UK participation in the ESA BASS Kick Start open call
Updated 22 November 2023
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1. UK Kick Start Direct Negotiation (Open Call) funding criteria
In accordance with the requirements of the ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions programme the UK Space Agency has pre-authorised up to a maximum of 2 Kick Start Open Call proposals from UK entities for each call period as published on the ESA Direct Negotiation – Kick Starts tender action number 6-60007.
All proposals submitted to the Kick Start Open Call are assessed and scored solely by ESA in accordance with the rules of the Kick Start programme. The UK Space Agency is not involved in the assessment of proposals to the Kick Start programme, nor with the contract award. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their assessment by ESA only. The UK Space Agency does not review, assess, or provide feedback on Kick Start proposals from UK entities at any point in the process.
UK Proposals that are assessed by ESA and rated as “very good” will move to contract award starting with the highest scoring proposal, then to the next highest scoring proposal and so on until all “very good” proposals have been moved to contract award, or the pre-authorisation limit has been reached, whichever comes first.
In the event that more than 2 UK proposals are rated as “very good” per call period, ESA will enter discussions with the UK Delegate to JCB for Business Applications to consider if additional funding is available.
In the event that less than 2 UK proposals are ranked as “very good” per call period and pre-authorised funding is available, ESA will enter discussions with the UK Delegate to JCB for Business Applications to consider funding proposals rated as “good” starting with the highest ranked proposal.
The UK Space Agency reserves the right not to fund any UK proposals ranked as “good” even if pre-authorised funding is available. The UK Space Agency also reserves the right to fund additional UK proposals ranked as “very good” and/or “good” at its discretion over and above the pre-authorised funding.
Any questions and queries about the UK participation in the Kick Start Open Call call should be directed to the Space Applications team.