Ecosystem Development Programme Funding Call

Overview

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

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

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

Scope

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

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

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

Call Objectives

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

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

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

Scope of Activity

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

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

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

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

Success Metrics

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eligibility

General Eligibility Requirements

All successful proposals will address the following mandatory requirements:

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

Match Funding Requirements

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

Project Requirements

Projects should commence on 1 April 2025 and conclude on 31 March 2026.
The project team will be required to be part of the following (but not limited to) as part of project management:a. The grant recipient will attend a kick off meeting to initiate each project.b. The grant recipient will provide written progress reports to the coordinator along with regular review meetings (expected to be on a monthly basis).c. The grant recipient will schedule quarterly milestones where they will submit evidence demonstrating progress against each work package and project KPI. Quarterly milestone review meetings will take place to review progress against the Grant Funding Agreement (GFA).d. The grant recipient will provide milestone deliverables within the proposal using the example template provided, at least one week before the milestone review takes place.e. The grant recipient will provide evidence of meeting the milestones and providing deliverables agreed in their GFA.
f. The grant recipient will provide regular updates on benefits and lessons learned throughout the project.

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

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

i. The grant recipient will provide required information to support the North Star Metric monitoring.

For further eligibility requirements, see guidance notes here

Funding Costs

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

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

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

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

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

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