Notice

Announcement of Opportunity

Published 4 October 2023

This notice was withdrawn on 24 October 2024

The call is now closed.

The UK Space Agency invites proposals to its funding call that will provide grant funding to strengthen the UK’s national space ecosystem and grow the space sector by:

• Enabling local space sectors across the UK to develop stronger relationships with geographically-adjacent nations or regions
• Strengthening ties between the space sectors of multiple regions and/or nations of the UK by facilitating collaboration to develop and/or enhance common or complementary capabilities

The United Kingdom has a rich heritage of world-leading businesses located around the country. Our cities, towns and rural areas all have competitive advantages that will be essential to shaping our economic future.

The Government’s ambition set out in the National Space Strategy is to grow and level up the UK’s space economy and make the UK one of the most attractive countries for space-sector businesses of all sizes. This includes building an agile, connected space ecosystem that will provide the ideal 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).

The UK Space Agency has previously delivered a range of interventions to grow this ecosystem. This includes encouraging space businesses, universities, infrastructure, local government, and economic development bodies to ‘cluster,’ and in doing so drive the growth of their local space sector and space capabilities through collaboration. Space Clusters have emerged across the UK to facilitate this collaboration, at various levels of maturity, and are supporting the UK’s nations and regions to set local strategic priorities in space aligned to their strengths, promoting inward investment, and delivering projects that tackle local barriers to sector growth.

To further support the development of a connected, whole-UK space ecosystem, this funding call aims to support space clusters and other defined geographic areas of space activity to establish, or deepen, collaborative relationships with each other. Cross-cluster partnership and collaboration will accelerate the development of the thriving, resilient and well-connected ecosystem the UK needs to achieve its space ambitions, realise the full economic potential of space across the UK, and proactively deliver the government’s wider economic priorities.

1. Call objectives

To be successful, applicants must demonstrate how their proposed activities will contribute towards the development of a whole-UK space ecosystem by deepening engagement, collaboration, and partnerships between the space communities of multiple regions and/or nations of the UK. Applications should clearly state how these activities will catalyse investment into all relevant local space sectors during the project period, and should be aligned to, and secure the support of, existing relevant Space Cluster activities.

Grant funding will be provided to Space Clusters and other space organisations representing a defined geographic area of space activity across two categories: Cross-Cluster Capability Development and Pan-Regional Cluster Development.

Projects will be fully funded and should start from December 2023 and end by March 2025. Grants of up to £100,000 through the project timeline will be awarded. At least 33% of grant funded activity must be allocated to take place before 31 March 2024.

The Satellite Applications Catapult is an active partner of the UK Space Agency in supporting, managing, and promoting the UK’s national space ecosystem. All recipients of UK Space Agency grant funding under this call will therefore also receive direct support and engagement from the Satellite Applications Catapult where applicable.

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 metrics.

All proposed activities should secure the support or reference local economic and strategic priorities, including local space strategies, demonstrable support from a local space leadership forum, or endorsement of relevant local authorities (e.g. Mayoral authority, devolved administration, etc).

The fund will support space clusters as well as other organisations that lead or represent defined geographic areas of space activity within the UK. These can range from city-scale to areas that cover multiple local authorities, as well as those crossing regional and/or national boundaries. 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. You must give evidence to justify the choice of areas. The geographical areas should also reflect the range and choice of partners involved in any collaboration, including securing the explicit support of a Space Cluster for any proposed activity taking place within their geography. If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact localgrowth@ukspaceagency.gov.uk.

1.1 Cross-Cluster Capability Development

This funding will enable space clusters or other defined geographic areas of space activity to facilitate engagement with other regions and/or nations of the UK, in order to establish, develop or strengthen existing similar, or complementary, space capabilities, and deepen ties between clusters of thematically-aligned space organisations. These projects will catalyse investment into all the geographic areas of all the partners involved. Outputs will be aligned with the National Space Strategy and the UK Space Agency’s Value Proposition.

Successful applicants to the grant funding call will demonstrate:

• The latent local economic opportunity and quantifiable economic impact of collaboration across clusters
• How each nation or region’s space capability will be strengthened through collaboration, and how this will be sustained over the long-term beyond the life of the grant
• Linkages to local priorities and societal challenges
• linkages to National Space Strategy priorities and objectives

Projects must meet the criteria set out below and be able to demonstrate how they will deliver and report against the success metrics for this funding call.

Scope

Your project proposal should take a place-based approach and describe a latent commercial or economic opportunity, clearly aligned to at least one of the UK’s space capability goals, that can be exploited by your proposed activities. It should outline how the grant funding will provide a mechanism to establish or deepen a strategic relationship between all localities involved that will generate a significant number of growth-driving partnerships or collaborative projects over the long-term.

These partnerships and projects will enable all the localities involved to grow their local space sectors by establishing, developing, or strengthening a specific similar, or complementary, space capability or technology they have in common. Space capability is defined as the combination of people, process, technology & infrastructure, that gives the UK the ability and capacity to perform activities in, through or from space, in pursuit of a stated objective. The ‘National Space Strategy In Action’ document identified 16 space capability goals the UK will require in order to meet its objectives (p. 29 – 32), and applicants must ensure that their activities align with at least one of the numbered capabilities it references:

Space Domain Awareness: Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST), Space Situational Awareness (SSA), Severe Space Weather (SSW) and Space Traffic Management and Coordination (STM/STC).

1: Identify, understand, and attribute human-initiated space activity in near-real time and with high revisit rate, particularly in relation to UK-licensed spacecraft, and share insights with operators, partner countries and other users.

2: Integrate all SDA capability into a dual-use system-of-systems, that also supports other national capabilities such as Space Transport and In-Orbit Services and Manufacturing.

3: Conduct operational as well as scientific space weather observation to protect people and infrastructure.

4: License, monitor and enforce space objects, activities, and operators effectively and proportionately in a future operating environment of dramatically higher volume, diversity, and complexity of space activity, in a way that assures environmentally sustainable operator practices both on in space and on earth.

Space transport: Launch, planetary entry, in-space transport.

5: Launch responsively, dependably, and safely from the UK to attractive orbits at a competitive price point, and routinely return spacecraft and payloads safely from space to Earth, while minimising the environmental impacts of space transport.

6: Be a European hub for key space transportation technologies such as propulsion systems, composite propellant tanks, eco-propellants; and develop more hands-on skills in propulsion system design and operation.

7: Be a global hub for in-orbit economy logistics supply, staging and processing; moving freight using space; and return and recovery of commercial products produced on-orbit.

8: Collaborate on dual-use applications of responsive launch, point-to-point space travel and controlled re-entry.

In orbit services and manufacturing: Sustainability services, assembly and manufacturing, space energy and resources.

9: Engage, contain, and move or remove spacecraft and debris from orbit when desired or required.

10: Gain national skills, heritage and expertise in the types and volumes of high-frequency rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) that will be needed for building and maintaining assets and infrastructure in space and manufacturing products on orbit for use in space and on earth to become “Business as Usual.”

11: Prove in space novel technologies (such as in-space manufacturing of energy-efficient materials and on-orbit energy provision for terrestrial applications) that could significantly contribute to the UK’s energy security and net-zero goals.

12: Conduct increased industrial activity on orbit to reduce the UK’s impact on Earth’s climate, landscape, and biosphere.

Earth Applications: Satellite communications, Earth Observation (EO), Position Navigation and Timing (PNT), data processing, quality assurance, storage and access.

13: Use space-derived and enabled data at all levels of government and across departmental boundaries to inform and improve public service delivery and real-time decision-making, long-term policy making and responses to future threat scenarios, supporting both civil and defence users from dual-use platforms.

14: Access high-quality, timely and trusted space-derived data (with long-term availability) on the UK and the planet, combine with complementary space and non-space data sources, and contribute to the improvement of global data sets, ensuring space data assets and resources are appropriately quality-assured, curated, and stored.

15: Provide ubiquitous and resilient coverage and access to space-enabled applications across the whole of the UK to improve productivity and quality of life and enable Internet of Things / Machine-to-Machine applications.

16: Ensure and improve spectrum efficiency and resilience.

Pursuing these capability goals must also enable all localities in receipt of grant funding to unlock a defined market opportunity and drive local economic growth.

Suggested activities:

Specific activities can include (but are not limited to):

• Refreshing existing space capability maps to thoroughly explore the alignment between all proposed space clusters or geographic areas, focused on at least one of the UK’s named capability goals and the associated potential economic or market opportunities that could be exploited through partnership or collaboration.
• Hosting focused events, workshops, forums, or other engagement mechanisms to enable relevant partners to identify, develop and deliver capability-building activities.
• Facilitating commercial and academic knowledge exchange to commercialise UK space sector research.

Anticipated outputs of successful applications will include comprehensive reviews of opportunities where greater collaboration between space clusters, or other identified geographic areas of space activity, can enhance the UK’s space capabilities and meet its capability goals. It will also include activity to drive partnership-forming, knowledge exchange, or research & development aligned to these identified areas. All proposals will be fully costed and include a comprehensive plan for delivery including milestones and risks assessments.

1.2 Pan-regional space cluster development

Funding will be awarded to a consortium of geographically-adjacent space clusters or defined geographic areas of space activity to deepen ties and facilitate opportunities for pan-regional strategic collaboration between organisations in each area. This deepened collaboration will significantly improve their collective ability to catalyse investment, deliver missions and capabilities, and champion space on the national and international stage.

Successful applicants to the grant funding call will demonstrate:

• The latent local economic opportunity and quantifiable economic impact of collaboration across clusters.
• Linkages to local priorities and societal challenges.
• Linkages to National Space Strategy priorities and objectives.

Projects must meet the criteria set out below and be able to demonstrate how they will deliver and report against the success metrics for this funding call.   

Scope

Your project proposal should take a place-based approach and describe a latent commercial or strategic opportunity that can be exploited through pan-regional collaboration by your proposed activities. It should outline how the grant funding will establish or deepen a strategic relationship between all localities involved that will generate a significant number of growth-driving partnerships or collaborative projects over the long-term.

We will only fund pan-regional cluster development projects that identify and will implement a clear framework to establish or deepen an enduring partnership between multiple geographically-adjacent space clusters or defined areas of space sector activity. This framework should outline specific governance and engagement mechanisms for the identified space clusters, as well as broader mechanisms that will support organisations based within the clusters to engage, partner, and collaborate with one another.

This collaboration should catalyse investment into all localities participating in the proposal by enabling organisations within these geographies to unlock new market opportunities or improve their access to finance through collaboration.

Suggested activities

Specific activities can include (but are not limited to):

• Refreshing existing space capability maps to thoroughly explore the alignment between recognised space sector strengths across all proposed geographic areas, as well as associated potential strategic or market opportunities that could be exploited through cross-cluster and pan-regional partnership or collaboration.
• Facilitating commercial and academic knowledge exchange to commercialise UK space sector research.
• Unlocking latent market opportunities by developing unified inward investment propositions, branding, or marketing collateral for the global market.
• Hosting events or workshops to support the delivery of a pan-regional strategic plan and implementation for space sector growth.
• Working collaboratively with local government and economic development bodies across all relevant geographies to embed the space sector as a priority sector for growth and support.
• Developing a long-term governance and engagement structure that will embed sustainable pan-regional cluster collaboration beyond the lifespan of this project.

1.3 Success Metrics

The UK Space Agency will measure the success of the grant funding call against the following three 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 but 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 how they will monitor and report on the impact generated by this resource. Applicants should demonstrate how they will benchmark against these metrics for their defined geographic area and state the targets they will set for improvement, including proposed measurements and/or indicators for how those targets shall be measured throughout the grant.

All proposals will be expected to deliver evidence against Metric 1 - Catalysing Investment into the space sector. Higher scoring proposals will also provide assurance that they will deliver against Metrics 2 and 3 within the project’s duration.

Metric 1 – Catalysing Investment into the space sector

• 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 2 – Delivering Missions and Capabilities

• Enabling collaborative R&D or knowledge exchange partnerships to emerge (includes commercialisation/translation of research) between or across industry and academia in all of the identified areas as a direct result of the engagement mechanisms proposed.

Metric 3 – Championing Space

• Raising awareness of the UK’s national space ecosystem and the role that Space Clusters, and cross-cluster collaboration, plays in building UK space capability and growing the space sector.

• Promoting the cross-cluster collaboration both nationally and internationally by showcasing relevant capabilities and assets to a defined number of stakeholders and investors- e.g. at national or international events to stimulate new market opportunities for local businesses.

Assessment criteria

Bids will be assessed against the criteria set out in the application form with scored questions marked out of 10 according to the guidance in the table below. Sections of the application form that are not scored will be deemed pass or fail dependent on whether they are filled in fully and correctly. 

Score	Criteria
1 - 2	No Demonstration of requested information and evidence for the question
3 – 4	Minimal demonstration of requested information and evidence for the question.
5 - 6	Acceptable demonstration of requested information and evidence for the question. Adequate positive evidence provided to support the stated aims and objectives of the proposal.
7 – 8	Good demonstration of requested information and evidence for the question. Substantial positive evidence provided to support the stated aims and objectives of the proposal.
9 - 10	Excellent demonstration of requested information and evidence for the question: Substantial positive evidence provided to support the stated aims and objectives of the proposal.

Proposals will be assessed by an external panel using the following criteria and weightings:

Cover letter (not scored but will be reviewed to determine whether or not the project is in scope).

Please complete a cover letter summarising:

• The ambitions and content of the project, including whether the project is requesting  ‘Cross-Cluster Capability Development’ or ‘Pan-regional Cluster Development’ funding, and where relevant, the specific capability (or capabilities) it will strengthen
• All project partners, including individual letters of support included as annexes
• Clear statement of the amount of funding requested
• Indication of what this funding will be used to deliver in addition/build upon existing investments

Assessment Criteria 1:  Strategic Value to the UK Space Economy (40% weighted)

Please ensure your response addresses the following points:

• How the mechanisms you are proposing to facilitate cross-cluster collaboration will positively impact the UK’s national space ecosystem and grow the UK’s space sector
• How the proposal delivers on the broader ambitions of the National Space Strategy and relevant local space strategies

Assessment Criteria 2: Catalysing Investment (30% weighted)

Please ensure your proposal addresses the following points:

• The extent to which the proposed collaboration will catalyse investment into all participating local space sectors by providing routes to strengthen similar or complementary capabilities or unlock latent market opportunities
• Success metrics for the project, including quantifiable economic benefits that the project will deliver by the 31 March 2025, such as future contract revenue, and public and private investment

Assessment Criteria 3:  Sound management and planning (30% weighted)

Please ensure your proposal addresses the following points:

• The mechanisms, deliverables, governance structure, and reporting process you will use to deliver on the objectives of the call on time and on budget
• The experience and track record of the delivery team
• Anticipated risks to delivery and how they will be mitigated
• A robust, fully costed, project plan including specific milestone plan and associated deliverables (attached as an annex)

Applicants should be aware that their application will be shared in confidence with appropriate partners to enable an effective assessment of applications. As outlined above, the final decision to proceed with funding will be made by the Local Growth Collaboration Project Review Panel (PRP) to ensure the overall portfolio of funded projects is balanced across all strategic objectives.

2. Submissions and timelines

You should submit your proposal to the Space Ecosystem Development Team using the email address localgrowth@ukspaceagency.gov.uk. You will receive confirmation of receipt of your submission within 48 hours of sending it. If you do not receive confirmation, please contact the team using the same email address.

The closing date for applications is 6pm on 3 November 2023.

A full submission should include a completed grant application form, budget template spreadsheet, and letters of support of all relevant delivery partners.

A table detailing the evaluation activities and current plan dates is shown below. Please be aware that this is subject to change.

4 October 2023	Funding Call Opens
3 November 2023	Funding Call Closes
17 November 2023	Applicants informed of outcomes
4 December 2023	Project kick-offs
31 March 2025	Projects close

2.1 Eligibility

Funding for full proposals will be awarded to recognised UK Space clusters and other organisations that lead or represent a defined geographic area of space activity. All proposals must include at least two organisations representing different local space sectors as delivery partners.

The lead organisation must demonstrate the ability and experience to run large-scale research and innovation grant awards and must:

• be a business of any size or
• be a research organisation or
• a local civic partner such as a Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Combined Authority (CA), enterprise body or similar economic agency from across the UK

Local civic partners are encouraged to act as the lead applicant. Where this is not the case the lead applicant must partner with or secure written endorsement from the relevant local economic development body to ensure alignment with local strategy.

In addition there are a further 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

2.2 Mandatory requirements

It is a condition of the award that the following documents must be completed and/or accepted, prior to submitting your proposal. Submission of your proposal will be taken as acceptance, unless stated otherwise.

2.3 Grant Funding Agreement

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

Application form and budget template

The Agency will only accept applications made on the templates provided and the following conditions apply:

1. No adjustments to the formatting, size, or other parameters are permitted
2. All sections of the Application Form are mandatory
3. Assessors will only consider material up to the designated word limit
4. All application forms must be completed in Arial font, size 11, and submitted electronically in .pdf format

2.4 Exclusions

The UK Space Agency reserves the right to:

• Adjust the criteria, including the timetable, at any point
• Reject proposals that are not compliant, or provided in accordance with this announcement
• Recover any award from any recipient found to have misrepresented statements made in relation to its proposal or the proposal process
• Withdraw this competition at any time

3. Guidelines for Projects

3.1 Cost Recovery

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

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

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

3.2 Project Monitoring and Reporting

Following an award and completion of grant agreement formalities projects will be expected to start as soon as possible. The UK Space Agency will assign a project coordinator to oversee the projects with the following methodology:

• the project coordinator will initiate each project normally by teleconference via a kick-off meeting which should be accompanied by a short presentation on the project by the project team.
• the grant recipient will provide short progress reports to the coordinator, and the schedule for these will be agreed at the project kick-off meeting and are normally at 4 or 6 weeks.
• the grant recipient will schedule a mid-term progress meeting with the coordinator.
• the grant recipient will provide milestone/deliverables within the proposal.
• the grant recipient will provide reporting on the progress of the project to evidence the milestone/deliverable has been met. On acceptance of the evidenced milestone/deliverable the grant recipient will be invited to provide an invoice detailing the spend against each budgetary category for that milestone/deliverable.
• at the end of the project an IPR free final report and an executive summary are to be provided to the UK Space Agency. The executive summary must not contain any confidential information, as this may be uploaded onto the UK Space Agency website. All other reports should be marked commercial in confidence where applicable.
• the grant recipient will also schedule a final review meeting with the coordinator at the appropriate time.
• there may be a project final presentation day in which each of the project teams will be invited to present a summary of their work and achievements.

3.3 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.

3.4 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.

3.5 Staff Costs

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

3.6 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.

3.7 Overheads

We understand that organisations calculate overheads in different ways.

This section offers 3 options for overhead costs:

1. No overheads. You can select this option if you are not incurring or claiming grant for your overheads
2. The 20% of labour costs option allows you to claim 20% of your 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 from you.
3. The calculate overheads option asks you to complete calculations for claiming direct and indirect overheads. Any value claimed under this method will need to be reviewed by our project finance team if your application is successful. This is so we can assess the appropriateness of the overhead value you are claiming.

Full overhead recovery or full absorption costing is not eligible.

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

For option 3 you must complete the overhead calculation spreadsheet and return with your grant submission.

The spreadsheet has 2 sections to fill:

• Indirect (administration) overheads
• Direct overheads

Once each section is completed the ‘Total overheads’ will calculate your total amount, for review by the UK Space Agency.

Indirect (administration) overhead

Selecting the indirect (administration) overheads link will take you to a template you’ll need to complete to calculate these costs.

We class indirect overheads as those costs associated with back office functions (such as finance, HR, administration staff) whose primary function is to support the running of a business enterprise. Typically these costs are not directly related to a particular product or service production.

Indirect overhead costs are eligible for inclusion if they are incurred directly as a result of undertaking the project. They must be additional, which means over and above your business as usual costs. Requests for higher than 20% overheads that cannot clearly demonstrate the additional resource specifically due to the grant being undertaken will be rejected.

Where you have already identified specific ‘indirect’ individuals working directly on the project, these should have been captured in the labour costs (section) together with their attributable overhead.

We have provided cost categories in the template. The table below provides our definition for each category.

Cost category	Definition
Board and senior management	The proportion of salary costs (including employer’s NI) of the board and senior management of the company. This should be where they are engaged in strategic or administrative tasks. Do not include those working directly on the project or who are customer facing or operational.
Administrative staff	The salary costs (including employer’s NI) of main administrative staff, such as receptionists and central administration. Do not include administrative staff employed to support sales, marketing, account management and profit generating departments.
Human resources staff	The salary costs (including employer’s NI) of human resource staff.
Employed estates staff	The salary costs (including employer’s NI) of employed cleaning, maintenance, security and other estates staff.
Finance department staff	The salary costs (including employer’s NI) of main finance department staff, such as payroll, accounts payable and receivable. Do not include staff employed to support sales, marketing or account management activities.
Administrative support temporary/agency staff costs	This should include fees paid for the provision of temporary staff in administration or support services as listed above. Do not include any staff that are operational, such as marketing, sales, engineering, quality assurance, research and development and supply chain.
General office IT services	Include general IT services used across the whole organisation. Do not include IT costs where they relate purely to non-eligible staff or manufacturing, production or fee earning activities.
General postage	Include postage and courier expenses for general administration needs. Do not include product delivery or any postage costs incurred through promotion, sales, marketing customer relationship or accounts management.
Office supplies, printing and stationery costs	General office stationery and supplies such as paper, business cards, corporate stationery, office equipment for support/admin staff listed above. Do not include specific costs associated with sales, marketing, product delivery, product literature or reports.
Security and safety costs	Include costs associated with site and staff safety and security including signage and health and safety costs.
Building maintenance: administration office facilities only	Include general repair and maintenance costs of administration facilities. Do not include repair and maintenance of manufacturing/production facilities and exceptional items such as new works or extensions which are not eligible for inclusion in this section.
Building rental: administration office facilities only	Where office space is leased include the rental costs. Do not include rental costs relating to manufacturing/production facilities and the cost of any deposits or penalties.
Contracted site services: administration office facilities only	Costs of contracted services relating to administration facilities such as cleaning of offices. Do not include contracted service costs related to manufacturing/production facilities.
Site property taxes: administration offices facilities only	Property taxes and charges relating to office space. Do not include manufacturing/production facility property taxes and charges.
Utilities: administration office facilities only	Electricity, gas, water, waste disposal, telecoms costs relating to administration office facilities.

The following is a step by step guide to help you fill in the relevant details to make your costs claim for indirect overhead.

Column A

Starting with your latest set of audited accounts please input your details against the relevant cost category in column A. If you are a new company or this information is unavailable, please use internal management accounts or forecast data.

Note that for the administration support staff costs section, the costs included here must be based upon PAYE (gross salary, NI, company pension contribution, life insurance). They should exclude discretionary package costs such as bonuses, awards, PRP and dividends. In addition please exclude any members working directly on the project who are customer facing or those engaged in operational/production areas.

Column B

In this column you should detail the proportion of the costs outlined in column A that represent core administration activity. You should follow the definitions and eligibility criteria outlined in the cost categories table above. You can use a percentage.

Column C

In column C please state what percentage of these costs you would assess as being additional and directly attributable administration activity to the project you are undertaking. By additional we mean over and above business as usual and specific to the Grant.

Column D

Based upon the details you’ve given in the previous columns, column D will automatically calculate the costs you’ve stated as being attributable to this project.

Column E

In column E you will need to provide some description of the cost constituents.

Once you have filled in this data you will see a percentage calculation (column F). This calculates what you consider as being eligible indirect overhead costs for your project (D) as a proportion of the annual audited figures (A). To save you time we use this calculated percentage and apply it to the remainder cost categories you have completed.

Any administration costs that are ineligible in this section but which directly relate to the project (for example based on invoices), should be claimed as direct costs within other sections of the finance form.

Completion of the indirect overheads template will calculate an annual total which will be proportioned for the length of time you are working on the project. You will see a per annum, per month and a per project cost. The per project costs will form your total indirect overheads as a monetary value.

Once you have filled out your indirect overheads information choose the ‘return to the overheads section’ to take you back to the main overheads section. Here you will see a summary of your indirect overhead.

Direct overhead

Selecting the direct overheads link will take you to a template you’ll need to complete to calculate these costs.

We understand that in undertaking a project you may incur associated costs with those staff working directly on the project. We refer to these as direct overheads. Typical costs in this area could include direct staff provision of laptops (non-capital only), desks, office (such as occupancy, facilities and utilities) and IT infrastructure and systems. This section is provided in free format for you to list out such costs.

Direct overhead costs must be directly attributable to the project you are undertaking and should not represent a full recovery methodology inclusive of redundant, spare capacity time or cost.

You should detail the costs and include a description of each item together with the methodology or basis of apportionment used. This should include the calculations that support the claimable costs. This will help us to validate these costs if your project is successful. If your costs have been subject to an independent audit verification we may ask you to provide this report to support our financial eligibility reviews.

Please note that costs associated with laboratories or workshops should be included within the other costs section of the application form.

Once you have completed the direct overhead you should select ‘return to the overheads section’. You will return to the main overhead section where you will see a summary of your overhead claim for both direct and indirect overheads.

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.

3.8 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 UK Space Agency.

3.9 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 UK Space Agency
• Employee paid benefits and bonuses
• Alcohol

3.10 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 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: £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.

3.11 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. 

3.12 Grant Recipient Code of Conduct

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

3.13 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
• 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
• 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. 

4. North Star Metric

4.1 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. Data is gathered as an agreed requirement of UK Space Agency grants and contracts from the recipients of those grants and contracts.

4.2 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 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.

4.3 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

This information will be collected via a simple table below. 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.

Grant number	Delivery priority (to be filled out by the UK Space Agency programme manager)	Quarter	Total funding value (£)	Amount of match funding provided as a condition of UK Space Agency funding (total value £)	Additional revenue generated from goods and services as a result of UK Space Agency support (total value £)	Private investment generated as a result of UK Space Agency support  (total value £)	Source of Additional Investment: Foreign/Domestic	Internal Investment of funds made as a result of UK Space Agency support (total value £)	Additional jobs created as a result of funding received.	Has this programme received any other support from the UK Space Agency?	Has this Grant or Contract had an additional impact on investment which cannot be quantified?

Any Additional benefits may also be reported through open text response.

4.4 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.

4.5 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 (excluding contracted external measurement & evaluation partners). 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.

4.6 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 advantaged 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 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.

4.7 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 the UK Space Agency’s funding. Where the revenue and/or investment may have only been partially realised in the absence of the UK Space Agency’s 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.

4.8 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 qualitative 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

4.9 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

• Qualitative 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 programme manager or named UK Space Agency contact.

5. Subsidy Control

This competition provides funding that is not classed by UK Space Agency as a subsidy by not being deemed a subsidy in accordance with Section 2 of the Subsidy Control Act 2022. 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 Subsidy Control Act 2022  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 Subsidy Control Act 2022 or 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.  

6. Confidentiality

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, localgrowth@ukspaceagency.gov.uk
• 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
• information submitted for projects not recommended by the panel for funding will be destroyed
• 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.

6.1 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, email Commercial@ukspaceagency.gov.uk.