Supported by Space4Climate, UK Space Agency has launched a new call for grants of up to £10,000 each to develop UK business-viable ideas that use space data in a climate-related application.
The total fund is £80,000 and the deadline to apply for these quick turn-around projects is December 30th.
Grants can be used by the recipient or to access information or resources needed to develop your ideas. For instance, it could fund time to talk to new users of a service or to develop the information and data flows. The total costs of any one proposal must not exceed £10,000, inclusive of VAT.
Successful projects will run from the end of January to the end of March 2023. They should be designed to allow the development of a business-viable presentation, setting out the vision for the future, how the service could work, the core users and the route to market.
The intention is to launch a follow-up call in spring 2023 with greater funding for longer-term projects for climate services development that have real potential. It is anticipated that some of the ideas developed would be re-submitted as fuller business case plans in that call. However, please note that there is no guarantee of follow-on monies.
The UK Space Agency is looking to give grants to support:
- the use of space data in a climate-related application
- new or novel ideas in the pre-commercial stage.
- collaboration with another organisation/entity such that the work/skills/data needed should not all be readily available within one organisation. For example, you might buy access to data or consultancy time.
- ideas that can be developed into a business-viable idea by the end of March
- opportunities for discussion with the user community such that the new climate service is needed/wanted.
Space4Climate with UK Space Agency has scoped out the themes below. Climate services can cover any number of themes across mitigation, adaptation and resilience etc. For example:
- land use
- biodiversity
- carbon
- energy
- agriculture
- health
- water management
- education
- natural disaster response
Full details and a link for applications are on the UK Space Agency website but note that the money must be spent by end of March 2023 so short proposals must be submitted by December 30th, with work to start in mid-January. The UK Space Agency EO and Climate team will inform successful applicants by email mid-January.