The European Space Agency is now accepting proposals from young researchers undertaking innovative research projects that are focused on understanding Earth’s systems. This call for proposals is headlined under the Changing Earth Science Network Initiative.
The Changing Earth Science Network Initiative, which was launched last year accommodates post-doctoral scientists for two years to undertake research projects that address challenges to the ESA’s science strategy for earth observation.
This initiative outlines 25 major scientific challenges in which earth observation may contribute to the better understanding of earth’s systems and how they are affected by changes in our planet.
This program will foster the development of an outstanding community of young scientists in Europe with detailed knowledge of the ESA as well as the ESA’s Earth Observation programs.
The call for proposals was issued on January 29, 2010 and the ESA will be selecting 10 postdoctoral scientists.
Following the ESA’s first call for proposals in 2008 11 programs were selected ranging in components of the earth system including oceans, atmosphere, land, cryosphere and solid earth. The first group of selected scientists presented their results at a workshop held at the ESA’s Earth Observation Centre (ESRIN) in Frascati, Italy.
The topics addressed covered cutting-edge research in oceanic, land, atmospheric and solid Earth thematic areas, including improvements in the retrievals of atmospheric carbon dioxide from Envisat’s Sciamachy instrument; assimilation of ocean color data from Envisat’s optical MERIS instrument into biogeochemical ocean models in order to gain a more precise insight into the carbon fluxes between the ocean and the atmosphere; and the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar data to understand the geophysical processes leading to the formation of the rift valley in East Africa.
The Changing Earth Science Network was developed as one of the main components of the Support to Science Element (STSE).
Submission Guidelines:
Proposals can be submitted via email to
EOScience@esa.int, including:
• The research proposal (Annex B of the present call);
• A letter of support from the Host Institution supporting the candidate, the project proposal and accepting the conditions of the draft partnership agreement (Appendix 2 of the present call);
• Two additional letters of support from key scientists in the relevant field, supporting the candidate and the scientific proposal;
• A CV of the candidate including a list of publications;
• The financial information in the PSS form provided (Annex C)
Deadline:
The deadline for the proposal submission is 29 March 2010.
For more detailed information:
Visit the STSE website
The call for proposals package can be downloaded from the STSE Documents Page.
Proposals will be selected on the basis of a peer review process by a Scientific Committee. The selection process will be carried out on the basis of the following criteria:
1. Scientific background and experience of the candidate as well as the host institution, including the adequacy of the proposed laboratory facilities, data sets availability and required EO data.
2. Relevance of the proposed work responding to the specific challenges of the Living Planet Program maximising the use of ESA EO assets;
3. Excellence of scientific proposal demonstrating a contribution to science beyond the state of the art and providing a significant advancement towards the achievement of the scientific challenges of the Living Planet program;
4. Adequacy of the proposed methodology, work plan, scientific approach, proposed EO data procurement and available data sets;
5. Impacts of concrete project outputs in terms of scientific results, data sets, products, models and target publications and potential further developments;
After the selection process ESA will send an e-mail only to the selected candidates informing them about the positive result of their application.
Note: Please do not contact the Green Economy Post regarding this opportunity. We are not affiliated with the sponsoring organizations, and therefore have no additional information. Sometimes the link is changed for the opportunities. When this happens, go to the home page of the organizers to locate information on the opportunity or contact the organization directly.
