ESA 2023 Africa Research Fellowships for African Researchers 2023

The African Research Fellowship (ARF) program, jointly carried by ESA with the African Union Commission, was successfully initiated in 2021 with two African fellows selected to carry out their research in ESA in 2022. It aims at empowering African Researchers (PhD or Master degree with extensive research experience) to carry out Earth Observation (EO) R&D activities relevant for the EO AFRICA Initiative. The African Research Fellows shall maximise the use of EO data in synergy with in-situ and state-of-the-art modelling approaches, in a cloud environment, to respond to the challenges the African continent is facing with respect to: water resources management and food security.

With this call, ESA offers 1-year fellowships to four African Researchers to work at the ESA-ESRIN premises in Frascati (Rome, Italy) in collaboration with ESA’s scientists .

About European Space Agency (ESA)

The European Space Agency, provides Europe's gateway to space. ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe's space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

Africa Research Fellowships

Aim and Benefits of Africa Research Fellowships

EO AFRICA stands for African Framework for Research, Innovation, Communities and Applications Building an African-European R&D partnership. It aims to build an African-European R&D partnership to facilitate the adoption of Earth Observation and related space technology in Africa, in full coordination with the operational GMES & Africa initiative led by the AUC. The initiative is driven by African user needs, and follows a long-term vision (>10 years) for the emergent digital era in Africa. The new generation of African researchers can boost R&D in Africa, and with this call they will be empowered to develop innovative and reliable evidence-based solutions exploiting EO data, enabling policy makers and the civil society to address social/environmental/economic policies.

The African Research Fellowship aims to achieve this objective by:

• R&D activities undertaken by the young African researchers with focus on major African challenges and knowledge gaps, which may support Africa and global environmental and development agendas.
• Exploiting ICT capabilities that help to maximise the use of Earth Observation data available over the continent, and promoting an open science approach where sharing data, results and knowledge is at the core of the value chain.

Requirements for Africa Research Fellowships Qualification

• PhD (or Master degree with extensive research experience) in a relevant technical or scientific discipline. • Good interpersonal and communication skills • Ability to work in a multi-cultural environment, both independently and as part of a team • Demonstrated experience in using Python and developing Jupyter Notebooks. • Fluency in English and/or French, the working languages of the Agency. • Ability to produce scientific papers to a high standard in English and to interact effectively with the international scientific community in English.

Documents Required for Application

The needed documents to apply are:

• Research Proposal (see template)
• CV with most recent publication list. Such document containing both the CV and publication list shall not be longer than 3 pages max
• Copy of ID
• Scan of PhD or Master Diploma
• 2 Reference letters

Application Deadline

How to Apply

Please find below a zip file containing:

1. more technical information about the general tasks to be covered by the proposal and logistic aspects
2. the template for proposal submission
3. the privacy notice

Download the package to apply for the call

For more details, visit ESA website.