Space4Climate Market Breakthrough Funding Phase 2

In response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report’s (AR6) clear statement: ‘1.5°C of warming will be reached by 2040 in all scenarios’, Space4Climate launched a Market Breakthrough Funding call in 2023 to overcome technological barriers to adoption of satellite climate data across the public and private sectors for Net Zero Action.

Without transformational, urgent and collaborative change, across the world, we will be subject to the most extreme heat, flooding and supply-chain climate impacts. In the first phase of the Market Breakthrough Funding call, three cohorts focused on work in three sectors: Agriculture, GHG Emissions and Sustainable Finance. The result was three reports that identify needs, opportunities and ways forward in effectively engaging with actors in policy, industry, research and the third sector to accelerate the uptake of satellite climate data among end users. Space4Climate has published the reports as open access resources – you can read them here.

Space4Climate is committed to making the path to adoption of EO easier. To this end, we have allocated further funding available to organisations across the space and non-space sectors to collaborate to build on the results Phase 1 of the Market Breakthrough Funding. This Phase 2 call aims to transform the identified insights into how end users apply Earth Observation data and tools to improve adaptation and mitigation in the UK and globally. This builds on the recommendations and solutions of the Space4Climate Market Breakthrough Funding Phase 1.

Space4Climate urges interested entities and collaborative teams to address one or more insights from the results of the Market Breakthrough Funding Phase 1 (as set out in the insight reports) to set out a pathway to operationalise Phase 1 findings for the EO sector and end users.

A total fund of up to £90,000 inclusive of VAT, is allocated for this phase. Space4Climate will consider applications of up to £45,000 inclusive of VAT.

Project eligibility

• 1 project can address 1 or more insights but the same project team is discouraged from submitting more than 1 application
• Start no later than June 1^st 2025
• End no later than December 31^st 2025
• Must be a minimum of 6 months
• The maximum total cost of the application is up to £45,000 inclusive of VAT

Project team / consortium

1. Must be led by a UK-registered entity of any size
2. There is an option to form a collaborative project team with others from businesses, research organisations and/or sector end users worldwide.
3. Purchase order for the project and subsequent milestone payments will be placed only to a single entity (the lead organisation) which will be considered as the main contractor and the collaborating organisations part of the team, as sub-contractors.
4. Space4Climate will not prepare any contracts for the work and the lead entity must enter into an MoU or collaboration agreement with the consortium.

Scope

The aim of this collaboration funding is to accelerate the rate of adoption of satellite-based climate services. Interested organisations and cohorts are called on to provide specific recommendations of solutions based on the findings of the three Market Breakthrough Funding Phase 1 reports across 3 climate critical sectors:

1. Sustainable Finance
2. GHG Emissions
3. Net zero: Agriculture

Phase 1 findings – Navigating Market Adoption of Satellite-based Climate Services