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Benefits for Community
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We **foster** community
ESA’s Science Programme inspires and nurtures future generations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Through early career opportunities and teacher-training initiatives, ESA invests in Europe’s future talent, building a vibrant community of lifelong learners and innovators that strengthens the continent’s knowledge economy. Public-friendly engagement activities and Citizen Science projects centred around ESA’s high-profile missions make space accessible to all, igniting curiosity and wonder, and fueling the spirit of discovery.
research opportunities
Accelerating early-career growth in Europe

ESA's postdoctoral Research Fellowship programme offers early-career scientists and engineers the chance to carry out research in space science, space applications or technology. Fellows can work alongside scientists and engineers contributing to heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics, cosmology or fundamental physics research. The programme provides a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of space science, experiencing first-hand how ESA works with communities across the Member States to maximise the scientific return from missions.

 

EXAMPLE CAREER PATHS

Permanent position in academia
Science advisors to national space agencies
Lead engineer in tech start-ups

Research fellow presenting at a Heliophysics conference. Credit: ESA.

Through the ESA Open Space Innovation Platform, ESA co-funds PhD studentships proposed by Faculty members. This programme promotes forward-looking ideas for novel space technology and applications.

Illustration of the ESA Open Space Innovation Platform (OPIC). Credit: ESA

Scientists are encouraged to apply for a short residency to focus on data-driven investigations using ESA’s vast digital library of data from current and past space missions. Residencies typically last from one to three months, or are distributed over multiple visits, and are carried out at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain, or ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. Residents have access to archive and mission specialists, and contribute to the scientific return of ESA’s space missions.

Antenna for telecommunications for receiving data, located at ESA's centre ESAC, Madrid. Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja

Europe seen from space. Image credits: ESA.

Education opportunities
Growing careers in space science
Student internships

Undergraduate and master’s students are eligible to apply for a 3–6 month trainee project in space science at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) in Spain, or ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

A ten-week astronomy or astrophysics project is also available as part of the Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Programme for Summer Students (LEAPS), which is a joint placement between Leiden Observatory and ESTEC.

Leiden Observatory. Credit: Universiteit Leiden

Graduate traineeships

Final year master’s students or recent graduates can work on a one-year project through the ESA Graduate Trainee Programme or the ESA National Trainee Programme, setting them on course for a career in space science or engineering. Graduate trainees in the Science Directorate (hosted at either ESAC or ESTEC) often work on research topics directly related to an active mission.

Illustration of the Gaia mission for the call for application to the 2025 ESA Graduate Trainee Programme. Credit: ESA 

Young Professional Satellite (YPSat) 

Young professionals at ESA are encouraged to join the Young Professional Satellite (YPSat) framework. Supported by ESA Education, YPSat offers hands-on experience in managing, designing, developing, and testing space missions. The missions are initiated and led entirely by ESA’s wide Young Professional community, allowing members to grow additional skills in parallel to their day-to-day work. 

After the successful YPSat-1 mission, YPSat-2 is in development. It will fly on Space Rider’s first flight, carrying a scientific experiment to explore the effect of space conditions on blood flow dynamics in microgravity, critical for astronaut health and space medicine.

AIM pump test for the YPSat-2 mission. Credit: ESA

Solar telescope used for the CESAR programme at ESAC. Credit: ESA/CESAR

Teachers Programme
Inspiring public participation in science

CESAR – Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research – is an educational initiative to bring the excitement of space into European classrooms. ESA supports secondary school teachers with educational resources, workshops, and guided projects to inspire students with real science.

Solar telescope used for the CESAR programme at ESAC. Credit: ESA/CESAR

Teachers Programme
Inspiring public participation in science

CESAR – Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research – is an educational initiative to bring the excitement of space into European classrooms. ESA supports secondary school teachers with educational resources, workshops, and guided projects to inspire students with real science.

Citizen Science Projects
Empowering society to participate in scientific discoveries

ESA’s space science missions are generating more data than ever before. Through fun ‘citizen science’ projects, the general public can enhance the scientific return of ESA missions by classifying galaxies, searching for asteroids, or detecting bursts of energy from the Sun. By engaging thousands of volunteers, these citizen science efforts also help train AI models to tackle the ever-growing volume of data.

What will you discover? Choose a project below and join a community of like-minded cosmic explorers.

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galaxy zoo
Classify galaxies
Classify the shapes of galaxies captured by ESA’s Euclid and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and contribute to galaxy evolution research.
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Space Warps
Spy cosmic magnifiers
Spot rare gravitational lenses in new Euclid data, where massive galaxies have warped space-time to reveal distant objects and the vast web connecting galaxies across the Universe.
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Asteroid Hunter
Discover asteroids
Discover asteroids lurking unnoticed in decades of Hubble Space Telescope data to help improve the trajectory data of these sometimes dangerous objects.
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Gaia Vari
Study pulsing stars
Analyse data from stars that brighten and fade, as seen by ESA’s Gaia, to create the most accurate catalogue of variable objects to date, and shed light on stellar life cycles.
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Solar Radio Burst Tracker
Track solar storms
Detect bursts of radio waves from the Sun’s powerful flares recorded in Solar Orbiter data, deepening our understanding of the Sun and improving space weather forecasting.
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