UKDI submissions are welcome from the private sector, academia and Public Sector Research Establishments (PSRE’s). UKDI will examine the legal status of organisations prior to placement of any contract or agreement. In most cases there are no nationality restrictions, however UKDI individual competition documents will detail any necessary restrictions.

Contracts available will be of the three following durations and financial maxima:

• up to £125,000 for 6 months (challenge 1, 2 or 3)
• up to £200,000 for 12 months (challenge 1, 2 or 3)
• up to £400,000 for 18 months (challenge 1 only)

Budgets for challenge 1 include VAT, as this is funded by the UK Space Agency. Budgets for challenges 2 and 3 do not include VAT.

Contract start month: Aim to start late November or early December 2026

Project duration: Equal to or less than 18 months. (For challenges 2 and 3, this should be equal to or less than 12 months.)

Challenge 1: Technologies to enhance future sensor to response capabilities, improving coverage and response times for SDA, ISR and communications missions

This challenge seeks to develop technologies and demonstrations of novel communications, processing, storage, and connectivity for the space domain for government applications. We welcome technology to improve the speed of transfer of space and terrestrial sensor information to the operational decision maker and communicate out to the relevant effector. Technologies and techniques may include (as examples, but are not limited to) the following areas:

• Novel distribution of secure data from space-based sensors.
• Novel space-based networks, relays and systems to expedite data flow in the space layer.
• Innovations in the ground infrastructure to enable downlink and ingestion of space data to terrestrial systems or onward.
• Innovative processing methods to reduce data transfer burdens, thereby improving transmission and action speed.
• In orbit processing and storage capabilities.

Contracts available for challenge 1:

• up to £125,000 (inc VAT) for 6 months
• up to £200,000 (inc VAT) for 12 months
• up to £400,000 (inc VAT) for 18 months

This challenge is funded by the UK Space Agency so VAT is included.

Challenge 2: Novel technology approaches to self-protecting space based platforms

This challenge seeks to develop and demonstrate novel technologies in the space domain for government applications which could aid satellite self-protection or recovery from damage inflicted by space weather, debris or malign effects. Technologies and techniques may include (as examples, but are not limited to) the following areas:

• Novel satellite architectures to facilitate in-orbit self-repair and resilience including self-inspection and diagnostic capabilities
• Novel materials to enable self-healing structures or protective or concealing covers.
• Novel sensor applications and propulsion integration to facilitate autonomous collision avoidance.
• Innovative solutions to improve resilience to radiation events.
• Novel techniques for space object characterisation as per Cross-Government SDA requirements SR-7300.

We are looking for solutions that could be useful both in today’s operational environment and also for the next generation.

Contracts available for challenge 2:

• up to £125,000 (ex VAT) for 6 months
• up to £200,000 (ex VAT) for 12 months

Challenge 3: Technologies to enable resilience against ground based electromagnetic threat

This challenge seeks to develop technologies and demonstrations for the space domain for government applications that enable resilience against ground based electromagnetic (EM) threat. Threats in this context could include, dazzling, spoofing, jamming, eavesdropping, or denial of service. Technologies and techniques may include (as examples, but are not limited to) the following areas:

• On-board hardware and software solutions to mitigate the impacts of EM threats
• Novel waveforms and regenerative payloads.
• Novel beamforming and nulling techniques
• Novel on-board decision making.
• Novel antenna arrays resilient to RF effects.
• Geolocation of EM effectors impacting space assets.

Contracts available for challenge 3:

• up to £125,000 (ex VAT) for 6 months
• up to £200,000 (ex VAT) for 12 months

We are not interested in proposals that:

• technologies or systems relating to space launch
• space technologies where the commercial market is already strongly invested (e.g. general satellite communications)
• proposals relating to human spaceflight and exploration
• proposals which could be considered an irresponsible use of space (e.g. generating unnecessary debris, or violating international treaties)
• areas which constitute research into the specific areas of: Quantum Key Distribution (QKD); security and encryption of optical communications; general object tracking and re-entry warning
• constitute consultancy or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future development
• are an identical resubmission of a previous bid to UKDI, DASA or MOD without modification
• present more than one bid with the same technical idea amended for the different contract lengths
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge)
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into UK Defence and Security capabilities
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions
• do not fall clearly into one challenge as outlined above
• need an extensive requirements development phase.

8 July 2026 – Launch webinar providing further detail on the problem space and a chance to ask questions in an open forum. If you would like to participate, please register on the Eventbrite page.

9 July 2026 – A series of 15-minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific technical questions to the competition team in a closed forum. Registration for these sessions will be opened directly following the launch webinar (08/07/2026), on the Eventbrite page. Booking will be on a first come first served basis.

UKDI has a team of locally based Innovation Partners that can provide support in working with UKDI. It is strongly recommended that you contact your local Innovation Partner to discuss your idea for any aspect of this competition. You can initiate this through the submission of an  innovation outline via the UKDI Online Submission Service. This will close on 21 July 2026 to allow time for the team to respond ahead of the competition close.

Competition queries including on process, application, commercial, technical and intellectual property aspects should be sent to the UKDI Help Centre at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, quoting the competition title. UKDI cannot guarantee a response to a query but we will make every effort to respond ahead of the competition close.