European Space Agency (ESA) Call for proposals: supporting young scientists

European Space Agency (ESA) is offering young postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to address key scientific challenges in Earth science by maximising the use of satellite data. New proposals for the Changing Earth Science Network initiative can now be submitted.

The initiative supports young European scientists starting their career in Earth science for a period of two years to undertake innovative research projects that address the key scientific challenges of ESA’s Earth observation science strategy.

By providing this opportunity, ESA will support the next generation of Earth scientists to improve our knowledge of the Earth system while maximising the scientific return of Earth observation data from ESA and its Third Party Missions.

Proposals can now be submitted until 24 August.

ESA will then select up to nine postdoctoral scientists from the Agency’s Member States that put forward innovative research projects where ESA data may contribute to understanding our planet.

Selected candidates will have the option to carry out part of their research in an ESA centre as a visiting scientist.

The Changing Earth Science Network initiative was launched in 2009, supporting a first set of 10 young scientists from seven Member States.

A second call in 2010 resulted in another group of 10 projects enlarging the geographical distribution of the projects to nine countries. These projects addressed all the different areas of Earth science, including topics such as the global study of carbon dioxide and methane dynamics, the synergistic use of data from ESA’s Envisat satellite to enhance the characterisation of ocean–atmosphere fluxes, the development of novel methods to monitor glacier dynamics in Greenland and the improvement of fire characterisation using data from Envisat’s MERIS instrument.

The Changing Earth Science Network initiative was developed as one of the main programmatic components of ESA’s Support To Science Element.

To learn more about this research opportunity, please visit the following link: http://due.esrin.esa.int/stse/cesn/cesn_opencall.php 

--

The 3rd open call of research proposals for the STSE, The Changing Earth Science Network, was opened 19 June 2012, with a closing date of24 Aug 2012.

The European Space Agency (ESA ispleased to invite you participate to the third Call for Research Proposals of the Changing Earth Science Network.

The main objective of this initiative is to provide support to young researchers who have a doctor degree and who would like to initiate a scientific career in the context of Earth Science. The selected young researchers will undertake cutting edge research to respond to the new scientific challenges of the Living Planet Programme.

The Call for Research Proposals package includes the following documents:

• Appendix I: Call for proposals (Including its Annex A: The Challenges of the Living Planet, Annex B: Proposal Template and Annex C: PSS form)
• Appendix II: Draft Partnership Agreement

The activity which is the subject of the present Call for Research Proposals pertains to the third slice (EOEP-3) of the Earth Observation Envelope Programme, hereinafter referred to as “the Envelope Programme”, which is an optional programme of the Agency. As a consequence, the present Call for Research Proposals is restricted to Host Organisations from the ESA Member States participating to the Envelope Programme, i.e.: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Canada.

Only offers submitted by Host Institution(s) from one or more of the above mentioned participating States will be accepted for evaluation.

In addition of the above, your attention is drawn on the following condition: 

• A specific statement from the Host Organisation confirming acceptance of the Partnership Agreement (see Appendix II) is required, being understood that offers with reservations to the Agreement will not be considered for evaluation.

Any questions relating to this call for proposals must be sent, by e-mail,not later than two (2) weeks before the closing date (e-mail:EOScience@esa.int).

Your proposal and all supporting documents must be sent by e-mail to:EOScience@esa.int not later than 24 August 2012.

Please note that the call for proposals and its documentation can be downloaded from HERE.