About ARIADNA
Ariadna is mechanism for collaborative joint research projects between ESA's internal research think tank, the Advanced Concepts Team and academia. It was established in 2004 as an initiative to establish closer link with the European academic community in advanced space technology research.
Ariadna projects are typically exploratory, high risk, time and resource limited research studies outside of the programmatic horizon of ESA. Research fields are typically not yet covered by ESA activities, and are not or only poorly explored in a space context.
In the conduct of Ariadna projects, researchers from the ACT will form with researchers from universities an ad-hoc virtual team performing research together. The target communities are university research groups and departments (including their non-profit entities providing contractual and administrative support).
Submission of Proposal
One of the first step is to register your research entity in the ESA system (esastar) and obtain what is called a "Bidder Code".
The Member States of ESA have made it mandatory for ESA to register what are called "economic operators" wishing to do business with ESA. You are thus requested to complete the online questionnaire on the ESA-STAR registration website.
At the time when submitting the proposal, you should at least have already completed the “Light Registration” as described in the following ESA-STAR Registration User Manual
Type of Ariadna studies
In order to ease planning, improve transparency and enhance predictability of the associated administrative procedures, three types of studies have been defined
- Small Ariadna Studies: study budget not exceeding 25 k€.
- Standard Ariadna Studies: study budget not exceeding 35 k€.
- Extended Ariadna Studies: study budget not exceeding 45 k€.