Notice

Choosing the Most Suitable EO Funding Call - UK and ESA Opportunities Compared

Updated 24 June 2026

This table is intended to help potential applicants determine which funding call(s) are most relevant to their proposal across UK-accessible Earth observation funding opportunities (both national and ESA-led), and to clearly highlight the key differences between each opportunity. This table is not inclusive of all available UK Space Agency/ESA funding schemes. 

	EO Missions and Technology Innovation Call 1	Commercial Climate Services Call 4	InCubed
Link to Funding Call			Earth Observation InCubed funding call - GOV.UK
Purpose	Support the development of novel and innovative EO technologies with potential for economic growth, export, dual-use and scientific benefits in the future. These should be low TRL (1-4) early-stage instrumentation or hardware projects with a clear and defined Earth Observation focus.	Support the development of commercial EO services with a clear route to market, enabling new applications and markets. Best suited to organisations developing new services or exploring new opportunities or building on existing services using EO data. For example, projects could focus on areas such as (but not limited to): agriculture and land use; natural disaster response; biodiversity, nature restoration and green financing; marine and water monitoring; spatial planning; waste monitoring; GHG’s including methane	Support the commercialisation of Earth Observation (EO) products and services to market, driving revenue and competitiveness. Best suited to entities ready to commercialise and scale.
Commercial focus	Early development of technologies with a strong user need and that position the UK as a supplier for commercial and/or institutional markets.	Clear commercial ambition and roadmap market.	Final step before full commercial deployment (not research-focused).
Technology maturity (TRL)	Low TRL 1-4	Low to mid TRL (from around TRL 2 to 4), from early concept to prototype.	Mid to high TRL (typically TRL 4–8), focusing on de-risking and deployment.
Development stage	Early technology development	New services, markets and customer applications for early-stage development, prototyping, and validation.	Product differentiation and industrial competitiveness for late-stage development and near-market deployment.
Business case	A well-defined business plan outlining the route to market, and a clear understanding of the intended end user. Alternatively, a comprehensive work package summary detailing how you will determine a route to market. A clear route to success and further funding is required.	A business plan and route to market are required.	Strong evidence of demand, commercial viability and a clear route to market required.
Expected outcome	Validation of core concepts and design, and progression through TRL.	Validated prototype and a viable service concept.	A commercially viable, operational product or service, without the need for further public funding
Call Open, Call closed	Summer 2027 (TBC): 2-month window to apply	25/06/2026 to 07/08/2026	16/06/2026 to 21/08/2026
Funding model	UK Space Agency standard FEC depending on organisation status (typically between 50% and 80%)	Subject to the size of organization. Ranging from 50% to 100%	Co-funded (typically ~50%, with higher rates for SMEs).
Project funding	Up to £200,000 (TBC)	Up to £85,000 per project	Typically, €300k–€4m total project cost (including co-funding)
Total call funding	Up to £1.3m (TBC)	Up to £500,000 available across the call	Up to 7.3M€
Targeted Duration	Projects should aim to complete within 12 months of award (TBC)	6 Months. Projects are due to kick off in September 2026 and will be closing in February 2027.	Projects supported under this call are expected to have demonstratable results within 18 months of project commencement (December 2026).
International Partnerships	UK entities	UK entities	UK entities. Also open to partnerships with ESA InCubed participating states (AT, BE, CZ, DK, EE, FI, FR, DE, GR, HU, IE, IT, LU, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SI, ES, SE, UK, CA)