Hello all,

My name is Jeffrey Rust, and I have recently joined the UK Space Agency’s Science and Exploration Bilateral Programme (SEBP) team as a Space Science Programmes Officer, working with William Trafford and Rob Sainsbury.

I’m pleased to share advance notice of an exciting new funding opportunity launching soon: the UK Space Agency’s call for Incubator Studies for Small Satellite and CubeSat Mission Concepts, expected to open at the start of July.

This upcoming call will invite UK-led academic teams to apply for support to develop ambitious, early-stage mission concepts, and I would be grateful for your help in sharing the opportunity with your networks once the call to apply goes live.

The call will support short, science-led incubator studies focused on early-stage Small Satellite and CubeSat mission concepts. Applications must be in one of the three priority areas: Heliophysics/Space Weather, Artificial Intelligence or Quantum. Through the Science and Exploration Bilateral Programme, the UK Space Agency will provide up to £750,000 in total funding, expecting to support around five studies of up to £150,000 each, running from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027. Applications must have strong science, and strong both international and industrial partnerships.

This is a great opportunity for teams to shape innovative mission ideas with strong UK science value, meaningful international and industrial partnerships, and clear potential to develop into future UK-led or co-led mission opportunities. Funded teams will be expected to provide monthly progress updates and submit a final report by the end of March 2027.

The call to apply will open soon, and I will share the online documents and announcement as soon as they are available. In the meantime, please keep an eye out for the launch and consider where this opportunity could be shared to reach interested academic partners.

Kind regards,
Jeff