Funding Flash November 2025
Each month, Space South Central aims to bring together a curated list of the latest and best funding opportunities for businesses working in the space sector across the Southeast.
The list is not exhaustive – for that, see the Satellite Applications Catapult’s Space Enterprise Network.
If you see an opportunity below that could be suitable for your business, reach out to the team at info@spacesouthcentral.com, who will offer advice, expertise, support and connections to help you create successful bids. Since 2016, we have helped regional organisations secure over £37.5M.
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GeoAI Build and Pitch Programme: Unlocking Nature-Based Markets with Earth Observation & AI
Deadline: Sunday, 9th November 2025
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Innovate UK Business Connect, and partners invite innovative solutions that leverage Earth Observation (EO) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable scalable, cost-effective Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of nature-based carbon and biodiversity projects. They are looking for approaches that improve data quality, reduce uncertainty, ease the burden of manual surveys, and support the validation of carbon and nature credits. The goal is to develop commercially viable tools that help investors, regulators, and project developers make trusted, evidence-based decisions. Consequently, these solutions will support sustainable finance, credit validation, and automated compliance across environmental markets.
Read more here.
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GeoAI Build and Pitch Programme: Next-Gen Spatial Planning: GeoAI Solutions for Land, Ocean, and Climate
Deadline: Sunday, 9th November 2025
Participants will be challenged to combine EO data, both public and commercial, with other datasets and apply AI tools to develop concepts for innovative, commercially viable, products. Teams will be expected to develop novel products with a clear customer in mind while ensuring they aren’t reinventing the wheel. Solutions must be cloud-native and software-only.
All selected teams will have the opportunity to showcase their prototypes at Space-Comm Expo Europe, 4-5 March 2026 in London.
Read more here.
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GeoAI Build and Pitch Programme: Harnessing GeoAI for a Resilient and Sustainable Agri-Food System
Deadline: Sunday, 9th November 2025
Seeking innovative solutions that leverage Earth Observation and AI to enhance the sustainability, resilience, and productivity of agriculture in the UK. Participants will receive expert mentorship, cloud computing credits, and access to a wide range of EO datasets to accelerate product development. All participating companies will have the opportunity to showcase their prototype at Space-Comm Expo Europe, with the top 5 winners invited to present at the Downstream Theatre during the event. Top 5 winners will receive tailored Commercialisation Credits for Satellite Application Catapult's (SAC) Space Commercialisation Engine valued at up to £80k per company.
Read more here.
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Space for sustainability in sports and mass events
Deadline: Friday, 21st November 2025
This Call for Proposals invites feasibility studies and demonstration projects that leverage satellite technology to enhance the sustainability of sports and mass events. Proposals are encouraged to explore innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of large-scale gatherings, such as sports championships, music festivals, and conferences. Please refer to the 'Authorisation of Funding' section below to determine whether your team is eligible for this funding.
Read more here.
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Future of Retail
Deadline: Monday, 24th November 2025
Future of Retail is an opportunity for businesses to submit proposals to develop innovative services that leverage space technology for the benefit of the retail sector.
Selected projects can access 75% funding by the European Space Agency, up to €75,000 per activity.
Read more here.
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UK-Canada Quantum Communications and Networking Demonstrator
Deadline: Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £3.425 million. This is subject to a sufficient number of high-quality applications being received.
The aim of this competition is to develop and demonstrate terrestrial and spaceborne quantum communications capability. It is also to strengthen UK and Canada partnerships in the commercialisation of quantum communications and networking technologies.
Read more here.
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Artificial intelligence (AI) for environmental science phase one
Deadline: Thursday, 11th December 2025
Apply for funding to use artificial intelligence (AI) and data science in new ways to address complex environmental challenges. They’re seeking bold, innovative ideas with the potential to shape the future of environmental science.
Read more here.
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Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) Open Call for Innovation - CY2025 - Cycle 1
Deadline: Thursday, 16th December 2025
The Open Call for Innovation is one of the services the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) use to find ideas that address challenges across both Defence and Security landscapes to give an edge over our adversaries.
The Open Call for Innovation allows innovative ideas to be proposed to Defence and Security stakeholders, even where a specific requirement has not been stipulated. It is a broad mechanism to allow innovators to present disruptive ideas which may otherwise be overlooked.
Read more here.
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Pushing the frontiers of environmental research: January 2026
Deadline: Wednesday, 21st January 2025
Apply for funding to pursue an ambitious, high risk and high reward curiosity-driven project in environmental research.
You must be:
based at a UK research organisation eligible for Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding
in a role that meets the individual eligibility requirements
Read more here.
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EPSRC Programme grant full proposal
Deadline: Open Until Further Notice
Programme grants provide flexible funding to world-leading research groups addressing significant major research challenges.
Funding should bring together a team of internationally recognised scientists or engineers to focus on one strategic research theme.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) sees programme grants as critical mass investments, which cover a diverse engineering and physical sciences portfolio. They benefit UK research through the concentration of high-performing talent.
Read more here.
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General Support Technology Programme (GSTP)
Deadline: Open Until Further Notice
The UK Space Agency is looking to provide support to companies and academic institutions across the UK in developing innovative technologies to grow UK capability. They are keen to engage with start-ups and SMEs (from both within and outside the space sector), as well as established companies and organisations. Collaborative proposals are also welcome.
Read more here.
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Navigation Innovation Support Programme (NavISP)
Deadline: Open Until Further Notice
Since 2017, the UK has invested €50 million into NavISP to support the UK space PNT sector to innovate the next generation of space-enabled and space-supported navigation products, services and applications.
The UK investment in the programme is available to support UK organisations to undertake technology research and development focused on commercial innovation
Read more here.
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ESA ITT
Deadline: Various
The latest list of open and intended ESA and non-ESA ITTs is now available and published on ESA STAR. This includes all contracts currently open for bids, as well as those in the intended phase prior to publication. All opportunities listed are accessible to UK companies, though some caveats may apply.
Read more here.
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ESA Proposal Advice Service
Deadline: Open Until Further Notice
The ESA Proposal Advice Service (ESA PAS) is a UK Space Agency-funded pilot programme designed to help UK-based organisations improve the quality of their proposals submitted to the European Space Agency (ESA). The service provides free, non-technical advice to organisations who are preparing ESA bids and want to strengthen their applications before submission.
ESA PAS focuses on improving the clarity, structure, and strategic alignment of proposals by identifying common errors and areas for improvement. The aim is to increase the competitiveness of UK bids without providing engineering or technical solutions. Feedback is tailored to the five evaluation criteria used by ESA: background and expertise, understanding of requirements and objectives, quality of the proposed programme of work, adequacy of management, costing and planning, and compliance with administrative tender conditions.
Find out more here.
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Defence Sourcing Portals
The Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) hosts all of MOD’s advertised requirements. You can tailor your notifications from DSP by selecting appropriate category codes.
Contracts Finder allows you to search for information about contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT) with the government and its agencies.
Register for the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender to search and apply for high-value contracts in the UK’s public and utilities sectors. High-value contracts are usually above £139,688 including VAT.
MOD Acquisition Pipeline is a forward look of potential procurement activity and Framework Agreements at MOD.
