Ecosystem Development Programme Funding Call

Question 1

1. Introduction

Accepted Answer

The UK Space Agency invites proposals for grant funding to grow the space sector and strengthen the whole-UK space ecosystem, through its network of high-impact, locally-led space clusters.

The United Kingdom is home to world-leading space businesses and universities located across the whole of the country. Where a critical mass of space sector organisations operate within a locality, ‘space clusters’ have emerged to better coordinate their activity, take advantage of shared strengths to pursue new market opportunities, and in doing so, drive significant local economic growth. The UK Space Agency is now working with partners in every region of England, as well as across Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, to strengthen and connect these clusters of local space sector excellence: enabling them to foster collaboration between new customers and suppliers, strategically engage with adjacent sectors in technology and defence, and build an environment that actively drives economic growth.

This funding call aims to further connect and strengthen the UK’s space ecosystem and the vibrant network of space clusters that underpins it. Funding will be provided to space clusters to continue driving growth of their local space sectors, and to deepen cross-cluster partnerships that harness shared strengths and present simplified, compelling inward investment propositions to the global space sector. This activity will sustain the thriving, connected, whole-UK space ecosystem that represents a competitive advantage for the UK space sector and is underpinned by a range of coordinated public and private initiatives.

Up to £60,000 will be available per funding application, and projects should start from 1 April 2025 and last until 31 March 2026. All grants should be match funded by the applicant or their delivery partners at a minimum of 50%, with the exception of academic partners, who will be funded in all cases at 80% of Full Economic Cost (FEC).

Question 2

2. Call Objectives, Scope and Key Information

Accepted Answer

The government set out an ambition in the National Space Strategy to build one of the most innovative and attractive space economies in the world, which includes building a whole-UK space ecosystem that is connected by world-class space clusters. This goal was reiterated in the Space Industrial Plan, and a central theme Invest 2035: the UK’s modern industrial strategy is supporting high-potential sector clusters. For over a decade, the UK Space Agency and its partners have been supporting areas of the UK where there is a critical mass of concentrated sector activity to ‘cluster.’ These clusters take advantage of shared strengths, economies of scale, talent pipelines, supply chains, knowledge spillovers, and more, and in doing so create an environment for space businesses to start-up and flourish, and for bigger high-value, high-impact opportunities to emerge, such as large-scale, multi-sector technology clusters and foreign direct investments (FDIs).

From Cornwall and the South Coast, to the East and West of England, the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the UK’s space sector now operates within a network of defined space clusters that are supported by the UK Space Agency and embedded within each of their localities. These clusters are managed by small delivery teams who facilitate partnerships, provide business support and advice, establish links with relevant adjacent industries, global space primes, and investors, and galvanise local sector activity to pursue specific opportunities aligned to regional strengths or emerging markets. To date this activity has created a foundational and collaborative environment for organisations based within a space cluster, and has the potential be scaled to deliver enhanced impact. Increasingly, space cluster activity is also supporting the delivery of other government initiatives by ensuring they reflect the needs of, and are delivered to, their target audiences.

More recently, the UK Space Agency has supported a number of successful cross-cluster partnerships to further enhance their impact and establish a vibrant whole-UK space ecosystem. Collaborations like Space North and the South West Space Partnership - comprised of space clusters that share geographic proximity and complementary space capabilities – are streamlining the UK’s complex space landscape, and have been able to showcase a combined inward investment proposition to new international audiences.

2.1 Call objectives

This funding call will support UK space clusters to renew or procure dedicated resource to progress the following objectives:

Catalyse investment into the UK space sector: create a favourable environment for local sector growth that immediately and directly catalyses investment into the cluster’s region or nation, from a range of public and private sources, including inward investment and contract revenue.
Strengthen the whole-UK space ecosystem: further enhance connectivity between existing space clusters to streamline the UK’s complex space landscape and take advantage of shared expertise.

In your application form, you should set out how your proposal will contribute towards meeting these two specific objectives.

2.2 Scope of activity

Recommended activities (where relevant, each activity should be delivered through its own work package):

Local cluster development: sustaining a vibrant local community of space sector organisations, including regularly convening a local leadership forum that provides meaningful strategic direction for the cluster, delivering against broader government policy where relevant.
Strengthening cluster capabilities: supporting the strategic development of the cluster’s unique space strengths and capabilities, and their associated market opportunities.
Pan-regional cluster partnerships: engaging and aligning with geographically adjacent space clusters to take advantage of shared strengths and build a simple and compelling regional inward investment proposition.
Mandatory: Project management & delivery: maintaining detailed project management plans, timelines, and budgets to ensure project remains within scope, on time, and budget throughout its life cycle, and regularly reporting against defined KPIs.

Optional activities (this optional activity may be delivered through standalone work packages, or incorporated throughout other core activity above and could be delivered through match-funded activity):

Business support: Directly engaging local space organisations and supporting them to identify and access commercial opportunities.
Communications and marketing: increasing awareness of your relevant space cluster, cluster grouping, the whole UK space ecosystem, and the opportunities it presents for space organisations, through use of a variety of platforms.
Local government engagement: work closely and proactively with relevant local bodies to ensure that the space sector is embedded as a priority and focus for local support and investment, and that relevant growth-driving initiatives fully harness the potential of the space sector.
Developing market opportunities: broker commercial partnerships between space sector organisations and facilitate engagement with non-space sectors where scope exists for strategic collaboration or tangible market opportunities can be unlocked.
Data insight: gather evidence and data as required to further understanding of the UK’s national and regional space sector capabilities, skills, assets, strengths, gaps, and addressable markets. This evidence will be agreed in advance with the UK Space Agency and will be used to inform future funding and strategy.
Academic engagement: engage with local academic institutions and fora to encourage knowledge exchange between industry and academia.

2.3 Success metrics

The UK Space Agency will measure the success of the grant funding programme against the following three categories of metrics. When completing the application form, applicants should look to demonstrate how their proposals will deliver against these metrics. The UK Space Agency will robustly monitor and evaluate the impact of this funding over the funding period, and successful applicants will be expected to regularly report against these metrics and support the monitoring and evaluation process, including through structured engagement with the UK Space Agency and its external partners for monitoring and evaluation purposes. Detailed requirements in relation to the monitoring and evaluation of each grant shall be discussed and agreed with the successful applicants and will be proportionate to the level of grant awarded and the proposed impacts. In addition, the monitoring and evaluation process may also engage with unsuccessful applications to gather feedback on the application process and other learnings to inform future grant calls.

Applicants must clearly set out in the application form a proportionate target for each outcome metric, in relation to the amount of funding requested and the maturity of the space cluster. They will be required to monitor and report on the impact generated by the resource they are requesting.

Success metric category 1: Catalysing Investment - Increasing the value of private or public investment into the area’s space sector, growing or safeguarding the number of space jobs or organisations, or growing the number of contracts secured by UK space companies.

Metric 1a: Total catalysed income (contract revenue from goods and services)
Metric 1b: Total catalysed internal investment
Metric 1c: Total catalysed private investment
Metric 1d: Additional catalysed funding sources as appropriate

Please note the UK Space Agency will accept one combined target for success metric 1 related to catalysed investment. Please see UK Space Agency section 6.8 – North Star Metric for more information.

Success metric category 2: Delivering missions and capabilities - Enabling collaborative R&D or knowledge exchange (including commercialisation/translation of research) between or across industry and academia as a direct result of the engagement mechanisms proposed.

Metric 2: Number of collaborative R&D projects completed or new technologies developed, aligned to defined strengths of the space cluster.

Success metric category 3: Championing Space - Raising awareness of the UK’s national space ecosystem and the role that space clusters play underpinning it.

Metric 3: Number of new / non-space organisations now engaging with or operating within the local space sector, including adopting the use of space technology, data, or services.

To assist with tracking and reporting against these metrics, grant recipients may also wish to monitor the areas below. They are not regularly required for reporting but should be used where necessary to provide narrative on reporting the outcome metrics above.

Number of successful funding bids or proposals meaningfully supported by the grant recipient.
Number of investment leads developed or secured, meaningfully supported by the grant recipient.
Number of collaborative research & development or knowledge exchange partnerships brokered.
Number of commercial partnerships brokered.
Number of stakeholders engaged with on a 1-to-1 basis per month.
Number of stakeholders engaged with as part of a group activity or event
Number of new organisations engaged.

2.4 Important Information for Applicants

Grant funding will be provided to recognised space clusters or other organisations that represent a defined geographic area of space activity. In line with the Agency’s second strategic objective for this funding call, strengthening the whole-UK space ecosystem, it is expected that a space cluster should represent at least an International Territorial Level 1 (ITL1) geographic area, and grant funding will be prioritised for applicants who represent one or more of these areas. If there is a significantly compelling reason as to why it is not currently appropriate for a space cluster to represent an ITL1-sized geography, the Agency will consider funding requests that represent smaller areas of the UK – for example, if multiple mature and established local space sectors exist within a region or nation - however these must be accompanied by a clear plan to deepen engagement with nearby space clusters, and establish a broader cluster that represents at least an ITL1 geographic area over the medium-term. Marketing material should reference their involvement in this broader regional cluster grouping. The size and scope of the areas must match the economic geography of the local space sector supply chain or industry that the proposal focuses on, and all cluster marketing and branding material should reflect this geography. You must give evidence to justify the choice of areas. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact localgrowth@ukspaceagency.gov.uk prior to submitting an application. 
All proposed activities should reference local economic and strategic priorities, including local space strategies, and secure Letters of Support from a local space leadership forum or relevant local authorities (e.g. Mayoral authority, devolved administration, etc).
The award of grant funding does not constitute an employment relationship between the UK Space Agency and the applicant/cluster management resource. Any resource recruited/procured through this funding call should be tasked by the applicant with delivering against clearly defined activities outlined in their proposal and the targets set against each key performance indicator and success metric.
Awarded projects will start from 1 April 2025 and must have fully completed by 31 March 2026.
This call will close at 23:59 on 3 March 2025 – no extensions are permitted and late applications will not be accepted.
Grant funding per project will be up to a maximum of £60,000. In exceptional circumstances, UK Space Agency reserve the right to adjust the value or duration of the grant funding available.
This grant scheme complies with the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and awards are offered on the basis organisations are pursuing fundamental research activities that are non-economic in nature and therefore out of scope of Subsidy Control. Applicants are responsible for ensuring the activities within their proposals are non-economic (i.e. not putting goods or services onto market).
Terms and conditions set out in the Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) will govern the grant awards with no scope to make material changes, including to liability levels.
Applications will be assessed against the Application Assessment Criteria spreadsheet for this funding call.
Questions or clarifications can be directed to localgrowth@ukspaceagency.gov.uk. The UK Space Agency will not respond to questions asking for applications to be reviewed ahead of the submission deadline.
The UK Space Agency reserves the right to reject proposals if they are outside the call remit, do not contain all of the required information or do not provide sufficient information for assessment.
All proposals must be led by organisations based in the United Kingdom.

Question 3

3. Call and Delivery Timeline

Accepted Answer

The following schedule sets out the indicative timing of processes for this call. Please note that each deadline may be subject to change in the event of operational constraints.

Call Opens	Call Closes (Full Proposal Deadline)	Successful Applicants Notified	Project Kick-off	Projects Conclude
Tuesday 4 February 2025	11:59pm on 3 March 2025	w/c 24 March 2025	1 April 2025	31 March 2026

Question 4

4. Subsidy Control

Accepted Answer

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.

This scheme provides funding that is not classed by the UK Space Agency as a subsidy by not being deemed a subsidy in accordance with Section 2 of the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Applicants should still seek independent legal advice on what this means before applying. Further information about the Subsidy Control Act is provided in Annex 1 (Subsidy Control).

No subsidy status is only granted to organisations which declared that they will not use the funding in any way which gives them selective economic or commercial advantage, or in any way that would determine the funding as a subsidy as defined by the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the EU-UK Trade Cooperation Agreement.

It is the responsibility of the lead organisation to make sure all collaborators on 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.

Question 5

5. Eligibility Requirements

Accepted Answer

5.1 General Eligibility Requirements

All successful proposals will address the following mandatory requirements:

The project must be led by a UK organisation who will receive a grant from the UK Space Agency. This can be any type of UK organisation including University-led academic research proposals and Industry-led commercial research proposals.
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).
As per the terms of the Grant Funding Agreement, the lead organisation will be required to put in place a Collaboration or Flow Down Agreement that ensures all terms and conditions within the Grant Funding Agreement are passed onto project partners. This should be in place with 30 days of signature. This should include provisions regarding how the results of the work, including any IPR and spinouts, will be exploited by project partners.
All project members must have in place and provide evidence when requested of appropriate anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies
All project members must be able to provide evidence that they are GDPR compliant
All project members must provide evidence of a process for declaring and managing conflicts of interest
Projects cannot work in areas that are in active conflict and any travel to overseas areas must comply with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) travel advice
Projects must pass due diligence checks on company viability and national security (including financial standing assessment, governance assessment, conflicts of interest assessment, national security assessment and technical expertise assessment) – the UK Space Agency reserve the right to withdraw any offer in the event an applicant does not pass any of these requirements
Projects must comply with the rules stated in this guidance document
Projects can include non-domestic partners (including those within the EU) who bring their own funding. Applicants should note that all applicants, irrespective of geographic location, must still satisfy the core eligibility requirements set out in this section above and award will be subject to completion of satisfactory due diligence checks.

5.2 Match Funding Requirements

All grants should be match funded by the applicant or their delivery partners at a minimum of 50%. Academic partners will be funded in all cases at 80% of Full Economic Cost (FEC).
Match funding in-kind will be accepted, cash match is preferred. Other sources of UK Space Agency funding are not eligible as a Private Venture (PV) / match funding contribution.
Applicants must evidence how they will provide the match funding element under Question 2 of the application form.
As a minimum, the UK Space Agency will accept letters of support showing an indicative figure and source of match funding at application stage. But an updated, detailed financial plan, confirming the match must be received within 90 days of grant award.

5.3 Project Requirements

Projects should commence on 1 April 2025 and conclude on 31 March 2026.
The project team will be required to be part of the following (but not limited to) as part of project management:  

a. The grant recipient will attend a kick off meeting to initiate each project.  

b. The grant recipient will provide written progress reports to the coordinator along with regular review meetings (expected to be on a monthly basis). 

c. The grant recipient will schedule quarterly milestones where they will submit evidence demonstrating progress against each work package and project KPI. Quarterly milestone review meetings will take place to review progress against the Grant Funding Agreement (GFA).  

d. The grant recipient will provide milestone deliverables within the proposal using the example template provided, at least one week before the milestone review takes place.

e. The grant recipient will provide evidence of meeting the milestones and providing deliverables agreed in their GFA.

f. The grant recipient will provide regular updates on benefits and lessons learned throughout the project. 

g. The grant recipient will also schedule a final review meeting with the coordinator at the appropriate time.  

h. The grant recipient will provide a final project report including but not limited to an executive summary, delivery, actual outcomes, lessons learned, benefits, communication and outreach, next steps. This final report should be IPR free and not contain any confidential information, as it may be uploaded onto the UK Space Agency website.  

i. The grant recipient will provide required information to support the North Star Metric monitoring, as set out in Section 6.8.

5.4 Financial Requirements

Grant funding is offered on a cost recovery basis only. This means grant funding can only be used to cover the cost of delivering the agreed activity or goal as set out in the project plan. Any surplus funds not spent will be lost to the project unless there are alternative arrangements agreed.

Applicants cannot receive any funding from other grants or contracts to undertake the same activities.

Funding cannot be rolled over between financial years without explicit consent from the UK Space Agency.

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

Invoices

The UK Space Agency will only pay on receipt of evidence of actual costs incurred and 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 Note (GCN) has been executed.

Pay Costs

Staffing costs must be calculated on a cost recovery basis only and broken down by pay costs and overheads separately. Pay costs are calculated based on 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 (eligible project costs can be claimed outside of pay costs)
Apprenticeship levy
Dividends
Time not spent working directly on the project (for example sick, non-productive time or training days and maternity pay)
Use of blended labour rates inclusive of overheads

These pay rates will be subject to checks during the pre-award stage to ensure that day rates reflect actual costs. High payroll costs will be challenged and evidence (such as payslips) must be provided to justify 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 provided, 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

This scheme offers three options for overhead costs:

No overheads, which can be used if you are not incurring or claiming grant for your overheads.
20% of labour costs allows you to claim 20% of your labour 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.
Academic institutions can submit overheads as part of their 80% full economic cost, which must be supported by a copy of your most recent approved TRAC methodology or suitable evidence to verify the legitimacy of the overheads request.

Full overhead recovery or full absorption costing is not eligible. Please note calculated overheads are not available on this scheme owing to the low value of grants being awarded.

VAT Rules

Grants are not a payment for a service, they are provided without expectation of any return to the UK Space Agency. Grant funding is therefore outside the scope of VAT so you cannot charge output VAT on top of your submitted costs.

However, organisations that are not registered for VAT can include VAT incurred within their costs. Academic participants and industry partners can legitimately claim irrecoverable VAT incurred as part of their costs.

Ineligible expenditure

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 UK Space Agency;
Employee paid benefits and bonuses;
Costs incurred in the preparation of the independent assurance report where required within the grant funding agreement (for grants above the value of £250,000)
Alcohol.

Eligible expenditure

Personnel costs; researchers, technicians and other supporting staff to the extent employed on the project.
Costs of equipment and instruments, to the extent employed on the project.
Costs of buildings and land, to the extent and for the duration period used for the project.
Costs of conducting research and of external consultancy and contractual research or other knowledge assets, including patents bought or licensed from outside sources.
Travel and subsistence, subject to the requirements set out in section 5.3 below
Subcontractor costs, as set out in section 5.4
Workshop or laboratory usage costs (including details of how cost rates have been calculated)
Training costs, where these are specific to and necessary for the project
Preparation of technical reports, where these go beyond the level expected for standard project management (for example, a detailed technical report outlining the development towards a key technical milestone rather than a brief summary that documents how much time was spent achieving this)
Market assessment studies
Patent filing costs for new intellectual property for small and medium enterprises, who can claim a maximum of £7,500 per SME partner towards the filing costs of new IP (this does not include legal costs relating to the filing of trademarks or related expenditure, which is considered a marketing cost and therefore ineligible)
Regulatory compliance costs where they can be justified and shown to be necessary to deliver the project
Any other project operating costs and project overheads; including costs of materials, supplies and similar products, incurred directly as a result of the project

Travel and Subsistence

You can claim reasonable travel and subsistence costs for those individuals identified in the labour tab. Costs must be necessary incurred exclusively for the progression of your project. Travel costs must be at economy and best value for money rates. You should provide details and the purpose for the expenditure, including the number of staff involved.

If for any reason these limits below cannot be adhered to (e.g. to accommodate a reasonable adjustment), you must seek prior written approval from UK Space Agency. No claims for alcohol will be accepted.

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 (London and International Destinations): £166 per night
Accommodation (UK destinations excepting London): £118 per night
Breakfast (UK and destinations excluding Europe and North America): £6
Breakfast (Europe and North America): £12
Lunch (UK and destinations excluding Europe and North America): £6
Lunch (Europe and North America): £18
Dinner (UK and destinations excluding Europe and North America): £18
Dinner (Europe and North America): £30

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.

These lists are not exhaustive. Applicants are advised that all budgets will be scrutinised at submission to ensure costs only include eligible expenditure, and the UK Space Agency may request updated budgets where these are necessary for an application to progress to the next stage. No application will be excluded solely on the basis of ineligible costs being included in an initial submission.

5.5 Subcontractor Requirements

You can claim costs relating to work carried out by third-party organisations that are not part of the project team. This work must be essential to the success of your project, involve expertise that does not exist within the project team and involve skills that it is not practical to develop in-house for your project.

You should name the subcontractor (where known) and describe what the subcontractor will be doing and where the work will be undertaken. Their role and engagement will need to be fully justified within the application. In accordance with the grant funding agreement, subcontractors should be selected through a process which ensures value for money.

Any work supplied by associated companies should be charged at cost and exclude any profit element. Where subcontractors are non-UK based, please justify why you are unable to use a UK alternative. Lead organisations retain responsibility for carrying out due diligence on any subcontractors.

Where subcontractors have not been appointed at the application stage, the UK Space Agency will expect to sign off on their appointment prior to contracts being signed and will include this as a condition within the grant funding agreement.

A maximum of 50% of the total grant funding can be spent on subcontracting costs.

5.6 Grant Funding Agreement Requirements

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 in advance of the call closing date and advice will be provided.

All organisations in receipt of grant funding must abide by the UK government Code of Conduct for Grant Recipients: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/754555/2018-11-06_Code_of_Conduct_for_Grant_Recipients.pdf

All projects in receipt of grant funding may be subject to an external annual audit to ensure that costs claimed from the grant funding have been expensed on agreed project related expenditure and comply to UK Space Agency grant funding policies (e.g. match funding). Projects are selected for audit using a risk-based approach. The auditor will be appointed by UK Space Agency. All subcontractors and partners must provide access to project relevant expenditure. Therefore, Grant Recipients must maintain, and be able to provide upon request, any supporting evidenced as deemed necessary, such as:

Timesheets (prime and, where applicable, partners)
Staff costs (contractors)
All receipts (including T&S)
All partner and subcontractor invoices
Breakdown of overhead costs
Breakdown of capital usage (e.g. licence, data costs etc)

The UK Space Agency reserves the right to conduct ad-hoc audits throughout the life of the project.

Question 6

6. Guidance for Preparing an Application

Accepted Answer

6.1 Submission Overview

Only the lead organisation must submit an application. It is the lead organisations responsibility to ensure that all required information is complete and accurately submitted before the deadline.  

The decision of the UK Space Agency is final in all cases. There is no course for appeal, but we endeavour to provide feedback on all applications. Incomplete or late applications and altered templates will not be considered.

Applications for project funding must be submitted to the UK Space Agency as follows: 

Full application submitted by 23.59 on 3 March 2025. This will include the following attachments:

a. Completed Application Form

b. Financial Information in your completed Excel budget spreadsheet

c. National Security Questionnaire

All application documentation must be sent by email to the Space Ecosystem Development Team at localgrowth@ukspaceagency.gov.uk with the subject ‘Ecosystem Development Programme Funding Application – [Project name]. Submissions sent to other email addresses will not be considered.

6.2 Overview

Applications for project funding shall take the form of a proposal in single-spaced typescript (minimum font size 12-point Arial, minimum 1.5 cm margins all round, including diagrams and tables) and must contain all the following sections:

Where a Template is specified, this must be used unaltered and submitted.
Should any Section be omitted, or a Template altered, the proposal will be rejected.
Should any part of the application overrun the specified page limit, we will only consider material up to the designated page limit that is in the correct format.

6.3 Cover Letter (for Information)

To aid the placing of the grant agreement with successful bidders, the applications for funding must include a cover letter containing:

A clear indication of the type of grant applied.
A committing offer to UK Space Agency.
The value of the grant funding requested.
A statement of acceptance of the standard UK Space Agency Terms and Conditions (T&Cs). The T&Cs are contained in the draft Grant Funding Agreement available as an annexe to this call documentation. Material changes to the grant terms will not be considered.

6.4 Template A - Application Form

The Application Form provided summarises key information concerning the project proposal submission. The format of this document must not be altered including any changes to, or the removal of, the UK Space Agency logo. Please see section 7 (Application Assessment) for full details of the assessment criteria for this funding scheme.

6.5 Financial Information

Please provide an indication of the costs you expect to incur on the project. These tables will be made available to any external assessors and will be scrutinised by the UK Space Agency to ensure all costs proposed represent eligible expenditure under grant funding terms and conditions.

Please include the following information, noting the requirements set out in section 5 around eligible and ineligible expenditure:

Subsidy Control category tab: please include each partner organisation proposed and their relevant size, which will automatically populate their subsidy control category. Subcontractors are not included in this section and should be listed as ‘additional costs’ for the lead organisation in the work package breakdown tab.
Work Package breakdown tab: please include a detailed breakdown of each proposed work package and the spend associated with each item. Grant funding is provided on a cost recovery basis and so no profit margins should be included on any item.
Proposed Milestone Table tab: grant funding is paid in arrears upon agreement of completed milestone deliverables. Please include details of your proposed milestone deliverables, the work packages these correspond to and how much grant funding is requested.
Summary by Work Package: this tab will automatically populate.
Summary by Organisation: this tab will automatically populate.
Instruments and Equipment tab: please provide details of any instruments or equipment being used for the project, whether these are being purchased specifically for it or have an operational use beyond the end of the project.

6.6 North Star Metric Information

This template is provided for information only and will only be required if the proposal is successful, at which point it will be required on a quarterly basis.

What is the North Star Metric? 

The North Star Metric is a quantitative metric which measure the level of revenue and investment in the UK Space Sector which can be attributed to the UK Space Agency support. Data is gathered as an agreed requirement of the UK Space Agency grants and contracts from the recipients of those grants and contracts. 

Why is this data being collected? 

The UK Space Agency works to ensure that our investment in space brings about real benefit to the UK and its people.    

Consistent monitoring and evaluation of our programmes is vital so we understand how well we are delivering the the UK Space Agency’s objectives. This in turn helps us to ensure we are delivering the National Space Strategy, and informs how we prioritise our resource, select the projects we invest in, and make the case for future public spending on space.   

We therefore require, as a condition of funding, that all recipients report the benefits they receive as a result.   

The data allows the agency to show the benefits of the UK Space Sector and UK Space Agency spending, these benefits justify UK Space Agency spending.  

What data will be collected? 

Reporting will primarily involve four key elements:  

Total income  
Total Internal Investment  
Total Private Investment  
Additional detail on funding sources as appropriate 
Any Additional Benefits you wish to Report

This information will be collected via a simple excel spreadsheet. The template is available alongside the other call documents. 

Please note that data will not be shared with other companies and that it will be held securely in an anonymised form so that you cannot be directly identified.  

How will the data be collected? 

When beginning the grant or contract recipients will be asked to provide name and contact details of the person in your organisation who will be responsible for providing this information. 

The data is to be reported at regular grant or contract management meetings on no less than every 6 months from the start of the activity covered by this agreement. 

At the end of the grant or contract period the grant manager will decide a reasonable date with the grant or contract recipient at which time further data collection will be reasonable. Data will be required for at least 5 years after the completion of the activity covered by this agreement. 

Where the length of benefit realisation would be longer than 5 years, the UK Space Agency may require an extended reporting period. This is to ensure that we are capturing the full benefits of an activity that has a long time period before those benefits are realised. Where this is the case the UK Space Agency will agree with grant recipients beforehand at the time at which a further request for information is sensible.  

How will data privacy be maintained? 

The information provided will only be used by the UK Space Agency and not shared with any other parties. Aggregate information may be presented more widely but this will be fully anonymised and not be attributable to any individual organisation. 

In addition, this information is being used to assess the Agency’s impact on the space sector and is not intended to be used as a way to evaluate how the grant is being managed. 

Definitions of the data to be collected:

The below table contains definitions for the data we are looking to collect. Information should be reported both on financial information from the grant or recipients own company but also, if know, other companies who may have benefited from the grant or contract for example spinout companies that have been able to take advantage of a new technological development. 

Direct benefits should always be reported. Follow-on or spillover benefits should also be reported where there is strong evidence that the spillover benefit would not have occurred in the absence of UK Space Agency funding and is attributable to the grant or contract.

Term	Definition
Private Investment	Money invested by companies, individuals, or financial organisations through the following vehicles: equity, grant, prize, debt or alternative finance sources – excluding funding provided by the UK Space Agency directly or via the European Space Agency. The source of the investment can be either foreign or domestic.
Internal Investment	Investment within a company, or from a parent company to its subsidiary, to cover R&D, capital expenditures and other non-capital expenditures such development of intellectual property.
Total Income	Additional Income generated from creation of goods and services, as a result of the specified grant or contract. In the longer term this may also include income generated from royalties and licenses.

Attribution to UK Space Agency support 

Data should only be reported where it could be reasonably stated that the revenue and/or investment in question would not have occurred without UK Space Agency funding. Where the revenue and/or investment may have only been partially realised in the absence of UK Space Agency funding, best efforts should be made to estimate the proportion of contract revenue and/or investment which can have been said to have occurred as a result.

Examples of information that should be reported 

Private Investment 

Equity investment from a venture capital fund which can be attributed to the development of a new technology funded by the grant or programme 
Awarding of a grant from non-government organisations to further develop an idea which was initially funded by the grant or contract 
Foreign direct investment that can be attributed to a company experiencing growth as a direct result of receiving the UK Space Agency grant or contract

Internal Investment 

A parent company diverting funds toward the company to aid in the delivery of the programme originated by the grant or contract 
The purchase of large capital equipment to further research initially aided by the grant or contract 
Investment of R&D funds within the company to exploit and idea initially proposed as part of the grant or contract programme

Total Income 

Direct sales of any good or services which have been developed by grant or contract funding 
Income of spinout companies which have been established using a technology developed by the grant or contract funding  
Total Income of sub-sectors of the space market which have been newly developed as a result of the grant or contract funding 
Partial attribution of the revenue received from a future government contract which would not have been won without the development of a technology developed as part of the grant or contract programme

Additional Impact on Investment that cannot be quantified 

A qualitive description of the investment benefit generated from grants which have a negligible direct impact on investment, but these grants are critical to compliment company technology strategies  
A description of how the human capital improvements brought about by the grant or contract would lead to a more highly skilled workforce attracting investment in the UK Space industry from foreign investors. 
An assessment of how a technology developed by the grant has led to wider developments in the technological ecosystem which have generated their own investments and revenue.

Examples of information that should not be reported 

Private Investment 

Grant funding received from the UK Space Agency – The Agency does not measure it’s grants success by the awarding of further grant in the future 
Full attribution of equity investment that can only be partially attributed to the grant or contract – If a grant or contract contributed to but is not the direct cause of receiving the investment then best efforts should be made to state the exact contribution of the grant or contract.

Internal Investment 

Match funding invested as a requirement of the grant – This information should be reported but in the separate field provided 
Funds redirect to divisions within organisations which in truth would have gone ahead without the grant or contract funding – If the grant or contract is part of a wider programme or division which receives additional funding this should only be counted if there is strong evidence these funds would not have been reallocated without the grant or contract being received

Total Income 

Grant or prize funding received from government or non-government organisations – This is considered private investment  
The Value of the grant or contract itself – This should be reported in the separate field provided

Additional Impact on Investment That Cannot Be Quantified 

Qualitive assessment of benefits that can reasonably be quantified – This field is a compliment to the other information provided and not a replacement.

If you have any specific questions on this requirement, please contact the UK Space Agency scheme lead listed in this guidance.

6.7 National Security Questionnaire

The threat to space is real and coming increasingly closer to the UK space industry as attempted breaches have demonstrated. Everyone needs to protect assets and services from adversaries, incorporating Secure by Design principles as projects, processes and systems are developed. Demonstrating a commitment to security is critical to the ongoing success of any business. Ensuring secure, robust and recoverable services and services can provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace and avoids unnecessary costly retrofitting.

The UK Space Agency works with the space industry to improve security and resilience to attack. As part of the requirements for this scheme, applicants must:

Complete the National Security Questionnaire and return with your application documentation by the deadline set out in this guidance (please note that project partners are not required to complete this, only the lead organisation).
Apply for a free login for the UK Space Agency security extranet (Resilience Direct, please see further guidance here) to obtain security alerts and other communications and access guidance and other useful information tailored for the space sector.
Successful applicants will be engaged at the pre-award stage by the UK Space Agency National Security team. All successful grant recipients must undertake measures that are appropriate and proportionate for the purposes of reducing the risks of security compromises occurring and preparing for the occurrence of security compromises.
Successful grant recipients must provide a mitigation, response and recovery plan within six months of a Grant Funding Agreement being signed to resilience@ukspaceagency.gov.uk. Plans should include an annex or separate plan (proportionate to the company/project size and level of risk) detailing specific activity planned in response to a cyber security attack. Further guidance on plans is available on the Resilience Direct secure extranet and the National Cyber Security Centre

Question 7

7. Assessment of Applications

Accepted Answer

Applications for this funding scheme will be assessed by the UK Space Agency with support from relevant independent external assessors drawn from a variety of backgrounds including academia, industry and government. All external assessors are required to sign appropriate confidentiality and conflict of interest agreements.

The panel will assess the proposals according to the criteria listed below, taking into account the commitment of the organisations involved, in particular the lead organisation, to the success of the project and the financial viability of the organisations involved. 

A summary of the assessment process is below: 

Only proposals received by the closing time and date will be considered 
Initial sift of proposals will remove any proposals which do not meet the eligibility criteria 
Eligible proposals will be assessed by reviewers to be scored against assessment criteria 
A moderation panel will follow to ensure consistency in marking 
A scored and ranked list of fundable proposals will be generated. This will inform the portfolio selection panel that will determine the projects to be funded 
If needed, clarifications will be sought from organisations 
All applicants will be advised of the outcome 
Due diligence will be conducted throughout the call process as set out in section 8. If due diligence results in irreconcilable differences, the grant will not be placed.

The UK Space Agency now uses standard assessment questions and criteria for grant funding schemes. This scheme will use the following questions and assessment criteria, with full guidance on scoring available online as part of this funding call.

Question	Weighting	Application Word/Page Limit
How does your proposal advance the strategic goals identified within the call document and the wider goals of the UK Space Agency?	40%	800 words
Why do you need grant funding, how will you spend it and how does this represent good value for money for the taxpayer?	10%	500 words
What will be the impact of receiving the grant, both for your business and outside your organisation?	10%	500 words
How will you ensure effective delivery of this project throughout its full duration?	20%	600 words (plus a Gantt Chart, a CV for the Project Lead and a risk register, which can be provided as appendices and not included in the word count)
How will this project catalyse future investment into the UK space sector?	20%	500 words

Question 8

8. Due Diligence

Accepted Answer

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 of organisation financial standing/health, assessment of project costs, aid intensity values and match funding contributions (including any Subsidy Control requirements and cumulation thresholds);
Economic impact or Value for Money 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
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 is 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. Have there been any changes to the organisation since the grant award?
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 (entities 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.

Question 9

9. Confidentiality

Accepted Answer

The procedure for handling and assessing the applications for project funding will be as follows: 

Completed applications must be submitted to the UK Space Agency at the email address specified in the guidance documentation. All bids will be held in confidence. 
Once the call closing date has passed, electronic copies of all eligible documents will be distributed to the independent assessment panel members. UK Space Agency confidentiality rules will apply. 
For those bids not recommended by the panel 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.
Information submitted for those projects selected for funding will be retained by UK Space Agency but remain confidential. 
Summary information about the projects selected for funding may be published on the UK Space Agency website.

The UK Space Agency will monitor the funded project through project reports and the submission of project deliverables. The Agency requests that any confidential information is clearly marked Commercial in Confidence. 

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 A 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 email: Commercial@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

Question 10

10. ANNEX 1: Q&A

Accepted Answer

1. Can I resubmit a proposal that was rejected in a previous call?

Yes, you may re-submit your proposal which will then go through the independent evaluation process when being considered for funding. We recommend that any previous feedback is taken into consideration.

2. Do the match funding funds have to be immediately available when applying for funding?

As a minimum, the UK Space Agency will accept letters of support showing an indicative figure and source of match funding at application stage. But an updated, detailed financial plan, confirming the match must be received within 90 days of grant award.

3. Can the UK Space Agency provide advice about any type of collaboration/partnership programme that the Agency is promoting?

The Agency does not promote any particular collaboration although collaboration in essence is encouraged in projects.

4. Can a non-UK based organisation receive funding?

The UK must lead the consortium. A non-UK based organisation cannot receive national funding as the primary focus of UK Space Agency is on the growth of the UK sector; therefore, any monies awarded cannot go outside the UK to a partner body. If the proposed non-UK capability is essential the work can be subcontracted out, however the proposal must demonstrate clearly that this resource is not available in the UK.

In such instances the subcontractor cannot be a partner to the project. However, if a non-UK entity wants to be a partner in the project that is acceptable. This can be facilitated by the non-UK entity organisation providing PV or capability as contribution-in-kind.

5. What format will the grant agreement take for any funded proposals, and can I adapt this to suit my proposal?

We have provided a copy of our standard grant funding agreement. This is the document that will be used as the formal mechanism for any successful bidders to receive grant funding. Applicants are required to accept the main terms of this grant funding agreement when submitting your application.

Applicants requesting changes to the agreement are required to submit a marked-up copy of the published grant funding agreement setting out the proposed variations, along with a justification for any amendment to the standard grant funding agreement terms. Please be aware that the UK Space Agency will only consider variations which are requested where the Applicant would be in breach of legal requirements or statutory regulations by complying with the clause, or series of clauses.

6. Should we explicitly state the overhead rate attached to salary costs, or would you prefer it to be amalgamated into a combined salary/overhead cost for each staff position?

The finance template includes notes on what information is required.

7. Do labour costs relate only to staff on a PAYE payroll or would staff employed on short/long-term fixed contracts be eligible?

Costs should be applied for any staff that will be part of the project team/work regardless of employment status within the organisation. However, any costs for project work done by sub-contractors must be declared as a separate cost to the project. Sub-contractors cannot be partners to the project and justification in the proposal would need to be clearly stated as to the requirement for use of sub-contractors.

8. Are referees required to be within the UK?

Referees do not have to be UK specific but must be from recognised international organisations and/or from other known space institutions.

9. Does the organisational background information apply only to the lead organisation?

No. All proposals must include organisational background information for all those involved, therefore including those put forward in collaboration.

10. Is there a difference between a partner and a sub-contractor?

Yes. If you are collaborating with another organisation or company, then they are your project partner and will be included in your proposal as subject to PV contribution.

If you wish to sub-contract some work, then that company cannot be considered as a project partner as payment to them will be made from the award and they will therefore be included in the costs of the project.

11. Would sub-contractors have any IP publication rights?

If you sub-contract work this may not affect the IP publication rights of your company, but this is for the lead organisation to confirm.

12. Does the maximum grant award offered include the PV contribution?

The maximum grant is the award value the UK Space Agency will give to a successful proposal. However, to industrial organisations (e.g., SME/LE) and FEC to not-for-profit organisations/academia. Therefore, your equivalent PV contribution must match that criterion.

13. Is an independent audit required of the total cost of the project?

Confirmation is required that the Grant Recipient has expended the sums in respect of the period in which milestone payments have been claimed. For this purpose, a report must be completed and sent to the Grant Funder within 3 months of the end of the grant or annually, whichever is shorter. As per the terms of the Grant Funding Agreement, it is not possible to claim the cost of this report.

14. Is this funding call open to space clusters that currently represent a locality that is larger or smaller than an ITL1 geographic area?

The Agency is happy to consider grant applicants that reflect differently-sized geographies if there are compelling reasons as to why an ITL1 geography is not currently appropriate for your cluster. However grant funding will be prioritised to space clusters that represent this size of area or greater.

15. How will funding be prioritised for grant applicants?

Funding will be prioritised to clusters that represent an ITL 1 geography or larger, following that applications will be prioritised on the strength of their proposal.

16. Is there an expectation for letters of support?

Yes, applicants will be required to demonstrate they have the support from a variety of stakeholders including the relevant local government bodies, to manage the space cluster and deliver growth activity on their behalf.

17. How will success of the projects be measured?

Projects will be expected to define and deliver against specific KPIs within the Agency’s North Star Metric, as well as a small number of other output and outcome measures that assess the health of local space sectors. More information is available in Section 2.5 -Success Metrics.