Call for Proposals: Space Innovation Initiative (South Africa)

The Space Innovation Initiative is a strategic initiative by the Department and Science and Innovation (DSI), Space Infrastructure Hub (SIH), which is the large-scale investment and supporting interventions to grow Space Science capabilities and infrastructure for sustainable development and growth of the South African Space economy.

Solutions supported by this call are expected to advance the space industry development by extending the current efforts of the Space Infrastructure Hub to include investing in the development and commercialisation of innovative solutions that will respond to national challenges and grow the participation of black owned small and medium enterprises that will contribute toward the transformation and growth of the South African space economy. Applications are invited from any recognised South African legal entity, including start-up companies, small, medium and micro enterprises, private enterprise, science councils and higher education institutions.

Focus Areas 

• The technological focus areas are as follows:
  • Innovative, competitive, and bankable proposals in Space subsystems, Satellite payloads for downstream earth.
  • observation applications and remote sensing techniques that support national priorities, promote global trade cooperation and climate change imperatives.
  • Space subsystems and applications that support evidence driven decision support or service delivery.
  • Earth Observation products and services that respond to socioeconomic challenges and national priorities i.e. water management, agriculture and food security, early detection warning disaster management support, maritime safety, sustainable land monitoring and environment monitoring.
  • Emerging Space Technologies that support Space traffic management, space mining, space exploration and exploitation initiatives.

Eligibility Criteria

• Individual applicants must be South African citizens with valid identity documents.
• In the case of legal entities:
  • Must be registered or in a process of registering with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission.
  • Must be registered or in the process of registering on National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database.
• Compulsory requirements:
  • The technology or process development must be aligned with the technology focus area or industrial sectors.
  • Demonstrate a feasible and sustainable business case.
  • Demonstrate a positive socio-economic impact.
  • Have a proof of concept, viz. an idea that has been proven, tested and validated, i.e. TRL 4 or higher.
  • An industry partner will be an advantage.
  • Applicants must declare all sources of previous funding received from the public sector.
  • In the instance where the application relates to foreign-owned intellectual property, this will need to be licensed or assigned to the applicant before funding is approved.
  • Primary technology development activities must be operated within South Africa.
  • Applicants must attend a compulsory briefing session.

Assessment Criteria

• Applications will be assessed against the following:
  • Alignment with the stragetic priorities outlined in the Decadal Plan on Science, Technology and Innovation and Space Infrastructure Hub investment.
  • Novelty of the proposed innovation.
  • Capability to commercialise the innovation.
  • Understanding of market need.
  • Socioecomic impact.
  • Suitability and capacity of team to execute project plan.
  • Localisation of core/key technologies.
  • Co-funding or in-kind contributions from the applicant or other partners is preferred, particularly for applications relating to technology readiness level (TRL) 5 or higher.
  • Preference will be given to women, youth, persons with disabilities, black entrepreneurs and applicants from underserved provinces.

For more information, visit TIA.