Guidance

UK Space Agency BASS programme eligibility and readiness checklist

Updated 22 November 2023

UK Space Agency BASS Eligibility and Readiness Checklist

To qualify for funding opportunities through this programme, your product, application, and/or service should satisfy the following eligibility and readiness checklist below.

A list of suitable space data and assets are included after the table.

Throughout our assessment, we will consider risk, socio-economic benefits and return on investment.

Criteria	Guidance
Business and Growth Strategy - How does the proposal fit within your company strategy today and where they want to be in five to 10 years’ time?	You should be able to demonstrate how your proposal supports your company’s long term growth plan. You should be able to clearly articulate how the BASS funding you’re applying for will be used to advance your company growth. You should be able to show what sets your proposal apart from everything else in the sector - what is innovative about it? You should be able to show you have strong customer engagement and there is a clear market opportunity for the product, application, or service being proposed.
Technical Ability – Can the space assets be used to support the business opportunity, and can the prime/consortium/partnership deliver the opportunity?	You shall use space assets/and or data in your proposal. This is a fundamental requirement of applying for funding from the BASS programme. Consequently, you should be able to demonstrate that you have the technical skills, knowledge, and experience available to deliver the proposed product, application, or service.
Government Strategy & Due Diligence	You should be able to clearly show how your proposal aligns with National Space Strategy. If there are any conflicts of interest within the companies/participants, you should present in your initial applications and clearly show how they will be mitigated. This includes but is not limited to: individuals in the proposal team; any funding interests in the proposal entities that might cause undue influence.
Capability – Do you have the ability to deliver the business proposition you are proposing?	- You should be able to show that both you and any other participating entities are in an appropriate place in your company growth cycles to deliver the proposed product, application, or service. You should be able to demonstrate you have the necessary business acumen to deliver the proposed product, application, or service, both in the short and long terms.
Financial – What is your financial position?	You should be in a stable financial position and have suitable resources available to you to deliver your proposed activity. You should demonstrate as part of your initial application that you will use the proposed funding accordingly to deliver your product, application, or service.
Legal and Patents – Is your proposal legal?	All of the undertakings you propose should be legal in the jurisdiction of the UK. Any approved overseas activities shall be legal in the applicable jurisdiction. You should be able to show that you have all the necessary internal agreements in place to work with other entities, for example, in a consortium, or with partners. You should be able to demonstrate that you have the agreements in place to use any patented technology or intellectual property that you do not own. You should have all the regulatory aspects of your proposal in place and agreed with the relevant regulatory bodies, or able to show that there is a plan to achieve this in your proposed activities.

Acceptable Space Assets and Data

Acceptable space assets and data are listed below with the first three being the most used. However, this is not a definitive list, and we will consider your proposal if you use a space asset or space data source that is not included below. If this is the case, you should contact us at space-applications@ukspaceagency.gov.uk before committing any resource to developing your initial proposal to make sure your space asset or data source is applicable.

1. Earth Observation Data (Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), optical imagery, thermal imagery, atmospheric/weather data)
2. Global Navigation Satellite Services (GNSS)
3. Satellite Communications Services
4. Satellite Automatic Identification System (AIS) data
5. Space Weather
6. ​​​​​​​Microgravity environments