel costs to facilitate data collection
• Equipment costs (to support experiment preparation)

Exploitation of experiment data is no within the scope of this call and is generally within the remit of UKRI.

PLEASE NOTE: This call is in preparation for financial year 2022/2023 – 2024/25. The UK Space Agency as yet, does not know how much it will be able to allocate to this activity.

Aims and objectives

This aim of the call is to continue to develop the UK’s microgravity community and their research outcomes, and maximise the return on the UK’s investment in Microgravity Facilities, through the ESA Exploration programmes.

This call will fund UK based academic researchers who have already secured facility access to microgravity and space environments research platforms, with priority awarded to those who have secure access through the ESA SciSpace Programme, of which the UK is a member state.

This call aims to provide UK national support to selected experiments in preparation and execution. Prioritisation will be given to experiments scheduled to be executed in 2022 - 2024 (with an understanding that delays can occur).

Timetable

AO Published expected to be 11 th February 2022

AO Closes no later than 16:00 – 11 th April 2022

AO Results announced Expected to be w/c 16 May 2022

Grants to start likely to be mid June 2022

Award value

This funding is 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 - https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/before-you-apply/your-responsibilities-if-you-get- funding/meeting-ukri-terms-and-conditions-for-funding/#contents-list ).

Awards should be in line with studentship, PDRA/researcher salary costs or justified grant related costs.

Reasonable costs will be permitted, but it should be noted that all costs must be justified and of a reasonable length related to the experiment. The appropriateness and justification of sums requested will form part of the assessment criteria.

UKSA acknowledges the breadth and scope of microgravity research and wishes to use this allocated funding in the most effective way possible. Therefore reserves the right to negotiate changes to proposed funding requests on a case by case basis.

PLEASE NOTE: This call is in preparation for financial year 2022/2023. The UK Space Agency as yet, does not know how much it will be able to allocate to this activity.

Award length

The maximum award length is three years with an anticipated start date of no earlier than 1 st June 2022.

Applications are expected to justify the length of the grant against the experiment timeline and execution.

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.

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 UKSA remains the funder. https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/manage-your-funding-award/receiving-your-funding- award/

Evaluation Criteria and Assessment of Applications

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

• Science excellence of the selected experiment (25%)
  • This score will be based on the scores awarded by the call that has already awarded the facility access)
• Relevance to and priority within the UK Space Agency Exploration programme (10%)
  • Contributions of the selected experiment and it’s expected outcomes to UK science and exploration activities as related to the National Space Strategy1 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 selected experiment.
  • 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)
• Team membership (10%)
  • Suitability of the proposed research team to successfully undertake the work covered by this proposal.
  • Appropriateness of team membership and the lead applicants relevant research record.
• Impact and outreach plan (5%)
  • Use of the research and activities to inspire others.
  • Plans to communicate the results of your selected experiment.

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 for the overall experiment 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 assessors 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.

Application Guidance

Applicants should note the following:

• Within the full application, applicants should consider and remember that this application is to the UK Space Agency for funding to support experiment preparation and execution, and this should be focus of the submission. It is distinct from the overall experiment proposal, but reference should be made to how this proposal sits in context both of the facility access, and plans for exploitation of the experiment data, including how this is expected to be funded

• All the information boxes on the JeS form must be filled in including: Objectives, Summary and Academic Beneficiaries. The Summary must not be the same as the Objectives as the Agency may use the Summary for the public in future press releases or Agency news stories and should be suitable for a lay audience.

• Any additional documentation that are included in the .pdf, but are not stated in the ‘How to Apply’ section below will not be considered. It will not be seen by reviewers or the review panel and will not count towards the proposal.

• If any part of the proposal extends over the stated page limit, the additional pages will be removed, not be considered and will not count towards the proposal.

How to Apply

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

NOTE: UKSA 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: a. Standard Proposal as the document type b. Standard as the scheme c. 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

All annexes MUST be:

• A4 paper size with minimum of 2cm margins
• Font size of no smaller than 11pt
• Saved and sent as PDF documents

Annexes should include:

i. A PDF of the unsubmitted JeS form. Please complete all standard sections

ii. A Case for Support that complements the JeS form, of no more than 6 sides of A4, to include:

a. Project plan b. Monitoring of progress and management plan c. Justification of resources requested d. Impact and Outreach Plan

iii. A letter from ESA (or other agency) confirming successful award of access to facilities.

iv. The application submitted to ESA (or other agency) for facility access and ESA peer reviews and related review responses.

v. Details of current funding

vi. Academic CVs of named staff in the proposal (2 sides of A4 per named academic).

a. If research staff are yet to be employed, please include a short job specificationinstead.

vii. Letters of support (if relevant)

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 16:00 11 th April 2022. Applications received after this will not be considered.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting

All grants awarded will require the awardee to report on impacts and outcomes annually through the ResearchFish process4 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.

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.

Contact

Any questions concerning this call should be directed to:

Joanna Bird

Exploration Science Community Officer - SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk