in Barcelona
3 to 5 Nov 2026
The UK Space Agency published a £2 million Environmental Intelligence and Emissions Grant Call on 19 October 2026, offering £150,000 to £400,000 per project to UK businesses that use satellite-derived data for climate, nature and emissions applications, with applications due by 11 December 2026 and projects starting in January 2027 for a maximum of nine months. The call forms part of the agency’s existing Unlocking Space for Business programme and requires each applicant to partner with a UK space supplier.
Two Funding Strands And The Arithmetic Behind Them
The call is organised around two areas: climate, nature and natural capital intelligence, and environmental emissions monitoring and verification. Eligible applications include climate risk assessment, biodiversity monitoring, infrastructure resilience planning and greenhouse gas emissions tracking, and projects must use satellite-derived technologies that may be combined with artificial intelligence, machine learning and other analytical tools.
Applicants must be UK-based businesses working with a UK space supplier, and proposals must demonstrate practical applications and a credible route to commercial adoption. Kurrantly’s calculation from the published figures shows that the £2 million pot funds five projects at the £400,000 ceiling or 13 projects at the £150,000 floor, so the number of awards will depend on how applicants size their requests.
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A Programme That Began With Finance And Logistics
Unlocking Space for Business was launched by the UK Space Agency in October 2023 to help UK businesses use satellite data and services, initially with a focus on Financial Services and Transport and Logistics, and the agency said in June 2025 that it had engaged more than 350 organisations since launch, according to the agency’s blog. Its pilot projects included a satellite-powered wildfire risk assessment and pricing solution from Assimila and Aon, an environmental risk evaluation system from Wieldmore and Earth Blox, and a satellite imagery tool from One Big Circle that detects vegetation overgrowth, land movement and flood risks on UK railways.
The second call, announced in June 2025, also carried £2 million with grants of up to £400,000, but required a UK end-user business in Financial Services or Transport and Logistics to lead a consortium with a UK space supplier, and projects ran for up to seven months from September 2025. The new call keeps the same pot and the same ceiling, lengthens the maximum project duration from seven to nine months, and defines eligibility through two environmental themes rather than two named sectors.
Seven Climate Services Awards Announced A Week Earlier
The agency announced the results of a separate scheme on 12 October 2026, when it said that Commercial Climate Services Call 4 would invest £500,000 across seven projects that turn Earth observation data into commercial climate services. That call opened on 25 June 2026 and closed on 7 August 2026, with a grant ceiling of £85,000 per project and project completion in February 2027, according to the call guidance.
Kurrantly’s calculation puts the average Call 4 award at £71,429. Among the seven funded projects, Callala Ltd and the University of Strathclyde will use satellite nitrogen dioxide data to assess emissions from offshore oil and gas platforms in a project called PEEPS, Quantum Risk Solutions will rank social landlords’ homes by heat risk, and SpaceD will build satellite thermal data on the urban heat effects of data centres into its siting platform.
The emissions strand of the new call overlaps with the PEEPS project’s subject, but at a funding level that is up to 4.7 times the Call 4 ceiling, since £400,000 divided by £85,000 is 4.7.
Comparable Programmes Abroad
Other national space agencies are also turning Earth observation data into operational tools. The South African National Space Agency launched three decision support tools on 3 July 2026 that convert satellite data into intelligence on air pollution, flood risk and water security.
The UK approach differs in channelling the money through grants to private-sector applicants paired with space suppliers, so adoption risk sits with commercial customers rather than a public agency building the tools itself.
What Happens After 11 December
Applications close on 11 December 2026 and projects begin in January 2027, which places the first awards of the new call in their opening weeks while the Call 4 projects are completing their work in February 2027. The results those seven projects report against their £85,000 ceilings will be the first evidence of how far UK satellite climate services can progress commercially in under a year, and they will set the benchmark against which the nine-month, £400,000 projects are likely to be assessed.
