Guidance

UK Space Agency GSTP Element 1 ESA Initiated (Compendia) Supported Activities

Updated 19 March 2026

1. Summary

Compendia activities are activities that are proposed by ESA following a consultative exercise with industry, member states, ESA technical officers and other ESA programme areas.

The UK has chosen to support the activities outlined below, up to the values shown for each activity. ANY UK entity (industry/academia/consortium) can bid for the activities listed up to the value indicated by the UK Space Agency.

Invitations to Tender (ITTs) are released periodically. Bids should be submitted in response to the ITT through ESA’s procurement platform ESA STAR.

A letter of support from the UK Space Agency to is NOT required to submit a bid for any GSTP Compendia activity.

The UK Space Agency (nor any other member state) are not involved in the review and selection process. This is undertaken by the ESA Technical Evaluation Board that is convened by ESA.

When bidding for an ITT as part of a consortium with another/other member state(s), please note that the UK Space Agency will only support the UK element of any bid.

ALL compendia activities that are being supported by the UK Space Agency can be found below. Requests for support for any other compendia activities will be declined and there will be no further calls for interest in the remaining compendia activities that are not currently supported.

A decision has not been made as to whether to support activities issued through the new ESA GSTP initiatives and remain under discussion.

Please inform the GSTP Team at GSTP@ukspaceagency.gov.uk within 10 working days if you have been contracted to deliver an activity by ESA following the conclusion of the tendering process.

2. List of UK Space Agency Supported Activities

Please refer to ESA’s procurement platform, ESA STAR, for further details and to view the latest ITT releases via the Publication System. You can locate specific calls by entering the relevant GSTP Reference Number into the search bar.

GSTP Reference Number	Activity Title	Amount Supported in €s	Activity theme	Activity Objective	Expected ITT release date on ESA STAR
GT17-843MM	Coating development for lens-like samples in the infrared	500k	Generic Technologies: Optics, Robotics & Life Sciences	To develop high-performance and durable infrared lenses (coating and substrate) in the midwave, longwave and thermal infrared.
GT17-845MM	Inert anode development for molten salt electrolysis	500k	Generic Technologies: Optics, Robotics & Life Sciences	To develop an inert anode system which can be used for the production of refractory and high performance alloys using molten salt electrolysis (MSE).
GT17-860SE	End-to-end demonstrator radar for space object detection	500k	Generic Technologies: E2E Systems	To develop and validate an end-to-end demonstrator of a multistatic radar system for space object detection and tracking using cooperative and non-cooperative signals from diverse satellites. The activity evaluates the integration within NewSpace LEO constellations to support advanced surveillance, monitoring, and situational awareness services.
GT1C-809SD	Manoeuvre analytics software for space traffic management and coordination	350k	Sustainable Space: Space Debris	To build methods and software for manoeuvre detection and pattern of life reconstruction for supporting collision avoidance and space traffic management.
GT1C-814EC	Close-proximity range finder for rendezvous and docking	500k	Sustainable Space: GNC, AOCS & Pointing	To adapt, manufacture and qualify a small form factor range finder able to provide distance measurements for docking operations.
GT1I-805GA	Security framework for AI applications	500k	Artificial Intelligence: System and Applications Engineering	To develop a framework consisting of tools, processes and datasets to mitigate the novel and specific security risks and vulnerabilities associated with AI applications for the space system domain.
GT1I-826SF	Modular framework for enhanced perception and decision-making	600k	Artificial Intelligence: Future Engineering	To develop a software module based on visual agents to integrate and combine visual inputs processing and decision-making capabilities.
GT1M-809EP	CAN backplane interface mezzanine board	250k	Standardised Sub-systems: Power Systems, EMC & Space Environment	To build a mezzanine board to interface with a CAN bus on the units’ backplane. As part of the APA (Advanced Power Architecture) initiative, a standardised approach is being developed for internal communication between APA modules within an APA unit. This activity supports that effort by designing a compact, reusable TM/TC interface based on the CAN bus, known for its reliability and simplicity.
GT1N-807MP	Spacecraft in-orbit chemical refiling technologies	1m	Innovative Propulsion: Propulsion, AeroThermodynamics and Flight Vehicles Engineering	To develop and test breadboard components for spacecraft chemical propulsion in orbit refiling system. This activity scope is to validate & verify the refiling process on satellites, specifically ones which are not designed to be refill and derive critical propulsion subsystem building blocks necessary to build in orbit spacecraft refill service.
GT1N-808MP	Electric propulsion thruster with metal or molecular propellants	600k	Innovative Propulsion: Propulsion, AeroThermodynamics and Flight Vehicles Engineering	To develop a low power (<1kW) Electric Propulsion Thruster operating with metal vapour propellants (e.g. zinc, magnesium, bismuth, etc) or with molecular propellants (e.g. adamantane).
GT1Q-818EF	Portable self-calibrated Rydberg electric field probe for antenna measurements	500k	Quantum Technologies: RF Payloads & Technology	To design and realize a first European portable self-calibrated SI-traceable Rydberg atom-based Electric field probe.
GT1V-805MP	Atmospheric Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) System Development Phase 1a	200k	VLEO: Propulsion, AeroThermodynamics and Flight Vehicles Engineering	To define the overall ABEP system design envelope, identify system-level design drivers and constraints, performance requirements, interfaces, and derive the design specifications for the ABEP subsystems (gas collector/intake and propellant management system, Thruster and Power Processing Unit)
GT1Y-805SE	Secure reconfigurable software defined satellites	500k	Cybersecurity: E2E Systems	To design, develop, implement, test and verify secure reconfigurable technologies needed to support software defined satellites
GT17-883GS	All digital ground station	1m	Generic Technologies: Ground Station Engineering	To build a prototype of an all-digital ground station which will replace the current ground station modem, radio frequency converters and analogue intermediate frequency distribution network.
GT1N-803MP	European scalable parachute assembly system	1.5m	Innovative Propulsion: Propulsion, AeroThermodynamics and Flight Vehicles Engineering	To develop an EQM of a scalable European Parachute Assembly System (PAS) for applications in Exploration and Space Transportation.