European Space Agency(ESA) 2023 Africa Research Fellowship Program

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.

Eligibility Criteria

• 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.

Benefits of ESA Africa Research Fellowship Program

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.

Documents Required for Application

• 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

How to Apply