ESA's Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate and its Exploration Science, a cornerstone of its Explore2040 strategy, invites scientists, researchers, and innovators to join us in pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and technological capabilities. Our programme uniquely balances exploration-focused science, essential for enabling future human missions beyond Earth, with exploration-enabled science that leverages our capabilities for groundbreaking research across disciplines.
Guided by core European values of collaboration, scientific excellence, and responsible exploration, we seek proposals that not only advance our understanding of the universe but also contribute to solving global challenges here on Earth. Developing countermeasures for long-duration spaceflight, investigating fundamental physics in microgravity, prospecting for lunar resources, or searching for signs of past life on Mars, the ESA Exploration Science activities offer opportunities to turn your scientific vision into reality and promote open science, international cooperation and the inspiration of future generations.
This document provides an overview of the research opportunity offered within this Continuously Open Research Announcement for Parabolic Flights. We seek projects that correspond to the rigour and excellence of exploration-enabled science and/or the grand challenges of exploration-focused science.
Evaluation planning
Evaluation sessions are organised typically 8 months prior the campaign. Authors will get the feedback from the idea evaluation sessions typically 4 weeks after evaluation closure. The next evaluation sessions will occur on the following dates:
Tentative date for the Fall 2027 PFC92 Microgravity Campaign is October 2027.
(Please note that by default all ideas saved will enter the respective next evaluation round. Authors can edit their ideas until the evaluation round starts, but not once it has already started.)
Parabolic flights are the only sub-orbital carriers allowing scientists to carry out, in person, biological, biomedical and physiological as well as physical and material science experiments under conditions of microgravity or other (reduced) gravity levels as self-standing experiments.
This Announcement of Opportunity for the Spaceflight Analogue “Parabolic Flight” in Bordeaux, France, aims to solicit research proposals in Life and Physical Sciences that align with the ESA Explore 2040 Strategy (Annex 2).
The ESA Explore2040 strategy implements two streams of science:
Proposals submitted in the framework of this AO can present research related to Exploration-Focused Science Themes, Exploration-Enabled Science Themes, or both.
In your proposal, please mention the different elements in this section corresponding to your research themes. They can span both exploration-focused and exploration-enabled science. If you believe your project falls into other areas that are of particular interest to ESA, you can also mention it in your proposal by selecting the "OTHER" category.
The ESA Parabolic Flight Campaigns take place with the Airbus A310 ZERO-G operated out of the Bordeaux-Mérignac airport by the company Novespace. Novespace’s A310 ZERO-G aircraft has been certified for flying parabolas that can provide reduced gravity levels between 0g and 1g (1g being Earth’s gravity).
ESA Parabolic flight campaigns are typically conducted twice per year in Spring and Autumn. Each flight campaign normally consists of three individual flights, each of which has 31 parabolas, i.e. a campaign has 93 parabolas in total. During each parabola, there is a period of increased gravity (1.8g), immediately prior to and following a period of reduced gravity.
Interested science teams are invited to specify in their proposal which g-level campaign (if 0g and/or between 0g and 1g) they are applying for.
Micro-gravity campaigns
Typically ESA Parabolic Flight campaigns focus on 0g, of which the Airbus A310 ZERO- G can produce about 20 seconds per parabola, giving a total of about 10 minutes of microgravity per flight, and 30 minutes per campaign.
Partial-gravity campaigns
In contrast to the 0-g campaigns, the campaigns focusing on intermediate gravity levels are less frequent and depend on demand.
For these campaigns, the durations of the parabolas may vary depending on the g-level and the partial-g levels provided will reflect the prevalent scientific interest from both ESA and the science teams of that campaign (usually Moon and Mars). Selected proposals may therefore be asked about the possibility of adjusting to the chosen levels for a given campaign and thus be in better alignment with ESA's scientific strategy, provided that such modifications do not compromise the scientific objectives of their experiments.
Detailed description of the ESA Parabolic Flight and campaign organisation can be found in Annex 1.
Please find additional information here:
You can submit your proposal by clicking on the "Submit Your Idea" button.
Complete all sections of the submission form according to the guidelines outlined in the call, respective attachments, and the provided proposal template. Additionally, upload any required supplementary information.
Please note that, in parallel to submission, it is mandatory that all submitting proposers contact their national representatives to inform them about their submission and to investigate possible national funding procedures and timelines, as well as probability of funding in order to identify alternative funding sources if necessary. Points of Contacts for each country are provided in the attachments lower down (Annex 3).
If you have further technical questions during submission, feel free to contact the Campaign Manager (contact details at the end of the page).
After positive peer and technical review, the scientific coordinator of the experiment will be informed that the proposal has been accepted and added to the pool of activities awaiting the next flight campaign. It will then be the responsibility of the scientific coordinator to communicate this preliminary selection to the rest of the science team.
Please note that the acceptance of a proposal does not guarantee a flight opportunity, as the selection outcome may still change if feasibility issues arise during experiment preparation for flight.
It's important to emphasize that through this Announcement of Opportunity, only the research opportunity aboard the parabolic flight aircraft is provided. The science team is accountable for funding their expenses, including their work, necessary equipment for supporting their activities, travel, etc. Hence, it is necessary for the experimenter to request funding in parallel to their application, enabling them to initiate the process of applying for national funding as early as possible or to explore alternative funding sources if necessary (refer to "Who can apply?" section, below).
Please see Annex 4.
Publications and Acknowledgement
Any publication of the results generated in the context of this research announcement of opportunity shall be provided to ESA and must acknowledge the sponsorship of the study by the European Space Agency.
Support of Education and Outreach
The activities covered in this research announcement provide an opportunity for the European Space Agency to engage the public and offer opportunities for education and outreach. Science Teams are encouraged to promote and communicate their investigations to a wide audience (general public, colleagues, involvement of students, social media) and to support the European Space Agency in the event of organized press conferences, social media events, educational activities, publications, etc.
CONTRIBUTION TO ESA'S HRE Archiving
Calibrated data shall be provided by the Science Team to ESA. Please note that this does not refer to processed analyses/statistics/conclusions (for these, the science team retains full ownership from an Intellectual Property Right standpoint), only to the calibrated observations, imagery, measurements, etc. The aim is to allow for the archival of a complete and meaningful investigation dataset at ESA. The data deliverables from the Science Team to ESA shall be provided in open and readable formats (not requiring special or proprietary tools to read them), unless otherwise is agreed with the HRE Science Data Centre. HRE Data Archive
Who can apply?
The scientific institution for which the coordinator of a proposal is working must be located in one of the ESA member or associated member states that contribute to the Exploration Science Programme: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Scientists from other ESA Member States that do not contribute to the Exploration Programme and scientists from other European countries having a cooperation agreement with ESA are encouraged to enquire with their national space organisation about the conditions for their participation in proposals to ESA. Furthermore, applicants will need to confirm that they have informed their national agency/delegation before submitting their proposal. The Points of Contacts can be found in the Attachments section of this page.
ESA will make use of independent experts for the relevance and scientific merit evaluation of proposals. The proposal coordinator will receive information on the outcome of the review, typically within 2 months.
The evaluation criteria that will be applied for evaluation of the proposals are:
Each proposal will receive a scientific merit score between 0 and 100 points. The proposals will receive one of the following marks:
Only proposals receiving a scientific merit score of “Excellent” or higher (score of 81 or higher) will proceed in the evaluation process. Furthermore, a minimum score of "Very Good" or higher (score of 71 or higher) is needed for each sub-criterion. This is to ensure the selection of proposals that are balanced and scoring well across all sub-criteria composing the science merit score.
In addition, the following criteria will also be applied:
Following approval of the proposal, the proposers will be informed of the outcome of the review. This will include the report of the scientific and technical review with overall scoring.
The results of the selection will be final and not open to appeal. A positive selection may still require adjustments to enhance scientific return and optimize feasibility.
