GovWire

The UK Space Agency is running a new call for proposals for the ESA Earth Observation programme, InCubed2. We are inviting interested UK entities to submit proposals that are looking to develop innovative and commercially viable products and services that generate or exploit the value of Earth observation imagery and datasets.

The InCubed2 Call will make up to 1,400,000 of funding available for proposals from both industry and academia. No lower funding limit has been set for individual projects. Projects will be limited in time-length to eighteen months and will need to show that at the end of the activity the output is commercially ready.

All projects must include a compelling element of matched funding to be eligible under the programme. Further details on matched funding and other eligibility requirements are contained in the guidance documents.

Who can apply: UK Industry (Research Institutions & Academia with no commercial interest in the product can apply as part of an industrially led consortium)

Total funding amount: 1,400,000

Deadline for InCubed2 Call for Proposals: 12pm on 14 May 2023

This Call is being run in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). Applications should be made directly to ESA through the Pitch for Ideas webpage before the application deadline.

Applications sent from UK entities after the deadline will not be considered.

UK Support for InCubed2 Proposals

The InCubed2 programme requires that national delegations explicitly provide financial authorisation to ESA for proposals that they wish to support.

UK support will be given through the first stage of the application process, UK applicants will need to submit an Ideas Pitch to ESA by the closing date. ESA will then check if you qualify for InCubed co-funding and if the proposal meets the requirements, you may be offered the possibility of pitching your idea in a 15-minute session, followed by 45 minutes of questions from ESA and the UK delegation.

At the end of this stage the UK delegation will indicate which proposals they are willing to support to the following application step. This is to allow consideration of proposals in a fair and transparent process by the UK Space Agency and ESA and reduce the time to award for successful applicants.

Schedule for UK InCubed2 call for proposals

(Note: This does not include the ESA application process. Please see UK Space Agency guidance for further details on this.)

Funding Call Opens: 12pm on 19 April 2023

Deadline for submission of proposals: 12pm on 31 May 2023

UK applicants pitching day: w/c 12th June TBC

Notification to successful UK applicants that they can apply to stage two of the InCubed2 call: w/c 19th June TBC

Any questions about this funding opportunity should be submitted to UKSAEOT@ukspaceagency.gov.uk.

Questions submitted to any other UK Space Agency email address may not be considered.

Industry Events

In addition to this Call, we have organised an online webinar:

A webinar for the UK InCubed2 Call for Proposals will be held between 9am - 10:20am on 24 April.

It will include a walk through of the joint UK Space Agency/ESA application process. There will also be a Q&A session after the agency presentations, where participants will have the opportunity to ask any questions relating to the Call.

If you are interested in joining this event, please complete the online form.