It is not possible to directly submit an idea to this channel. Please submit your ideas to the Open Ideas Channel or (if available) to a Discovery Campaign here on OSIP.

Please find an overview of all running Discovery Campaigns and Channels here.

Please find a list of all running co-sponsored research activities here.

Idea authors are invited to this Proposal Channel following a successful submission in the idea Channels or a Campaign.

This Channel serves to mature your submitted idea into a proposal for co-sponsored research activities. Co-sponsored research activities can be:

• PhD activity (typically taking 3 years)
• Advanced research (e.g. post-doc or senior research projects) (typically taking between 6 months and 3 years)
  

Authors of selected ideas are asked to mature their idea to a full proposal. Please note, that all fields in the form are mandatory to complete and in particular:

• a clear research question
• the state of the art and background
• task description and research plan
• scientific resume of the researcher
• name and agreement of the prime contractor in the form of a letter of support
• proposed budget, including co-funding commitment (max 50% and up to a total of max 90k€ from ESA)
• industrial partners (letters of interest, commitments for co-funding)(optional but highly recommended)

Co-sponsored research proposals will be evaluated by an evaluation board and if selected will be implemented via a Cooperative Agreement.

Preparing the proposal

• Please complete the proposal template "idea form", making a research proposal out of your initial idea, by editing your pre-filled proposal here on this Channel.
• If available, interact with the ESA research co-supervisor added to your draft proposal, who will provide ESA and space-specific expertise (interaction on OSIP directly in the description of the activity or via the comments field - see below);
• Check if and how you and your proposed research might be able to benefit from the engineering labs of ESA (a stay at ESA should only be proposed if an ESA co-supervisor has been identified and the ESA stay has been agreed on with the ESA co-supervisor)
• Make sure you and the hosting university understand and agree to the conditions for co-funding (please see the draft cooperative agreement provided in the attachment section)
• Once the proposal is complete, mark it as "ready for evaluation". If you will need the approval of your legal/contractual teams before signing the agreement, please make sure that they are involved at this stage and that you get their OK before marking your proposal "ready for evaluation".

Process and tentative timeline until contract

1. Max 4 month of proposal preparation
2. You mark your proposal as ‘ready for evaluation’ by selecting the corresponding option in the proposal ‘idea form’ on OSIP. Please complete all fields before selecting "ready for evaluation" as ESA will by default include all proposals marked ready. Please also note that ESA reserves the right to archive incomplete proposals (e.g. missing candidate or letter of support) that are marked as "ready for evaluation".
3. All finalised proposals will be evaluated on a, nominally, monthly basis (at a minimum there will be one evaluation every 3 months)
4. Once an evaluation starts you will be notified by OSIP and your proposal will move to the status "Evaluation". From there on you will not be able to edit your proposal any further.
5. Evaluations will take around two weeks plus an average of two more weeks to finalise an evaluation report.
6. After the evaluation report has been finalised you will be informed via OSIP of the outcome. Two cases may apply:
1. Selected for funding
2. Archived: For proposals not selected for funding

For all funded activities the contractual implementation, via Cooperative Agreement, follows selection.

Cooperative Agreement Contractual Frame

FAQs

What deadlines need to be considered?

Your proposal will be considered for the subsequent evaluation session when it is complete and marked as "ready for evaluation". (Frequency of evaluation sessions: see below) 

In general, the invitation to submit a proposal remains valid for 4 months. Only if ESA judges the proposal to still be highly relevant and of interest, might this time be extended (regular interaction with the author is a prerequisite). Otherwise ESA reserves the right to archive your draft proposal and by doing so withdraws the invitation to submit a proposal. If you need an extension to this deadline, please request this together with a justification and the duration of extension required via the comments below your proposal on OSIP.

Do I need to indicate all key personnel at proposal submission?

The researcher is the only key personnel for a co-sponsored research activity and needs to be identified before proposal evaluation. Please note, that the proposed researcher must already be enrolled/employed by the host research institute at the time of the proposal submission. An exception to this may be made where research institutions have an agreement with the key personnel making the proposal acceptance a condition.

If the key personnel is from outside an ESA member state they must in all cases possess, at the time of proposal submission, all needed documentation (e.g. valid work permit) that allows them to work at the premises of the prime contractor.

My research project is already running, is it eligible for funding?

ESA supports through the co-sponsored Research scheme only research activities for which none of the proposed tasks have already been performed prior to the activity kick-off.

What are the deliverables for co-sponsored research activities?

All co-sponsored research activities should provide to ESA:

• Milestone progress reports.
• Final research report (For the deliverable to ESA, please use as cover page the template as provided here for Discovery activities.)
• An up-to-date activity page on the activities.esa.int platform identifying all outputs of the activity.
• Publications should be issued open access. Any publicity material prepared by the Contractor in the context of this Co-Sponsored Research Agreement shall acknowledge that the activity is/was “selected via the Open Space Innovation Platform (https://ideas.esa.int) as a Co-Sponsored Research Agreement and carried out under the Discovery programme of, and funded by, the European Space Agency”. It shall display the ESA logo and contract number. It shall also carry a disclaimer stating that the view expressed in such publications can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency.

Any other deliverable is considered out of the scope of the co-sponsored research agreement.

The following meetings are foreseen:

1. Kick-Off Meeting
2. Progress meetings (as a minimum there will be one per payment milestone)
3. Final Presentation

What are eligible costs for ESA budget and co-funding?

ESA budget:

Eligible cost for ESA Budget includes all direct cost for the project (e.g. candidate salary, material, conference and publication costs, travel costs, etc.), but should not include any overhead.

In all cases, ESA budget should first and foremost be used to allow for a fair salary of the candidate. Only if this is already achieved with parts of the ESA Budget or with other funding, should ESA Budget be used for other purposes directly related to the project.

ESA funding must comply to the following limitations:

• Max 50% contribution from ESA to the full research budget
• Max 90k€ overall contribution from ESA (90k€ ESA contribution would require minimum 180k€ overall budget)

Co-sponsored budget:

Considered as eligible co-sponsored budget are costs directly related to the project (e.g. share of the researcher salary not covered by ESA contribution, percentage of the supervisor salary allocated to this project and any costs that would also be considered eligible for ESA Budget). A reasonable overhead can be included in the co-sponsored budget.

The actual spending of both budget contributions above are subject to audits by ESA.

Please note, that only costs that arise during the contractual period are eligible (from contract signature to contract closure). Also transfer of funding from one activity to another is not possible. 

Co-sponsored budget may come from the prime contractor or industry or academic partners. All parties that want to contribute eligible budget are requested to provide a letter of commitment clearly stating the co-funding amount provided (see template in the attachments below).

How frequent are evaluation sessions?

Evaluations take place about every month, at the beginning of the month, but at a minimum once every 3 months. All complete proposals which authors have declared as "ready for evaluation" will be included in the upcoming evaluations. (ESA reserves the right to skip or move monthly evaluation sessions)

Proposals which are above the 60/100 threshold will be passed into the ESA procurement process using the ESA entity code. Authors will be informed about the outcome of the evaluation via OSIP at the end of each evaluation sessions. The further interaction will be via the esa-star system.

Before declaring proposals as "ready for evaluation" by ticking the corresponding field in the idea form, authors need to have consulted and obtained the agreement of all those within their organisation which need to agree to the signing of the contract/agreement, since contractual terms for co-sponsored research activities are non-negotiable. The only remaining open points still to be agreed by ESA and the hosting university at this stage will be the start date, the corresponding planned end date and the dates for the milestone payments.

What happens with proposals evaluated below good or that did not submit within the deadline?

Proposals evaluated below the threshold of 60/100 or that did not mark as 'ready for evaluation' within the 4 month proposal drafting deadline will get archived. Please note that a proposal cannot be resubmitted or re-opened after having been archived.

When is the best moment to submit my full research proposal (declare it "ready for evaluation")?

There is no best moment for this. Evaluations are taking place roughly every month and all ideas declared by authors as "ready for evaluation" and containing all the necessary elements will be included (see above for details). All proposals evaluated over 60/100 will be recommended for funding.

What if I don't yet have an ESA Entity Code?

Providing an ESA Entity Code is mandatory to be considered for co-funding. Economic operators wishing to do business with the Agency but are not yet registered are requested to complete the online questionnaire on the “esa-star registration” website (https://esastar-emr.sso.esa.int/).  

The registration as an ESA Entity includes the obligation to subsequently fill in the Agency Questionnaire and its yearly updating. Failure to provide or update the required information may result in EMITS non-public part access being blocked.
Further information on the registration process can be found on the Industry Portal pages available at: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/How_to_do/esa-star_Registration_Process.

Before submitting your proposal, please identify the person in your organisation (it might be you of course) who your organisation has identified as receiving and reading emails sent from esastar, inform him about your proposal, the process and warn him that an email notification might come which is related to your activity. It is usually good practice to also add this person directly as co-author of your proposal. 

Why do I have to get an ESA Entity Code?

The Member States of the Agency have made it mandatory for the Agency to register economic operators wishing to do business with the Agency. Any entity, at the time when a tender is submitted, should at least have already completed the “Light Registration” as described in the “esa-star” Registration User Manual:  http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/business_with_esa/CG-EM-ORR-S-16_End_User_Manual_v1.2.pdf. 

Please note that prior to the signature of a Contract or Agreement the ESA Entity must have completed the "Full Registration" process in "esa-star".

______

• update 6 November 2019: clarification in the explanations of the idea form that co-funding can be provided not only by universities but also by industry or other co-funding entities.
• update 17 March 2020: added explanation following questions on "best moment" for submission
• update 28 April 2020: added section paragraph explaining why an ESA entity code is necessary. 
• update 30 April 2020: added support letter template to annex and reference to idea-form
• update 19 January 2021: included EISI implementation mechanism as option for Research proposals
• update 03. March 2021: updated the Co-funded research Draft Agreement
• update 20. July 2021: clarified descriptions of steps to be done before declaring a proposal "ready for evaluation"
• update 02. February 2022: Updated General Conditions of Participation.
• update 24. February 2022: Updated the resume field with a new template.
• update 02. March 2022: New co-sponsored Research agreement attached: renamed from co-funded to co-sponsored; adjusted the Channel Description in multiple places to account for the new agreement; adjusted the submission form to account for new agreement frame. (please note, that co-sponsored and co-funded are used interchangeable)
• update 04. April 2022: introduction of "advanced research" to cover post-Doc type research and other research performed by senior researchers.
• update 07. Sep 2022: updated Co-sponsored research agreement
• update 19. Sep 2022: added FAQ on background IPR
• update 02 Feb 2023: updated Co-sponsored research agreement
• update 02 March 2023: updated Co-sponsored research agreement
• update 26 July 2023: updated Channel to reflect the opening of the scheme also for Prime Contractors from industry. In this frame the support letter has been updated to version 1.5