The project must be led by a UK organisation who will receive a grant from the UK Space Agency. This can be any type of UK organisation including University-led academic research proposals and Industry-led commercial research proposals.

As a national programme, proposals must be UK based, led by UK based organisations with clear national benefit. Projects can include non-domestic partners (including those within the EU) who bring their own funding. No grant funding is available in this call for organisations outside the UK.

The project can be collaborative, and enterprises may receive a 15% uplift to the subsidy ratios for Feasibility Studies, Industrial Research or Experimental Development where the project involves collaboration between enterprises, where at least one of the enterprises is an SME, or between an enterprise and one or more research and knowledge dissemination organisation, which must have the right to publish its own research results.

Applications from industry are limited to one per lead organisation per scheme (Kick Starter and/or Major Projects). Academic institutions and Research Organisations may submit up to three proposals per scheme. A lead organisation is defined as the organisation submitting the application and who is responsible for delivery of the Grant.

The anticipated start date for successful projects is 1 April 2027. All projects must be fully completed by 30 September 2029. Projects planning to use the full 30-month duration should be prepared to start promptly in April, allowing for any required recruitment activity to take place within the project schedule and be aware that extensions requests beyond the end date are unlikely to be successful.

NSIP contributes to the UK Space Agency’s Space Ecosystem – a foundational area described by the Space Strategy – as a key mechanism to support the government’s goals to:

1. Grow the UK space economy – increasing the space sectors’ capability to innovate, attract private capital needed to scale up and ultimately, increase the rate of commercialisation of UK developed space products and services.
2. Make the UK one of the best places globally to start up and grow a space business.

Through NSIP grants, UKSA aims to:

• Catalyse investment: leverage private investment and secure contract and sales revenue into the UK space sector of 5-8 times the value of NSIP investment.
• Drive innovation: support an average improvement in Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 2 or more for supported projects, as measured over the lifetime of each project.
• Capture market share: support a generation of new products and services that are sold into the fastest growing and highest potential space markets.

We welcome promising innovations from any part of the space sector to apply for support, though we are would particularly encourage proposals aligned to the Government’s priority subsectors announced at Space Comm Expo in March 2026:

• Space Domain Awareness
• In-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing
• Assured Access to Space
• Satellite Communication Technology.

Although NSIP primarily supports R&D for civil uses of space, defence-related projects are within scope. In particular NSIP welcomes proposals that address requirements of the Defence Highly Assured Technical Areas as set out in annex to the Space Industrial Plan.

Proposals are sought for innovative research and development projects that progress the Technology Readiness Level and commercialisation of novel concepts, technological step-change, new technologies, satellite applications or space-related service developments, or establishing new academic/industrial research collaborations targeting emerging disruptive technologies and business models.

Examples of acceptable activities include, but are not limited to:

• Innovative and/or emerging technology research and development – proof of concept, testing targeting emerging disruptive technologies or novel markets.
• Prototyping or engineering model with relevant environment testing.
• Adapting technology from a non-space use to provide disruptive advancement or make significant efficiencies with space application.
• Prototyping, demonstrating, piloting, testing and validation of new or improved products, processes or services in environments representative of real-life operating conditions where the primary objective is to make further technical improvements.
• System/subsystem model, application, service demonstration.
• Flight qualification through test and demonstration (ground or space).
• Prove out of flight qualified system through successful mission operations.

Proposals must be clearly identifiable as space-related innovation, with a space-based use case or with a strong space component. NSIP welcomes proposals from adjacent sectors who aim to enter the space sector, but projects that fail to meet the space-specific criteria will be rejected as ineligible.

Although most of the funding available through this funding call will be open allowing proposals on any space technology, application or service, UKSA intends to strategically target up to 40% of the Call 3 budget on two priority technology areas (~20% each). These are Space Domain Awareness and In-Orbit Assembly and Manufacture. In support of these themes, we welcome projects that seek to deliver capabilities that address the following points:

Space Domain Awareness

The below list is solution-agnostic, proposals could involve technology, sensors, software, modelling, analysis, innovative tools or techniques etc.

Examples of projects that would fit within this theme include:

• Positive identification of satellites – able to derive characterisation information to define a Resident Space Object’s identity with respect to an RSO catalogue
• Satellite payload identification (incl. Subsystems) – able to derive characterisation information on activity of a Resident Space Object’s payloads and subsystems
• Fault/anomaly detection incl. Damage assessment – able to derive characterisation information which enables the detection of faults and/or anomalies on board a Resident Space Object
• RSO pointing vector/attitude and rotation axis – able to derive characterisation information on a Resident Space Object’s pointing vector and/or attitude; on its effective rotation rate and/or rotation axis
• Construction Materials and mass estimation – able to derive characterisation information on a Resident Space Object’s construction materials and mass properties
• Payload activity – able to derive characterisation information of a Resident Space Object’s payload activity
• Electro-Magnetic (EM) activity – able to derive characterisation information on an RSO’s electromagnetic activity

In-Orbit Assembly and Manufacture

Selection of assembly and manufacturing proposals for investment should be driven by identified customer needs, rather than a technology-push approach.

Examples of projects that would fit within this theme include:

• Robotics and AI-enabled control systems to support remote manipulation and in-orbit assembly tasks (e.g. handling, moving, aligning, mating/de-mating components), including adapting existing systems from other sectors and advancing capabilities to TRL 6+, especially in low-cost, high-reliability solutions.
• Methods for assembling structures in space, including material handling, welding, and joining/fastening.
• Additive manufacturing techniques for in-orbit fabrication of structures and components (where required by system architecture studies).
• In-Orbit Manufacturing payload development.
• In-situ test equipment and techniques to verify and validate manufactured products in the space environment.
• Re-entry and return capabilities for products manufactured in space for use on Earth.

The NSIP team have produced two videos to support applicants:

An Introduction to NSIP and Guidance for Call 3 (watch on YouTube) – for all applicants

NSIP Call 3: Part A – Full Application Form Guidance with Call 3 Slides (watch on YouTube) – this is only relevant if you are invited to submit a Full Proposal.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Space team.