UK Space Agency — National GSTP (ESA) Funding

What it is

Grant funding via the UK Space Agency's national contribution to ESA's General Support Technology Programme (GSTP), maturing UK space technologies toward flight readiness. The March 2026 package totalled £14.7m — a £7m co-funded national call for UK businesses (closed 11 May 2026) plus £7.7m of fully-funded ESA technology contracts open to organisations of all sizes; no next national round has been announced yet, and applications run through ESA's esa-star procurement platform when a route is open.

Verified 2026-08-21: the gov.uk GSTP guidance page's latest change (13 May 2026) is 'Updated to reflect closed call' — so the £7m national call is CLOSED and no next round is announced; treat as between rounds, and do not advise applying until a new call is published. The 19 Mar 2026 gov.uk announcement confirmed the £14.7m package = £7m co-funded GSTP call (UK businesses, particularly SMEs) + £7.7m fully-funded ESA technology contracts (open to organisations of all sizes, including universities and non-space companies). No per-project award min/max has ever been published — the capture max is the £14.7m package total, NOT a per-project ceiling. The SME (<250 employees) targeting applied to the closed £7m call, so it is kept as preferred rather than required. UK manufacturing or operational presence (including NI) required per the rescued index; past projects advanced 2.28 TRLs on average and returned 116% on public investment per the announcement.