Notice

Calls for funding bids to provide a training/support service to teams wishing to write new science/exploration mission proposals with an international bilateral partner (Category C)

Updated 14 October 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/call-for-bilateral-space-science-and-exploration-missions-invited-full-proposal-phase-for-bilateral-missions/calls-for-funding-bids-to-provide-a-trainingsupport-service-to-teams-wishing-to-write-new-scienceexploration-mission-proposals-with-an-international

1. INTRODUCTION

The UK Space Agency announces a new funding line for a Space Science and Space Exploration (SS&SE) activities featuring bilateral agreements with international space agencies outside of ESA (e.g., NASA/US, JAXA/Japan, CSA/Canada). The new bilateral programme is for Space Science and Space Exploration missions. This Open Call will, in due course, invite proposals in three categories:

  • Category A: Proposals (by invitation following the recently completed SOI assessment) for participation in bilateral space science and exploration (SS&SE) missions, which are already in advanced state of discussion, but requiring funding throughout the current CSR period (1-2 missions, approximately £500k each in Q4 2022)). This is expected to include partnership on instrument development and/or software engineering on missions led by another space agency.
  • Category B: Proposals from teams wishing to study new bilateral SS&SE mission concepts, including up to full proposal level, which could be submitted for future calls after 2022. Funding would be for teams requiring short term support for initial feasibility studies to end 2022/23 (up to 10 mission concepts at approximately £75k each in Q4 2022), and/or
  • Category C: Proposals from institutions seeking to provide expert early Concurrent Design and proposal writing support to new teams wishing to develop new ideas for bilateral SS&SE missions, for submission to future Calls. One grant will be awarded (this is likely to be a one-off setup package, comprising start-up/FTE costs to approximately £100k in Q4 2022).

Funds awarded for Category C in FY22/23 must be spent before the end of March 2023

This Announcement of Opportunity is for Category C: to provide training/CDF service only. The Category A and B activities are being handled by separate AOs. The guiding principles for the evaluation of the CDF proposals will be relevance to the bilateral mission call and technical and organisational excellence in the Concurrent Design proposition. The review process will also consider value for money and overall benefit to the SS&SE programme.

For all Categories: We will hold a bidders’ Briefing and Q&A session on 3rd October 2022 which should be attended by all potential bidders in Categories A, B and C. The session will be held using Microsoft Teams. We welcome enquiries from potential bidders for clarification of any aspect of the Call outside of the Q&A session, but to maintain a level playing field any answers provided by the Agency may be published on the CEOI website (www.ceoi.ac.uk).

Proposals will be subjected to peer review by the UK Space Agency and UKRI, using established methods for assessment of funding of UK involvement in missions.

The UK Space Agency will invite successful bidders to submit standard JeS forms to the UKRI Research Grants system for processing under the UK Space Agency/UKRI service level agreement (SLA), analogous to the process used for grants in support of ESA missions. The UKRI grant regulations specify that for any award made to an academic institution, the UK Space Agency contribution will be 80% FEC, and the academic institution must cover the remaining 20%. We will not seek match funding in addition to this. Overheads are calculated according to UKRI’s standard grant regulations.

Please note that only UK national organisations eligible for UKRI grants can receive funding from this call. This AO is open to Higher education institution (HEIs) and other research organisations based in the UK. We expect international partners to provide their own funding for these joint mission programmes.

The UK Space Agency and UKRI will only award grants to proposals judged to be of sufficient quality against the assessment criteria outlined in section 3. The UK Space Agency reserves the right to re-issue the Call in a revised form if all allocated funds are not utilised. The UK Space Agency reserve the right to vary the amount, duration, or recipient of funding available to exceptional proposals.

Due to time constraints, this first competition will be managed by the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation. The UK Space Agency funds the CEOI, which is a partnership of Airbus Defence and Space Ltd, QinetiQ Ltd, University of Leicester and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. See www.ceoi.ac.uk. It is anticipated that the transition of successful proposals to contract and future calls will be managed by a new team in the UK Space Agency TSE Directorate.

1.1 Reference Documents

The following documents contain information that is relevant to this Call:

2. SS&SE Category C CDF Proposal Descriptions

The proposal shall be a 16-page form using Times New Roman 12 size font. The bid template and bid guide is given in the Annex below. Please keep to the specified page limits. Material outside of the page limits may not be considered. The deadline for proposal submission is noon on 31st October 2022.

The proposal shall be a proposition for a proposal writing and Concurrent Design support service designed to assist academic-led consortia preparing bids for new bilateral Space Science and Space Exploration concepts. Funding, up to ~£100k, would be for development to end March 2023. The top-level assessment criteria will be relevance and suitability to the current SS&SE programme, feasibility, capability of team, heritage, proposed approach, functionality, including the calibre of facilities and tools available to the institution (are there/will there be state of the art facilities?) service capacity and outputs expected.

The development activity shall start in January 2023 (date TBD) and shall be complete by 31st March 2023. The schedule shall feature a kick-off meeting, a mid-term review, and a final review. On award of a grant, material in your bid should be updated to provide a simple business plan, including how this service will be maintained after the UK Space Agency funding terminates at 31 March 2023, and a simple development plan to be presented in the kick-off meeting alongside the service description. Your proposition should consider that support may be required from multiple teams in the same time frame and how this will be managed.

Bidders must provide a statement of acceptance of the standard UK Space Agency/UKRI Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), defined in the RD3. Bidders should note that these T&Cs will not be open to negotiation and that in submitting this statement, you are accepting the T&Cs on behalf of your organisation.

3. Assessment Criteria for CDF proposals

The following questions and criteria will be used by the peer review board to assess the proposals under this Call. Proposers are advised to consider these issues carefully when writing their proposal.

3.1 Applicability of the CDF proposition to the current SS&SE mission activities

  • Describe the service to be provided to the community. Functionality, state of the art, and practicality of the proposed CDF service/facility
  • Relevance to early-stage (and more mature) proposals.

3.2 Capacity & flexibility

  • It is expected that future calls in this programme will give rise to a significant number of studies arising from future competitions, many of which may need support.
  • We will consider capacity of the proposed service/facility as well as flexibility in managing potentially multiple teams of differing levels of experience to address this.
  • Other benefits to the SS&SE community.

3.3 Timeliness

  • The CDF service/facility will need to be sensitive to the needs of the study teams and their schedules. The responses should consider why their intervention will provide the most benefit and why their involvement comes at a suitable time in relation to current UK priorities in space

3.4 Value for Money

  • You should demonstrate how the proposed activities deliver value for money

3.5 · Risk

  • You should consider all risks affecting the ability to deliver the service.

4. SUBMISSION AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Only the lead institution should submit an application. Proposals should be submitted to the University of Leicester administrator, who will act on behalf of the UK Space Agency and CEOI, as follows:

  • Electronically in PDF format. The proposal should be contained in single PDF file, which must include your statement of acceptance of UK Space Agency/UKRI T&Cs and a short covering email providing a short summary of the proposal, UK institutions involved and lead UK contact. (RD3). You will receive an email acknowledging receipt. Please contact Ms Moretti if you do not receive an acknowledgement within 24 hours.
  • Submitted proposals will be treated in strict confidence, and only shared between UK Space Agency SS&SE Team Leaders, the designated peer reviewers, and the CEOI Leadership team members involved in managing the reviews and preparation of recommendations to the UK Space Agency.

The electronic submission should be sent by email to the CEOI Technology Call Administrator, Ms Charlotte Moretti at cm738@leicester.ac.uk. Enquiries about proposal handling and administration should also be directed to Ms Moretti.

For further information and formal enquiries regarding the scientific and international aspects of the call, contact:

Caroline Harper
UKSA Space Science Lead

Email : caroline.harper@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

Sue Horne
UKSA Space Exploration Lead

Email : sue.horne@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

Both at:

UK Space Agency, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1FL

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