Short Course Scholarship programme

Course organisers wishing to offer ESA Academy scholarships to students can apply through the continuously open call here.   

Selected courses will be allocated up to 5 ESA Academy scholarships and organisers will be invited to select and propose a shortlist of students to be sponsored.   

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, for onsite courses;   
• the accommodation costs, up to a ceiling amount, for onsite courses.  

I am a course organiser 

If you are organising onsite or online short duration learning opportunities like a few days or weeks training courses or spring/summer/autumn/winter schools in the coming months and wish to propose ESA Academy scholarship to tertiary education students, please read the full description of the programme. 

Course application:  

Applications should be submitted at least 5 months before the start date of the course. The first review will be taking place in April 2024. 

To be eligible, your course should:  

• focus on a space-related thematic;  
• be held in an ESA Member States, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia - for onsite courses; 
• be organised from an ESA Member States, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia - for online courses; 
• be taught by experts in the thematic;  
• be delivered in English;  
• be accessible to tertiary education students;  
• be accessible to international audience;  
• not be exclusively embedded in an academic programme;  
• have a duration of minimum 3 days and maximum 6 weeks.   

To apply:  

- fill in an application form:   

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

- agree with the Terms and Conditions of the programme.  

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

Course selection:  

Course applications are reviewed and selected twice a year, usually in February for courses taking place between July and December, and in August for courses taking place between January and June of the following year.  

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

• compliance with the eligibility criteria;  
• quality of the application;  
• expected benefit of the ESA Academy scholarship;   
• compliance with the terms & conditions of the programme;   

To the extent possible, ESA selects a set of European space-related courses in various domains which are accessible to tertiary education students from different backgrounds (STEM and non-STEM).  

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

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

I am a student 

If you are a student and wish to be granted with an ESA Academy scholarship to join a short course onsite or online, you can apply to a selected course listed below and apply to their call for ESA Academy scholarship.  

To be eligible for ESA Academy scholarship, you should:  

• be minimum 18 years old at the time of the course;  
• 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 course);  
• not able to attend the course through their academic programme;  
• not benefit from an overlapping financial support to attend this course, unless duly justified;  
• agree with the conditions of the ESA Academy’s Privacy Policy.  

The course organisers are recommended to select students based on:  

• compliance to the eligibility criteria;  
• motivation to attend the course;  
• benefit of attending the course;  
• justification for scholarship request.  

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

List of sponsored short courses  

Date	Short course	Scholarship deadline
12-17 May 2024	Space Optics Instrument Design & Technology (SOIDT)	Closed
24-28 June 2024	XX International Summer School in Astrobiology focused on exoplanet habitability	21 April 2024
9-18 July 2024	Summer School Alpbach 2024	Closed
15-26 July 2024	ESA/JRC International Summerschool on GNSS 2024	Closed
27-31 May 2024	10th ESA ESOA Course on Antennas for Satellite Applications	24 April 2024

If you wish to be granted with a scholarship for a short course 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 course 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.