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 Inter Agency Debris Coordination Committee (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 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 anticipate splitting this competition into multiple lots linked to the four IADC working groups. Please note these requirements are indicative and may not all be issued or awarded. Equally, where sufficient high-quality proposals are received, UKSA may choose to award multiple contracts to different bidders per lot. UKSA reserves the right to not award individual lots where insufficient high quality proposals are received.