Call for the 2022 ESA/ELGRA Gravity-Related Research Summer School
In brief
ESA's Education Office and the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA) are joining hands again to organise the seventh edition of the ESA/ELGRA Gravity-Related Research Summer School, which will take place from 27 June to 8 July 2022.
In-depth
This unique Summer School offers an overview of the current research under microgravity and hypergravity conditions in both Life and Physical Sciences, and explains the interest and benefits of performing research and technology demonstrations in altered gravity.
With the current improvement of Covid-19 situation, we are happy to announce that this year the Summer School will be organised in a blended format. During the first week, university students will attend lectures and workshops at the ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Facility at ESEC-Galaxia (Transinne, Belgium). In the second week, students will focus on team activities through online sessions from home.
During the summer school, students will attend stimulating lectures and work in teams to devise ideas for prospective altered gravity experiments. They will learn the impact of altered gravity research, as well as career possibilities in the European space sector.
All trainers are international experts and part of ESA and/or ELGRA, freely sharing their experience and know-how with students, including their day-to-day work and research experience in biology, human physiology, physics and engineering.
Students will be evaluated via a team project and will receive a certificate of participation and a transcript upon completion of the Summer School, allowing them to request ECTS credit(s) from their respective universities.
The team project can also be a first step towards an application for one of ESA Academy’s Hands-On Experiment Programmes. For example, the members of the Summer School 2020 student team Noah’s Arc further developed their initial experiment idea, applied to the Spin Your Thesis! Programme and participated in the 2021 edition.
Preliminary schedule:
| Week 1 (27 June – 1 July 2022) | |
| Day 1 |
Introduction to ESA, its programmes and opportunities Introduction to ELGRA and SELGRA Gravity-related research overview Gravity and gravity-related research platforms ESA Education Office and hands-on programmes Develop a Gravity-Related Experiment Team Project Introduction |
| Day 2 |
Presentations by Former Student Teams of ESA Academy’s Hands-On Programmes Life Science Gravity-Related Research Lecture 1 Physical Science Gravity-Related Research Lecture 1 Human Physiology Gravity-Related Research Lecture 1 Project Management Workshop |
| Day 3 |
Life Science Gravity-Related Research Lecture 2 Physical Science Gravity-Related Research Lecture 2 Human Physiology Gravity-Related Research Lecture 2 Team Work |
| Day 4 |
Life Science Gravity-Related Research Lecture 3 Physical Science Gravity-Related Research Lecture 3 Human Physiology Gravity-Related Research Lecture 3 Team Work |
| Day 5 |
Systems Engineering and Requirements Definition Workshop Team Project Topic Pitch |
| Week 2 (4-8 July 2022) | |
| Day 6 |
Team Work Team Meetings with Tutors |
| Day 7 | Team Work |
| Day 8-9 |
Team Work Team Meetings with Tutors |
| Day 10 |
Team Project Presentations Conclusion |
Who can apply?
In order to participate, students must fulfil the following criteria at the time of application:
- aged minimum 18 years old. ESA Academy and ELGRA will only appraise applications from students who have no or limited professional experience in relevant engineering or scientific topics;
- be a citizen of an ESA Member States, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania or Slovenia;
- be enrolled as a Bachelor (starting from 2nd year) or Master student in a university for the year 2021-2022 (not graduating before the Summer School);
- be studying an engineering or scientific subject;
- have never taken part in any gravity-related research activity and never been sponsored by ESA's Education Office or ELGRA.
Selected students will be requested to attend all 10 days of the Summer School and will be sponsored by ESA to attend the first week at ESEC-Galaxia. This sponsorship will cover accommodation and meals as well as up to 300 Euros for travelling to Belgium.
How to apply?
- Complete the application form;
- Upload a motivation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, no images);
- Upload a CV (Europass format, PDF, maximum 2 pages);
- Upload a formal recommendation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, including signature, no images) from a university professor or academic supervisor of current university (if not possible due to current confinement situation in your country please ask a university professor or an academic supervisor to send a recommendation email to tlp@esa.int);
- Upload a copy of transcript of records for academic year 2021-2022 (PDF).
All answers and documents should be in English (except transcript of records if not available).
The deadline for applications is 25 April 2022, 23:59 pm CEST.
For further information, please contact tlp@esa.int.
Important note
Due to the evolution of the corona virus situation in Europe, and in line with governmental instructions across Europe and with the recommendations of ESA's Director General on travel restrictions for health and safety reasons, the ESA Education Office reserves the right to cancel or change the format (online delivery) of scheduled ESA Academy training sessions.