New funding to develop UK satellite-enabled climate services

A new funding call issued today (Tuesday, May 23^rd ) by the UK Space Agency will give a further boost to commercial climate services development in the UK.

Projects using satellite Earth Observation data to progress pre-commercial climate services, will be able to bid for a grant.

It is the UK Space Agency’s second recent climate services funding call and the intention is to issue a third call in 2024-25. Climate services development, applying the UK’s leading expertise in Earth Observation for climate decision-making, is a key element of the UK’s National Space Strategy and there is a suite of complementary activities, including this call for a maximum of three grants of up to £55,000 which will enable the sector to grow.

Space4Climate is playing a supportive role in encouraging applications from the climate data for space community, the sifting of viable applications and support for successful bidders.

The funding announcement was made at the first Global Space Conference on Climate Change (GLOC2023), in Norway, where UK Space Agency, as the current Chair of the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters, is one of the sponsors. Space4Climate has joined their stand to showcase UK climate services, products and decision-support tools.

UK Space Agency is looking to give grants to support work that includes some, or all, of the following:

• Service development in the pre-commercial stage but with an identified potential market or user community
• Development of an existing climate-related application or service for new uses of space data
• The scoping of new services and the production of a business plan
• The monies can be used to collaborate with another organisation/entity to fill or bridge skills or data gaps. For example, applicants might buy access to data or consultancy time to develop a climate service demonstrator.

Beth Greenaway, Head of Earth Observation and Climate at the UK Space Agency, said: “The UK has some amazing innovation and ideas for using satellite Earth Observation technology to tackle climate change challenges across the world. We’re sponsors at the first Global Space Conference on Climate Change and investing in many areas of space-enabled climate activities to enhance the UK’s climate services offering, with a clear focus on enabling action.

“This new funding call responds to feedback from the community that a small grant will help to develop their ideas, scope the business case, buy in some expertise, for instance. It could help to establish a viable, self-sustaining climate service for a specific user group. I am looking forward to some exciting proposals.”

This is an open call and successful projects from the UK Space Agency’s 1^st climate services proof of concept call in December 2022 are welcome to apply to take their work to the next stage. The deadline is 10am, June 26^th. For full details, including terms and conditions, visit the UK Space Agency website.