Notice

Announcement of Opportunity: 2023 Call for Mars Exploration Science - Studentships

Published 6 April 2023

This notice was withdrawn on 13 June 2023

This call closed on 1 June 2023.

Call for Studentship proposals

Funding type: Research, innovation, and development

Who can apply: Academics working at UK Research organisations

Total fund: £1,000,000 (indicative)

Award range: up to £100,000 over 48 months

Deadline: Thursday 1st June 2023, 16:00

Please note that the UK Space Agency does not accept applications directly from graduates wishing to pursue doctoral study.

1. Scope of call

The UK has made a major investment into ESA’s Exploration Programme and the UK Space Agency wishes to secure the benefits from this investment. Exploration covers the regions where humans do, or may, in the near future, live and work, namely Low Earth Orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

The UK Space Agency is therefore making PhD studentship funding available to support the development of a new generation of Mars researchers within the UK academic community by providing funding for:

• PhD projects which utilise data from Mars exploration missions (including ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter, NASA’s Insight lander, Perseverance, and other Mars exploration missions), or;
• PhD projects which underpin future Mars exploration missions. This can include supporting science operations of current rover missions.

A limited number of doctoral scholarships may be allocated to international students.

Dedicated funding to support research and training expenses and cohort-building activities will be provided.

Out of scope

There will be separate calls to fund PDRAs, fellowships and working groups.

There will be a separate Exploration technology call for instrument feasibility studies and TRL raising activities. Research and development in this remit should not be applied for through this opportunity.

Lunar science and the exploitations of data from Lunar missions is within the remit of STFC and is not within the scope of this call.

Exploitation of data collected on the International Space Station and other ESA SciSpace facilities where the experiment is focused on work that is within the remit of UKRI is not within the scope of this call.

Prospective applicants may discuss with the Agency prior to submission if they are uncertain about whether their proposal fits the call.

Guidance on working with Russia

We will not fund any new collaborative projects with Russia.

This includes any project with a Russian dimension, e.g., projects building on existing work with Russian collaborators (as Co-Is, project partners, lab facilities, or co-authors) or which use Russian data sources (where the data cannot be sourced through other means). If you require any further clarity on this, please contact Alma at SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

The UK Space Agency follow policy set by the department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS, now called the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology; DSIT) in accordance with guidance from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).

As of March 2022, BEIS have set a firm policy on Russian collaboration which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/research-and-innovation-sanctions-on-russia-and-support-for-ukraine.

2. Award duration and value

UK students undertaking a PhD will each be eligible for a fixed sum scholarship of £100,000 for up to 48 months of full-time doctoral study. This covers:

• Maintenance (at UKRI base levels)
• Tuition fees (at UKRI base levels)
• £10,000 for research and training expenses

In addition, £20,000 of ring-fenced funding will be made available to the programme to support cohort-building activities over the duration of the award.

Awards will be made in line with the standard UKRI-STFC criteria for studentships. Funding is provided by the UK Space Agency but administered by UKRI-STFC. Awards will therefore be made in line with standard STFC criteria in accordance with their financial rules (including the standard FEC application and for the length of the grant – please make sure you and your institution are fully aware of these rule prior to application. More information can be found here: https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/before-you-apply/your-responsibilities-if-you-get-funding/meeting-ukri-terms-and-conditions-for-funding/#contents-list

Reasonable costs will be permitted, but it should be noted that all costs must be justified and that the appropriateness and justification of sums requested will form part of the assessment criteria.

3. Grant payment

Payments will be made to the research organisation quarterly and the first payment will be made once the formal offer letter has been accepted by the research organisation.

The final payment will be made after the submission of the final reconciliation report at the end of the grant. There processes are administered by STFC, but please note that the UK Space Agency remains the funder. More information on receiving your funding can be found here: https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/manage-your-funding-award/receiving-your-funding-award/

4. Call timeline

AO published	AO closes	Panel meeting	Award letters	Grants to start
6th April 2023	1st June 2023 16:00	late July/early August 2023	September 2023	No later than October 2024

5. Grant terms and conditions

All awards will be subject to UKRI standard grant terms and conditions, with the addition of the following specific clauses from the UK Space Agency as grant funder:

• The UK Space Agency also reserves the right to cancel or reduce the award in the event of the project being cancelled or descoped.

• The UK Space Agency reserves the right to terminate the grant within a 6 month notice period should it be deemed programmatically or strategically advisable to do so.

• The Grant holder agrees that as a condition of receiving any Funds they shall provide the UK Space Agency with all information, reports, statistics, study results and data reasonably requested by the UK Space Agency to track and assess progress and performance of the Project.
• The Grant Recipient shall not publish any material referring to the Funds or this agreement without the prior written agreement of the UK Space Agency.
• The Grant Recipient shall acknowledge the role of the UK Space Agency as grant funder in any materials that refer to the Project and in any written or spoken public presentations about the Project as it relates to this agreement.  Such acknowledgements (where appropriate and with UK Space Agency’s written consent shall include the UK Space Agency’s name and logo (or any future name or logo adopted by the Grant Funder).
• In using the UK Space Agency’s name and logo, the Grant Recipient shall comply with all reasonable branding guidelines issued by the UK Space Agency from time to time.

6. Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting

All grants awarded will require the awardee to report on impacts and outcomes annually through the ResearchFish process as per UKRI grant terms and conditions, both during the grant period and for 5 years afterwards.

In addition, during the grant period, quarterly written reports will be required to be provided to the UK Space Agency detailing the activity carried out within the scope of the grant.  Regular progress meetings will also be held between the grant holder and the UK Space Agency to monitor and evaluate progress for the length of the grant.

7. Proposal assessment

Fast track assessment

Applications that fit the remit of the call will be assessed through a single stage, fast-track panel assessment process. The streamlined nature of the assessment will use a panel made up of independent academic reviewers across a broad range of science disciplines with programmatic support from the UK Space Agency, who will consider all proposals against the evaluation criteria outlined below.

Applications will be fully assessed by the expert panel. Applications will not be sent to reviewers and therefore applicants will not receive review comments; there will be no PI rebuttal stage.

The panel will recommend a final assessment and ranking of proposals to the UK Space Agency. The panel, in finalising the awards to be made, may take account of the distribution of awards in terms of subject, type of award and institution.

Feedback will be provided to all applicants within three months of being notified of the panel’s decision.

Assessment criteria

In considering the proposal the panel will use the following criteria:

Science excellence of the proposal (40%)

• This score will be based on the scores awarded during the Panel discussion board process

Relevance to and priority within the UK Space Agency Exploration programme (15%)

• Contributions of the selected research and the expected outcomes to the UK science and exploration activities as related to the National Space Strategy and the global exploration endeavour outlined in the Global Exploration Roadmap.

Necessity and timeliness of requested funding (15%)

• Criticality of the proposal to the area of research

Value for money (10%)

• Requested costs are justified, appropriate, and reasonable
• Value of any leveraged funding (including in-kind and financial)

Research Environment and Team membership (15%)

• Suitability of the proposed research team to successful undertake the work covered by this proposal
• The quality of the proposed training and supervision; opportunities for publication during and immediately after the completion of the PhD.

Impact and outreach plan (5%)

• Use of the research and activities to inspire others
• Plans to communicate the results of the project

8. How to apply

Please read all of the guidance carefully. Contact Alma at the UK Space Agency (SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk) if you have any questions regarding your application.

NOTE:

The UK Space Agency is the funder of this grant and we use the UKRI grant application system through STFC to administer grants.

You will need to create, but not submit, an application on the Je-S system through the following steps:

Please fill in a Je-S form via https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/ for a STFC:

• Standard Proposal as the document type
• Standard as the scheme
• Urgency Grants– Open Call as the Call/Type/Mode

and produce a .pdf of the completed form .  To do this, follow document actions –> print document –> select print format as ‘pdf’ –> download the print.

Send this .pdf file, along with the relevant annexes (as listed below as a single PDF document is preferred), to SpaceExploration@ukspaceagency.gov.uk, to arrive before the closing date.

For full details in using the JeS application system, please refer to the JeS Handbook.

Please note : it is the responsibility of the proposal Principal Investigator to clear their submission with the relevant finance and research offices of their institution. Such clearance must be obtained prior to submission.

Applications must be received no later than 16:00 on 1st June 2023 . Applications received after this will not be considered.

Points to note :

• All the information boxes on the JeS form must be filled in including Objectives; Summary and Academic Beneficiaries. The Summary must not be the same as the Objectives as the Agency may use the Summary for the public in futures press releases or Agency news stories.
• Any additional documentation that are included in the .pdf, but are not stated in the guidance (e.g. covering letters or additional letters of support) will not be considered. It will not be seen by reviewers or the review panel and will not count towards the proposal.
• If any part of the proposal extends over the stated page limit, the additional pages will be removed, not be considered and will not count towards the proposal.

Annexes to applications through JeS :

All annexes MUST be:

• A4 paper size with minimum of 2cm margins

• Font size of no smaller than 11pt

Project Studentships should have the following annexes:

• Case for Support : This should be no more than three sides of A4 (excluding references). Containing the following information:

• Description of the Project

• Supervision - There should be a brief description of the experience the supervisors have.  New lecturers are encouraged to apply and should indicate their experience to how the institution will support them.

• Monitoring of Progress - This should explain the monitoring process that will be used and the type of remedial actions that could be put in place if required.  Does the institute have an approved code of practice covering PhD student supervisory and monitoring procedures?

• Training Opportunities - This section should detail the training that would be provided to the student, both compulsory and optional.  This should include the number of lecturing (instruction) hours attended by the student over the duration of the award, excluding summer schools.  The project must provide the student with training in the methods of research associated with the work to be undertaken.   The student must have the opportunity to undertake broader skills training during the course of a PhD.

• Research Environment - Provide some contextual information of the research environment, including the number of PhD students.

• Impact statement/plan

• Justification of Resources Requested

• Current Funding List for the PI: This should include title, funder, value, duration and level of applicants time spent on the project. If the title is not self-explanatory include a sentence to explain what the project is about.

9. Confidentiality

The UK Space Agency is subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It may therefore become necessary for UK Space Agency to release information in order to comply with its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

For those bids not recommended for funding, documentation will be retained by the UK Space Agency for reference. The proposals will not be visible to any others, and the names of any unsuccessful applicants will not be published.

Information submitted for those projects selected for funding will be retained by UK Space Agency but remain confidential.

Summary information about the proposals selected for funding may be published on the UK Space Agency website and/or UK Space Agency social media accounts.

The contact details you provide will only be used for the purposes of this funding call. The UK Space Agency will not share your information with anyone else.