Provision of Monitoring, Evaluation and Benefits Management for the National Space Innovation Programme

UK Space Agency, 2024 - ongoing

The National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP) is the UK Space Agency’s dedicated programme to support the development of innovation in the UK’s space sector. The development of innovative space technologies and products often requires long timescales, and the risks and costs cannot be carried by the sector alone if it is to remain competitive with other more supportive countries. Therefore, NSIP will play an important role in co-funding the development of new UK innovations, de-risking high-quality R&D and creating economic and societal benefits. The core aims of NSIP are to:

• Catalyse investment: secure contract revenue and capital into the UK spacesector of 5-8 times the value of NSIP investment by 2030.

• Drive innovation: support an average improvement in Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 2 or more for supported projects, as measured over the lifetime of each project.

• Capture market share: support generation of new products and services that are sold into the fastest growing and highest potential space markets by 2030.

Roles:

know.space are leading a consortium to support UKSA in monitoring, evaluating and managing the benefits of the National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP). We are leading on the impact and economic evaluations, together with our partners at RAND Europe who are leading on the process evaluation. Our consortium also contains several expert advisers, with world-leading expertise ranging from econometrics through to innovation financing.

Our overarching methodology is based on a mixed-methods approach, combining primary and secondary research. The primary research uses a combination of interviews, surveys, and focus groups to gather evidence, while the secondary research uses desk-based research of key documentation and secondary data, including business and investment intelligence platforms and datasets. The evaluation methodology itself is focused on theory-based evaluation and quasi-experimental methods.

As well as supporting ongoing programme benefits management activities, the project will play a key role in shaping subsequent phases of NSIP, and in supporting evidence-based decision-making and policy design in the future.