Notice

Announcement of Opportunity: Call for Bilateral Space Science and Exploration Missions - Statement of Intent (SOI) Phase

Updated 24 August 2022

1. Introduction

The UK Space Agency announces a new funding line for a Space Science and Exploration (SS&E) programme featuring bilateral agreements with international space agencies outside of ESA (e.g. NASA/US, JAXA/Japan, CSA/Canada). The new bilateral programme is shared between the UK Space Agency’s Space Science and Exploration teams in the Technology, Science and Exploration (TSE) directorate. This open call will, in due course, invite proposals in the following three categories.

• Category A: Proposals for participation in bilateral SS&E missions, which are already in advanced state of discussion, but require funding throughout the current spending review 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&E 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 concurrent design and proposal support to new teams wishing to develop new ideas for bilateral SS&E 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).

The total budget available for the call (all 3 categories) will not exceed £3 million in FY 2022/23. Additionally, subject to funds being made available, budget will not exceed £7 million in 2023/24, and £11 million in 2024/25.

We anticipate that the successful bidders in all three categories will be notified by early December 2022 with funding to be allocated from the start of Q4 22/23 (1 January 2023). Categories A and C may receive funding for the duration of the spending review period as appropriate, and this must commence 1 January 2023. Category B funding will be allocated for a 3-month period only in Q4 22/23.

This initial announcement of opportunity is for a Statement of Intent (SOI) phase addressing category A only. Following the completion of the SOI phase for category A, an open c all for full proposals in all 3 categories will be released, although only those successful in the category A SOI round will be invited to submit full proposals in that category. There is no requirement for a SOI in categories B and C. The guiding principles for the evaluation of SOIs and proposals will be science excellence, but will consider feasibility and affordability, as well as potential economic and societal benefits.

For all categories we will hold a bidders briefing and Q&A session on 3 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 agency’s website.

SOIs and subsequent 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.

This SS&E call is open to HEIs and other research organisations based in the UK. The UK Space Agency will invite successful bidders to submit normal JeS forms to the UKRI research grants system for processing under the UK Space Agency/UKRI service level agreement (SLA), analogously to the process used for grants in support of ESA missions. The UKRI grant regulations specify that, for any award made, 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.

The UK Space Agency will only award grants to proposals judged to be of sufficient quality. The UK Space Agency reserves the right to re-issue the call in a revised form if all allocated funds are not utilised.

Due to time constraints, this first competition will be managed by the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI). The UK Space Agency funds the CEOI, which is a partnership of Airbus Defence and Space Ltd, QinetiQ Ltd, University of Leicester and UKRI Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. 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.

2. Reference documents

Documents which contain information relevant to this call include the following.

• National Space Strategy

• UK Space Agency Corporate Plan 2022-2025

• UKRI T&Cs and Guidance for Full Economic Costs (FEC) for academic Partners

3. SS&E Category A: SOI description

Those intending to submit proposals in category A must complete and submit a SOI form. This is to allow the UK Space Agency to select potential reviewers and to perform a preliminary selection of concepts deemed suitable to go forward to a full proposal. The SOI is a 10-page form inviting the outline of the proposed involvement and an estimate of rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost of involvement in the proposed mission. The SOI form 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.

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&C’s on behalf of your organisation.

The deadline for SOI submission is noon on 14 September 2022. Candidates short-listed following the SOI preliminary review will be invited to submit a full category A proposal and a template and timeline will be provided in due course.

4. Assessment criteria

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

5. Science quality of the mission

This includes:

• the inherent quality of the science, irrespective of the UK involvement.
• is there a credible scientific partnership with the overseas space agency(s).

6. Science value to the UK

This includes the following.

• The specific scientific benefit of the UK involvement e.g., science synergies with the international partner(s), is there access to data during a proprietary period, or will involvement in the instrument /data centre allow enhanced understanding of the data, so enabling more, or better quality, publications?
• Missions should allow the UK to build on existing strengths and/or develop capability in new areas that will enable the UK to position itself for the current and future scientific return.
• Fit to the National Space Strategy and UKRI’s science strategy.

7. Timeliness

This includes the following.

• Project development is tied to a particular event/scientific timing such as the solar cycle, comet appearance etc.; the project timing is driven by cosmic events
• Mission status, including viability of future commitment to funding, from the start of the project through to operations.
• Mission likelihood i.e. position in selection procedures as there may be a lot of scientific interest in a project, but the project is not technically ready to proceed if e.g. there is no evidence that the project can be turned into a practical and achievable mission.

8. Value for money

This includes:

• an assessment of whether the anticipated total cost of the project represents value for money,
• whether it focuses UK effort and investment in ways that best play to our strengths,
• projects which either allow the UK to build on existing strengths or develop capability in new areas in order to enable the UK to position itself for current and future economic return

9. Economic impact and Industrial partnerships/roles

Considerations include the following.

• Will the project lead to future programmes which develop strategic capability for the UK, including developing novel designs or developing new expertise? Does it provide upskilling to develop a group or science area?
• Are there are strategic partnerships involved within the mission that could aid the UK in this and future missions?
• Does the project have the capacity to develop spin-off opportunities for new technology and/or new knowledge into other areas of UK space development such as earth observation, space weather or communications, i.e. cross-disciplinary?

10. Societal impact

Considerations include:

• skills and education development (consider whether this mission help attract talent into the space sector),
• societal engagement, outreach and involvement,
• utility (relevance to everyday life),
• other benefits to the UK public good

11. Risk

Risk can be programmatic, reputational, scientific or technical. Different types of risk must be weighed against each other i.e. scientific risk may be more or less significant than financial risk; the risk of not doing something versus the risk of undertaking something brand new.

Financial risk is implicitly included in consideration of the programmatic and technical risks. Scientific risk assessment should include consideration of whether the scientific return is of an “all or nothing” type or infinitely malleable, and whether it could be severely damaged by descoping.

Reputational risks can include assessment of whether the project loading on the proposer(s) and their team is manageable. The proposing team will be assessed in view of their track record and capability.

12. Submission and contact information

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

• Electronically in PDF format. The SOI response should be contained in single PDF file, which must include your statement of acceptance of UK Space Agency/UKRI T&Cs (RD3). You will receive an email acknowledging receipt. Contact the administrator if you do not receive an acknowledgement within 24 hours.
• Submitted SOIs and proposals will be treated in strict confidence, and only shared between UK Space Agency SS&E team leaders, the designated peer reviewers, and the CEOI leadership team members involved in managing the reviews and preparation of recommendations to UK Space Agency.

The electronic submission should be sent by email to the CEOI Technology Call Administrator, Miss 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:

Dr Caroline Harper UK Space Agency Head of Space Science

Dr Sue Horne UK Space Agency Head of Space Exploration

Email: caroline.harper@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

Email: sue.horne@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

Both at:

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