Cornwall Space Cluster Opens £15,000 Fund for Members

Plenty of Cornwall’s space businesses are doing world-class work that hardly anyone hears about. A fund that opened today is meant to change that.

The Cornwall Space Cluster has launched a £15,000 fund to give its member businesses access to professional PR and media support, many for the first time. The PR and Media Support Launchpad opened to members today and runs until April 2027.

What the Launchpad offers

The fund is built for smaller businesses that do not have their own communications resource. It covers contract wins, product launches, new hires and other milestone moments, giving members a route to storytelling and media coverage they could not otherwise reach.

The £15,000 works out as 100 hours at £150 an hour. It prioritises first-time applicants and smaller businesses. Where a project needs more than the fund covers, members can top up directly. There is no minimum spend and no retainer.

Nathan Coe, who leads the Cornwall Space Cluster, said: “This is exactly the kind of practical support the cluster should be offering. We’ve got brilliant businesses across Cornwall doing world-class work in space, and too many of them never get the recognition they deserve simply because PR feels out of reach.

“The Launchpad changes that. It’s flexible, it’s fair, and it’s built around the reality of what our members actually need. When something matters, we want it told well.

“National strategy now positions Cornwall as one of the UK’s most important regional space clusters. The job from here is to make sure the wider world hears about what our members are doing.

“Halo knows this sector, they know Cornwall, and they have a track record of getting global space organisations in front of the audiences that matter.”

The agency behind it

The Launchpad is being delivered by Halo, an international PR and communications agency that specialises in space, AI, science, defence and deep tech. Halo has been appointed as the cluster’s communications partner through to April 2027. The agency was founded by Jess Ratty and is headquartered in Cornwall.

Jess Ratty, CEO and Founder of Halo PR and Communications, said: “Working with the Cornwall Space Cluster for the next year is a real privilege, and I’m excited to have helped develop the Launchpad.

“There are companies in this cluster delivering extraordinary technologies, solving problems most people will never know exist, and too often the story stops at the lab door.

“The Launchpad means Cornish companies developing new tech have the same route to a national audience as the big players.

“This is how clusters grow. We can’t wait to get started.”

Why Cornwall, why now

The launch comes as the UK government leans harder on regional space clusters as engines of national growth. Cornwall is named in the UK’s 2025 Modern Industrial Strategy as one of the regional space ecosystems anchoring the country’s space economy, alongside Harwell and Scotland. It is one of fifteen UK space clusters now spread from Inverness to Cornwall and Northern Ireland to Suffolk.

Space is also one of four growth pillars in Cornwall Council’s Good Growth Plan 2024 to 2035, alongside minerals, renewables and marine.

How members apply

Members apply through a short online form. Halo then scopes the work, agrees the hours with the cluster and delivers the campaign, from press releases and media pitching through to video, social content and coverage reporting.

Cluster members can apply through the Launchpad application form. Full details of how it works are on the Cornwall Space Cluster website.

What comes next

The Launchpad is the first major initiative under the cluster’s relaunch this summer. That relaunch will also bring a live recording of Haymarket Media Group’s space podcast The Kármán Line to Spaceport Cornwall in July, hosted by Dr Alice Bunn OBE, President of UKspace and incoming job-share Director of the UK Space Agency.

📷L-R Jess Ratty - Halo CEO and Founder - Nathan Coe - Cornwall Space Cluster Lead