UK Space Agency: Spaceflight Competition Fund

Overview

The UK Space Agency’s Launch Programme Rocketry Competition Fund for organisations makes available grant funding to support organisations looking to develop of new or existing rocketry competitions (see Section 2 for details) aimed at young people, with a focus on those aged from Key Stage 4 (14 years and above) to PhD. Funding will be provided to UK organisations, including industry, academia, and institutional bodies.

The UK Space Agency is inviting applications from organisations interested in establishing or further developing existing rocketry competitions. The call aims to deliver enduring outcomes by ensuring a sustainable talent pipeline and that the necessary skills are available in the UK to deliver a commercially sustainable launch market and thus help deliver the Programme goal for the UK to be Europe’s leading small satellite launch destination by 2030. The objectives of the fund are to:

• provide funding to support new or existing rocketry competitions in order to provide young people with hands-on rocketry experience in order to ensure a sustainable talent pipeline and build a sustainable launch market in the UK
• help reduce the skills gaps in the launch supply chain by providing young people with practical skills and knowledge
• build resilience and expand the UK’s rocketry skills (launch and propulsion related) in order to ensure a commercially sustainable and competitive launch market in the UK

Strategic Objectives

The call is open to applicants from within the launch and rocketry sectors targeting skills development. Examples of proposals may include those which:

1. establish a new rocketry or launch-related competition with a view to provide practical skills and knowledge to those taking part
2. develop or continue developing an existing rocketry or launch-related competition, clearly demonstrating how its development or continuation will help provide relevant skills and benefit the UK launch industry
3. demonstrate collaboration between UK industry, UK academia and/or other UK research organisations in order to offer launch-related experience to young people with a view to build their skills and knowledge
4. demonstrate new approaches to developing launch skills and learning opportunities

Mandatory Requirements

1. proposed projects must carry out all of their project work in the UK and to intend to exploit the results from or in the UK. The projects must be led by a UK-registered organisation, however international partners are accepted
2. proposals and the skills developed must be relevant to spaceflight/launch. Any other proposals will not be considered within this funding call
3. proposals must demonstrate a high probability of successfully meeting the aims of the opportunity and will be evaluated according to the criteria set out in the evaluation criteria in Annex D
4. all projects must demonstrate clear benefits to the UK space sector
5. proposals must include consideration of the practical and theoretical skills developed, with an emphasis on rocketry and launch skills. Proposals should also demonstrate incremental developments in both practical and theoretical rocketry and launch-related skills for the participants, including soft skills, through competition-based activities
6. proposals must demonstrate that the investment sought from the UK government represents clear value for the UK public, through measurable benefits to the UK economy
7. all proposed projects must demonstrate that they have an effective structure in place for managing the administration of the grant requested and demonstrate a sound approach to planning to achieve their programme aims on time and within budget
8. proposals must demonstrate collaboration between UK industry, UK academia and/or other UK research organisations
9. the project must offer high knowledge spill-over and advancement of new approaches to skills development
10. 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.

Value of funding available

The UK Space Agency has made available a total of £760,000 (including VAT) grant funding for organisations establishing or further developing rocketry competition. Up to £250,000 (including VAT) grant funding is available per application or organisation for project deliverables in financial year 2024 to 2025.

Following the evaluation process, only the highest-ranking applications that sit within the Agency’s overarching funding and affordability envelope will be funded. All projects must complete their milestones in financial year 2024 to 2025, before 31 March 2025.

Eligible costs

The funding available may be used to cover the associated costs related to the design, set-up and running of the competition. This may include:

• design and/or production of necessary resource materials. For example, printing costs
• procurement of any specialist equipment needed to facilitate the competition
• any costs associated with site and staff safety and security including signage and health and safety costs
• staff costs - those needed to design, manage and facilitate the competition, calculated on a cost recovery basis only and broken down by pay costs and overheads separately. See section 13, ‘Finance Policy’, for further guidance
• contractor costs. For example, transport or cleaning services