I do believe we'll get the full funding soon. There's alot of money looking for returns (and its not a big amount). Especially on this low rate environment. What we know at the moment is SAS is being supported by tradefair.co.uk which have partnership with the Department for International Trade (DIT) and techUK. Below is a confirmation just last month.
What I think will happen is there will be a capitulation when SAS reopens. But with full funding means we'll have a launch date and might have some surprise grants / partnership with ESA/UK space as per previous announcement. There's no point in arguing with noise as I have ignored the posters long time. They have stated their case so there's no point on hearing it everyday. What I also know is there's little resistance on the SP going back to 3c.
ESA also has funding and promoting Space Innovation. With SAS developing a protocol that can be used globally, I don't doubt they will get the support. Not to mention, surely they will get another rebate this year. Until I see SAS cutting staff, my position wont change, instead they were hiring few weeks back.
ESA Start-up Competition seeks Europe’s brightest innovation stars
https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Corporate_news/ESA_Start-up_Competition_seeks_Europe_s_brightest_innovation_stars
They meet the criteria but not the max employees.The following criteria will be taken into consideration:
- Team – skills, resources and experience
- Business model – commercial viability and business potential
- Societal impact of the project – ability to positively impact the users
- Utility of the project and added value for the users of the product/service, compared with existing products/services
- Project quality – quality of the information submitted by the start-up
