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Group picture of the participating students from the 2022-2023 edition of the Challenge at the Suborbital day
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Conference Student Sponsorship programme

22/12/2023 5292 views 2 likes
ESA / Education / Engagement

The Conference Student Sponsorship programme aims at making European Conferences offering a space-related thematic more accessible to tertiary education students from ESA Member States, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia by financially supporting their participation. 

Conference organisers wishing to offer ESA Academy sponsorships to their participants can apply through the continuously open call here.  

Selected conferences will be allocated up to 5 ESA Academy sponsorships and organisers will be invited to select and propose a shortlist of students, each with an accepted contribution to the conference (paper, poster, presentation…).  

Following validation by ESA, the sponsored students can expect to have the following costs covered: 

  • the registration fee; 
  • the economy travel costs, up to a ceiling amount;  
  • the accommodation costs, up to a ceiling amount. 

I am a conference organiser

Students sponsored by ESA Academy meeting ESA Director General at the International Astronautical Congress 2022
Students sponsored by ESA Academy meeting ESA Director General at the International Astronautical Congress 2022

If you are organizing a conference offering a space-related topic in the coming months and wish to propose ESA Academy sponsorship to tertiary education students, please read the full description of the programme. 

Conference application: 

Applications should be submitted at least 3 months before the start date of the conference.

To be eligible, your conference should: 

  • offer a space-related thematic; 
  • be held in an ESA Member State, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia or Slovenia;  
  • be accessible to tertiary education students; 
  • be accessible to international attendees.  

Conferences co-organized by ESA and/or offering a student programme will be given priority. 

To apply: 

- fill in an application form:  

  • provide a series of descriptive and organizational information about the conference;  
  • justify your request for ESA Academy sponsorship.   

- agree with the Terms and Conditions of the programme:  

  • approve the objectives and process of the programme; 
  • comply with ESA Data Protection policies.   

Conference selection: 

Conference applications are reviewed on a regular basis, typically 2-3 months before the conference starts.

The selection is made on competitive basis taking into consideration the following criteria: 

  • compliance to the eligibility criteria; 
  • quality of the application; 
  • expected benefit of the ESA student sponsorship; 
  • compliance with the terms & conditions of the programme; 

To the extent possible, ESA will select European conferences in various fields offering a space related thematic and for different student backgrounds (STEM and non-STEM). 

Conference organisers that cannot meet one of the above criteria are invited to submit an application and exceptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.  

For any question concerning the application process, conference organisers can contact academy.engagement@esa.int

I am a student

If you are a student and wish to be sponsored to present your work at a conference, you can submit an abstract to the selected conferences listed below and apply to their call for ESA Academy sponsorship. 

To be eligible for ESA Academy sponsorship, you should: 

  • contribute to the conference (oral presentation, posters, other); 
  • be minimum 18 years old at the time of conference; 
  • be a citizen of an ESA Member State, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia or Slovenia; 
  • be enrolled in a tertiary education academic programme (not graduating before the conference); 
  • not benefit from an overlapping financial support to attend this conference, unless duly justified; 
  • agree with the conditions of the ESA Academy Privacy Policy

The conference organisers are recommended to select students based on: 

  • compliance to the eligibility criteria; 
  • motivation to attend the conference; 
  • justification for sponsorship need; 

Selected students will be asked to agree with the Student Terms and Conditions of the programme.  

List of sponsored conferences 

If you wish to be sponsored for a conference that does not appear in the list above, please submit your suggestion to ESA Academy here.   

 

ESA values diversity and inclusiveness which enriches its programmes and promotes balanced audience representativeness of our society. ESA encourages the conference organisers to foster diversity, equality, and inclusiveness in their selection; to welcome applications from all eligible candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, age, disability, social origin, or other characteristics; and to take the necessary measures to accommodate special needs.