Guidance

Grant call guidance for applicants

Updated 4 March 2024

This guidance was withdrawn on 19 April 2024

This opportunity has now closed.

1. Government strategy

In 2021, the UK government published its National Space Strategy. Its first goal is to grow and level up our space economy. To achieve this, interventions unlocking growth in the UK space sector include nurturing talent and inspiring the next generation into Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. Under its 10-point plan, an initiative to upskill and inspire our future space workforce will contribute to growth. 

The UK Space Agency helps to deliver the National Space Strategy. As described in its Corporate Plan 2022-25, part of the Agency’s role is to provide a skilled, diverse, and sustainable workforce for the UK space sector now and in the future. The Agency’s Inspiration Priority is to champion the benefits of space products and services, ensure space careers are accessible to all, and inspire and train future generations of entrepreneurs and thinkers. Within this Priority, the Agency targets those who have chosen or are considering a space career and is responsible for partnering with experts across industry, academia, and government to help support them into their first UK space sector jobs. 

2. Aims of the Training Programmes Fund 2024

The Space Sector Skills Survey 2023 Report highlights the key skills gaps that the UK space sector faces. With respect to training programmes, time, budget, and a lack of availability of training were all reported as barriers to accessing training to develop their current workforce’s skills. 

2.1 Skills gaps in the current workforce 

Skill theme	% reporting skills gap in current workforce
Software & data	72%
Commercial operations	51%
Electronics design	43%
Sector support	43%
Systems engineering	39%
Transferable skills	38%
Maintenance, manufacturing & materials	24%
Spacecraft operations	23%
Aero/mechanical design	21%
Other	5%

Skills gaps in current workforces grouped by theme, among organisations with a skills gap in their current workforce.

2.2 Anticipated skills gaps of the future workforce 

Skill theme	% expecting to need skills in theme in 2026 onwards
Software & data	81%
Electronics design	70%
Systems engineering	59%
Commercial operations	58%
Maintenance, manufacturing & materials	46%
Sector support	44%
Transferable skills	42%
Spacecraft operations	30%
Aero/mechanical design	30%
Other	6%

Skills respondents expect to need in three years’ time grouped by theme.

To address these barriers under our Inspiration Priority, we are making up to £1.7 million available under this fund between now and 31 March 2025. This will be a competitive process in which the UK Space Agency expects to award grants in the region of £250,000 to £500,000. The UK Space Agency reserves the right to award grants above or below this range in exceptional circumstances. Additional funding may be available subject to business case approvals.

Our aim is to: 

• fund new training programmes, courses, and learning opportunities that directly address short to medium term skills needs in the space sector that are not currently being met
• encourage people already in employment in other sectors to access training that will enable them to convert into a UK space sector career
• catalyse new training interventions to address the acute mid-careers skills issues the sector faces

The funding available can cover all associated costs related to training interventions, including course design, delivery costs, any software or hardware kit associated with course delivery, and course attendance fees. Through the grant funding provided, we expect course attendance to be free for all learners.

3. Objectives of the Training Programmes Fund 2024

Your intervention must fulfil the following objectives:

• develop a new and innovative training programme, course, or learning opportunity for the UK space sector, or scale up an existing pilot course that directly addresses short to medium term skills needs identified in the Space Sector Skills Survey 2023 report, highlighted in the above tables
• be of an industry standard quality, accessible and be easy to update and modernise, with a clear focus on delivering something of value to your chosen target audience
• have a clearly identified customer base within the UK space sector, based on evidence from market research you have undertaken with a robust plan for encouraging uptake
• be designed to meet the flexibility needs of your customer base, using your market research to design an intervention that works for them. For example, after work classes, 1 day a week for 6 weeks, or 1 week every 3 months. Note that this is not an exhaustive list, and training providers must evidence that the intervention has been designed to meet the needs of the customer base whatever those needs may be
• develop an intervention that is self-sustaining for the UK space sector, can continue to deliver long after the grant funding ceases and is not reliant on UK government funding to continue

Interventions will not be funded if: 

• they are interventions or products that are already established on the market beyond an initial pilot stage
• they will entirely rely on government funding to continue beyond the grant
• they do not have a clearly identified customer base
• they are interventions designed for customers outside of the UK
• they do not provide any benefits after the grant ends
• the interventions do not have any relevance to space

Your project can target specific or multiple audiences, examples include: 

• people in employment in the space sector (space professionals)
• people in employment in other sectors, to encourage them into space careers (career converters)
• students looking to develop space skills with a view to employment in the sector
• people in unemployment or those looking to return to employment in the space sector
• disadvantaged or underserved communities
• diverse communities

4. Timetable 

We anticipate the following schedule: 

• opening of award scheme – 19 February 2024 
• stakeholder engagement event – 29 February 2024 (details below) 
• deadline for proposals to be received – 5pm on 29 March 2024 
• expert panel review process – week commencing 1 April 2024 
• grant agreement and due diligence on selected projects – week commencing 8 April 2024 
• outcome notification – week commencing 22 April 2024 
• grant-funded work on projects to start from – week commencing 29 April 2024 
• grant duration to end by – 21 March 2025 

5. Application process 

5.1 Before submitting your application 

We recognise that training providers who can design programmes to meet the sector’s skills gaps might not necessarily have worked with the sector before, and so therefore may not know enough specific information about the sector’s needs to appropriately design a course that will meet these needs, nor have strong connections with potential customers in the sector.  

As such, we are delivering a Stakeholder Engagement event on Thursday 29 February 2024, which will bring together training providers and industry ‘customers’ to hear more about the grant fund, and to build relationships with one another with a view to enabling both parties to collaboratively draft a proposal that could then be submitted to the Training Programmes Fund 2024 for consideration. 

Register to attend the stakeholder engagement event.

5.2 Submitting your application 

The application form is included as a separate document. Up to a maximum of 6 additional sides of A4 may be included with your application form (for example, text, diagrams or photographs) to support your application. An additional 4 sides of A4 can be included for evaluation forms you intend to use to evaluate the programme, as well as evidence of your market research. Any other material submitted will not be included in the grant assessment. We must also receive a signature on the application form from an administrative authority in your organisation (for example, Head of Department, or someone else in a senior position in your organisation). 

5.3 Deadline 

All applications must be submitted by no later than 5pm GMT on Friday 29 March 2024. 

5.4 Submitting your Application Form 

Please complete and submit the application form, with any attachments, by email to education@ukspaceagency.gov.uk. Please quote reference UKSAG24_0001 on all correspondence. 

5.5 Notification and payment of awards 

Payment will be by BACS transfer only. Successful applicants must be able to submit their bank account details within 10 working days of notification of the award by completing a Word format AP1 Supplier Maintenance Form (which will be sent at the time of notification). If this is not completed in 10 days, the award may be withdrawn. These details are treated in the strictest of confidence. 

Payment is made in arrears, on completion of your project. 

Staged (milestone) payments may be made, especially if your project requires payments against invoices for large items or against certain milestones. There is space on the application form for you to detail these milestones for us to consider. These interim payments and their associated deliverables need to be agreed with us before you start spending against the award and will be detailed in the grant agreement.  

Payment is never made in advance of work being done. Grant funded work must end by 31 March 2025. 

6. Assessment of applications 

Applications will be reviewed by a panel comprising experts from a range of backgrounds including industry, academia and both public and private sectors, who will evaluate them against the criteria below.  

7. Evaluation criteria  

Each application will be assessed with respect to 4 criteria: 

1. alignment to objectives 
2. quality 
3. feasibility 
4. value for money 

Each criterion will be scored on a scale between 0 to 10, all equally weighted, taking into consideration the following. 

7.1 Alignment to objectives 

• how far does the proposed work align to the objectives of the National Space Strategy Inspiration priority? 
• how far does the proposed work align to the aims and objectives of the Training Programmes Fund 2024? 
• how far does the proposed work align to the findings of the Space Sector Skills Survey 2023 Report? 

7.2 Quality  

• have the applicants put together a clear, easily comprehensible application? 
• how far does the applicants’ experience support their delivery of the project?  
• how well thought through is the evaluation plan and how well does it support the UK Space Agency in understanding the impact of the project?  
• how well-described is the impact – including numbers reached and quality of experience for those involved; and the projected future impact, including secondary benefits (eg, wider benefits that are not a direct output of the project)? 

7.3 Feasibility 

• how likely is the project to meet its objectives? 
• are there realistic timescales? 
• is there a competent team behind the project? 
• is there a clear list of project deliverables?  
• do the applicants have a robust plan for managing project risks, issues and putting in place timely mitigations?  
• is there clear evidence of an immediate customer base for the intervention? 

7.4 Value for money 

• is the budget requested reasonable and has a full and itemised breakdown of costs been included in the application? 
• can the resources/project output be used again and deliver long term? 
• have the applicants explored reasonable alternative routes of funding for their project, and explained why these were discounted?  
• is there a need for funding, for example, would this project happen without UK Space Agency? 

8. Exclusion criteria

Applications will be automatically disqualified if they: 

• do not relate at all to the work of the UK Space Agency 
• are intended to reach international audiences only
• do not meet the objectives described above

9. Reporting requirements

A final report (including project summary, delivery numbers, evaluation report, and financial report), summary of spend with Value Added Tax (VAT) receipts etc, and invoice will need to be submitted before payment can be made in arrears on the completion of your project. 

Where staged payments have been requested and agreed, interim reports, summaries of spend with VAT receipts etc, and invoices will need to be submitted before payments can be made in arrears. 

10. Confidentiality

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

All applications are in confidence, although we propose to publish project titles and summaries of funded projects on the UK Space Agency website and in press releases. If you are not happy about this, please contact us. 

The UK Space Agency may also contact you about its space education and outreach programme in the future. The UK Space Agency will not disclose your information to any third parties. 

11. Additional information

11.1 Organisation eligibility  

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

• Grant Recipients must demonstrate the ability to effectively manage a project
• Grant Recipients must have a UK bank account and all grant payments will be made in UK sterling (as per grant funding agreement) 
• all project members must have in place and provide evidence of appropriate anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies
• all project members must provide evidence of a process for declaring and managing conflicts of interest
• all project members must be able to provide evidence that they are General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant
• projects cannot work in areas that are in active conflict and any travel to overseas must comply with Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (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 and made available to the UK Space Agency to ensure transparency
• projects must comply with the rules stated in this guidance document

Eligible organisations include academic or research institutions (including universities, research councils and UK Space Agency partners), charities, trusts and companies (including not-for-profit). 

Subject to further guidelines below, grants may cover all types of expenses, including: 

• contributions to salaries
• costs of materials
• travel and subsistence

Subject to further guidelines below, grants may not cover: 

• fees for people already in paid employment where the proposed work could be reasonably undertaken as part of their normal duties
• unclear costings and those which do not appear to be based on valid estimates

11.2 Guidelines for projects 

Cost recovery 

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

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

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

11.3 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. 

Invoices 

The UK Space Agency will only pay on actuals, therefore we expect invoices may differ from forecasts. Should actual costs incurred be greater than the value of the milestone value, these costs will be borne by the Grant Recipient, unless the additional expenditure has been agreed with the UK Space Agency ahead of the costs being incurred and a Grant Change Notice (GCN) executed. 

Staff costs 

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

Pay costs 

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

• any profit margins 
• commercial charge-out rates 
• allowances for bonuses and benefits in kind 
• business development 
• travel and subsistence  

These pay rates will be subject to checks during the negotiation stage by internal or external teams to ensure that day rates reflect actual costs. High payroll costs will be challenged and evidence (such as pay slips, etc) must be provided to justify that the rate is on a cost recovery basis only.  

When making grant claims against labour costs, actual costs claimed must be supported with timesheets of those individuals who have worked on the project. 

In the budget breakdown, you are asked to provide a pay cost per day. Using actual gross monthly payroll costs, please assume 260 working days in the year, less annual leave and public holiday entitlements.  

11.4 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 then 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. 

11.5 VAT rules 

Grant funding is outside the scope of VAT so you cannot charge output VAT on top of your submitted costs. However, non-recoverable input VAT costs incurred in delivery of the Grant can be classed as eligible expenditure. The UK Space Agency reserves the right to request evidence that these costs are non-recoverable. 

11.6 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 (ie, 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

11.7 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 (eg, 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: £154 per night (London) or £110 per night (outside London) 
• breakfast: £5.50 
• lunch: £5.50 
• dinner: £16.50 

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.  

11.8 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.  

A draft grant offer letter has also been included within the call documents, to demonstrate the terms that successful applicants will be required to sign up to. This should be reviewed by applicants. Inclusion of the draft offer letter does not constitute any offer of work or payment by the UK Space Agency at this stage and is provided for information purposes only.  

11.9 Grant Recipient Code of Conduct 

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

11.10 Annual audit of project costs  

All projects will 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 (eg, match funding). 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 travel and subsistence) 
• all partner and subcontractor invoices 
• breakdown of overhead costs 
• breakdown of capital usage (eg, licence, data costs etc) 

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

11.11 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   
• national security due diligence checks
• 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
• National Security due diligence
• 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, 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. 

11.12 Subsidy control 

This competition 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. 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.