Inter-Agency Debris Co-ordination Committee (IADC) Research Studies - 2026/27

The Office of the Chief Engineer within the UK Space Agency (UKSA) is intending to identify delivery partners to support a set of studies that will support ongoing research being performed as part of its role in the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). The IADC has 13 member states that conduct technical research to inform their publications on how to measure, model, protect from and mitigate space debris.

The primary purpose is to exchange information on space debris research activities between members, to facilitate opportunities for cooperation in space debris research, to review the progress of ongoing cooperative activities and to identify debris mitigation options. The UK has been a member for nearly 30 years and has been helping to guide the international policy over this time.

The IADC consists of a steering group and four working groups - Measurements, Environment and Database, Protection and Mitigation. The studies that have been identified will seek to support on-going research being performed in each of these working groups.

UKSA is seeking suppliers to perform technical studies of relevance to three of the four IADC working groups. We will require the supplier to fulfil the specification, including defining framework/model where needed and putting theoretical metrics into practice.

We are splitting this competition into multiple lots linked to three of the four IADC working groups. Prospective bidders should note this requirement is not seeking any studies this year in support of IADC Working Group 1.

Bidders may bid for and be awarded one or more studies within each lot. For the avoidance of doubt, it is not necessary to bid for multiple studies to be eligible to participate.

UKSA reserves the right to award multiple contracts in the event of budget availability and sufficient high-quality proposals. Equally, UKSA reserves the right to not award individual lots where insufficient high quality proposals are received.