Geospatial Funding and Engagement Opportunities - September 2020

KTN connects SMEs to open funding and engagement opportunities. These can be challenging to find so here is a summary of the opportunities in the sector for the months to come.

To stay abreast of the opportunities, I strongly recommend you sign up to all relevant newsletters at https://ktn-uk.co.uk/newsletter.

Sector Update

UKSA Business Support Tender (Closes 3 November at 14.00) UKSA will be looking for a delivery partner to design and deliver a core curriculum of business support offerings that are valuable to start-up and / or high-growth potential space businesses throughout the UK. We want to support as many viable space companies through these challenging times as we can. As such, we expect that the training material and advice provided will be relevant to every business no matter where they are situated, and tailored to specific regions where legislation/guidance may differ. We envisage a two-pronged approach - Broadcast and Direct support, with more details on each of these within the RFP documentation. The contract duration will be for a period of approximately four (4) months from December 2020 to April 2021. The budget range for this opportunity is ￡166,667 to a maximum of ￡333,333 excluding VAT. 

ESA BIC Support (Closes 15 October at 11.00). The ESA BIC UK provides an incubation package comprising business support, incentive (grant) funding, technical expertise and access to facilities, and networking opportunities. Business support is provided primarily by a third-party organisation which is contracted to support the incubatee businesses to develop and implement a viable business plan and secure funding as needed. 

Seraphim Space Camp Backed by Seraphim Capital, the world’s only SpaceTech Venture Fund, Seraphim Space Camp is a programme dedicated to the rapidly growing SpaceTech start-up sector. Mission 6 cohot has been announced for further information please contact [email protected]. 

COVID-19 Sector Recovery Survey. UKspace, in partnership with the UK Space Agency and Department of International Trade, launched a new Monthly Space Sector COVID-19 Impact and Recovery Survey for all organisations operating in the UK space sector. This is an opportunity to share how the UK Space Agency and broader government can support your business to create and exploit new market opportunities and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. This new monthly survey replaces the weekly and the fortnightly surveys that have monitored the immediate impact of the pandemic on the sector. It continues to be very important to get as broad a representation of the sector as possible completing the survey, so we would urge you to ensure your company takes part.  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/XZV6NSW

Minesense. The Satellite Applications Catapult, European Space Agency, and United Nations Crime Institute (UNICRI) together established the MineSense group to provide a platform for stakeholders of the mining and space industries to collaborate and discuss new technologies, opportunities, and solutions to solve challenges of mining industry using space technology. 

Satellites for Sustainable Development (Sats4SD) community of interest group. Sats4SD is collaborative community interested in scaling the uptake of space technology and satellite applications across the full range of sustainable development activities to unlock the partnerships needed to advance the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Please [email protected] if you have any queries. 

Funding Calls

SBRI: using geospatial data to solve transport challenges, phase 1 (Closes 4 November 2020 at 11.00). Organisations can apply for a share of up to ￡2 million up to ￡75K, to develop feasibility studies for one of the themed challenges. Briefing event 8 October. We have setup a B2Match website service to help people find partners You may already have partners - but good idea to register, as other people may approach you and broaden your horizon for future work.

ESA FUNDING CALLS. https://www.esa.int/Applications/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/Business_Applications.

Innovate UK Smart Grants (Closes 25 November at 11.00) 

Events

AgriTech Virtual Hackathon 9 October. Challenges still being developed but themes include: AgriTech Innovation on the Farm, Agri BioTech, Smart/Precision/Vertical Farming, Soil Productivity.

Women in Innovation Awards 2020/2021 (Closes 14 October). Innovate UK is offering 10 Women in Innovation Awards to female entrepreneurs across the UK. The winners will receive a ￡50,000 grant and a bespoke package of mentoring, coaching and business support. The aim of this competition is to find women with exciting, innovative ideas and ambitious plans that will inspire others. The awards are for female founders, co-founders or senior decision makers working in businesses that have been operating for at least one year.  Innovate UK and the Knowledge Transfer Network hosted a briefing event to tell you more about the scope for this competition and the application process. Click here to watch the recording! 

Geospatial is Transforming Our World (October 22nd - 1300 BST). The last webinar in #ThePowerOfPlace series, this event will discuss the opportunity to build the autonomous, connected and people-centric world we all want to live in using location intelligence. From building the knowledge infrastructure that powers the smart cities of the future, to help construction managers to track assets in large scale civil engineering projects, city officials to tackle pollution and carbon emissions via better monitoring, location intelligence is rapidly becoming a fundamental enabler of the connected and autonomous world we are building today. Register here: https://eur.cvent.me/5VBND

Thank you Gemma Gemma Wilson,Regional Growth Manager at SA Catapult, for putting this resource together.