Announcement of opportunity for ESA Academy’s new PETRI programme
In brief
University students are invited to apply to the new programme called “PETRI” now offered by ESA Academy. The acronym reflects the nature of the programme as it offers “Practical Education in Technology, Research and Innovation”.
In-depth
The programme enhances on previous hands-on opportunities for students by offering free training, coaching and consultation prior to submitting an experiment proposal. In practical terms, it means that students and prospective teams may sign up with no obligations, at the click of a button to a series of webinar session that provide the necessary background information on various topics pertinent to doing experiments and technology research in altered gravity platforms with ESA. Armed with the necessary knowledge, teams can then submit a strong proposal for an experiment idea on a platform of their choice: ISS, parabolic flight, drop tower or, on the other end of the gravity spectrum, in a large diameter centrifuge. Sign up for access to the information webinars below. A detailed schedule can be found on the 2022/2023 schedule page.
As space exploration and commercialisation activities grow from year to year and access to space becomes easier for students, ESA Academy is adapting its approach to the increased demand in trainings and practical opportunities. The PETRI programme replaces previous opportunities (namely the “Your Thesis!” programmes) with an architecture that enables training of many more students than previously possible. In time, the programme will also enable more diverse platforms and thus more diverse research and development projects to be conducted with ESA Academy.
The programme concept can be divided into 4 sections with more details available here.
Listen and Learn
By bringing the training of students about experimentation in space and ground-based research platforms prior to the selection process, ESA Academy meets the increased demand for training opportunities. Offering obligation free-access trainings and information upfront will also enable prospective teams of students keen on collaborating with ESA and its industrial partners to submit convincing and relevant proposals for experiments.
Consult and Confer
The quality of the submitted documents will be enhanced by the introduction of a period of obligation free consultation. Whilst writing their proposals, teams will have the opportunity to freely contact ESA Academy for advice, with open questions and discussions on the best experimental setup, the project management aspect, the system engineering approach and do forth. No relevant topic is off limits and no questions remain unanswered!
Submit and Succeed
At the end of the consultation period, the official experimental proposals are submitted for review, where panels of industry professionals and ESA experts review and rank the teams. Shortlisted teams are called to present their projects to the selection panels after which the final selection is performed.
Perform and Publish
Selected teams immediately start on making their experiment idea a tangible reality with the continued guidance and counselling of ESA and partners. Within one year, the teams will have gone from concept/idea in their minds to tangible hardware.
If you are interested in signing up for the information webinars ahead of submitting your experiment idea, please enter your email in the form below.
Please check carefully the pages within the PETRI website with particular focus on the How to Apply page.
