Fostering collaboration through OSIP

ESA has always worked closely with universities, especially since the Networking/Partnering Initiative (NPI) kicked off in 2005 to support PhD and post-doctoral students to carry out research on advanced technologies with space applications. Giving access to ESTEC facilities, providing technical support, and facilitating networking opportunities, ESA fostered interaction with universities, research institutes and industry around Europe via more than 270 projects over the last 15 years.

As of 2019, co-funded research has been integrated into OSIP’s Open Discovery Ideas Channel, which builds upon the successful NPI scheme, but with a larger scope, a more open and engaging nature, and ambitions to increase the number of co-funded research activities.

“We are seeking new PhD and post-doc research projects to co-sponsor,” says Leopold Summerer, Head of the Advanced Concepts and Studies Office. “Specifically, we invite universities and research organisations to submit novel ideas that could open new capabilities for future space applications. Novelty is our main filter, and it's therefore particularly important to clearly describe the novelty of ideas compared to the state of the art."

24 ideas collected through this ‘ideas Channel’ have already been matured into full proposals and successfully selected for funding, covering topics across the realm of ESA’s work – from Solar System research and spacecraft technology development to novel materials and models of quantum physics.

“ESA provides state-of-the-art facilities for altered gravity applications, and prompt multidisciplinary feedback from experts that can boost a timely and effective project completion,” says post-doc candidate Giada Graziana Genchi, who submitted an idea to study how microgravity impacts how biological systems are affected by nanomaterials, which are increasingly used for biomedical applications. “By co-funding our research, ESA is a partner in highly challenging investigations, and in orienting our future research on crucial topics of biomedical relevance.”

“The direct involvement of ESA gives an extra weight to the research we develop, allows us to extend our research collaborations and more importantly helps with the adoption of our results by the space sector,” explains Professor Massimiliano Vasile, who prosed two ideas: one on detecting and tracking space debris, and one on building a network model of the space environment surrounding Earth.

“The new method of submitting ideas though OSIP is much clearer than previous methods, and accessible by anyone. It also allows the suitability of ideas to be assessed very quickly,” continued Massimiliano.

If you have a novel idea for a research co-sponsorship activity, tell us via our Open Discovery Ideas Channel. The most innovative ideas will be developed into more thorough research proposals and linked with ESA experts who will provide support for the project.

Ideas already selected for research co-sponsorship activities