Our team and mission

The European Space Deep-Tech Innovation Centre (ESDI) is a strategic initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA), established in Switzerland in partnership with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the ETH Domain. 
ESDI operates as a competence centre under ESA leadership, designed to catalyse deep-tech innovation for space through challenge-led, use-inspired research.

ESDI’s mission is twofold:

• to bring more deep-tech capabilities to ESA and its Member States, by tapping into the Swiss and European deep-tech ecosystems through strategic foresight, interdisciplinary collaboration, and targeted research programmes;
• to bring more of ESA to Switzerland, by establishing a more permanent ESA presence and transforming ESDI into a recognised ESA hub.

The Centre’s activities are governed by ESA’s programmatic framework and aligned with the ScaleUp/ACCESS Programme, ensuring that research outputs are not only scientifically excellent but also commercially viable.

ESDI’s operational model is built around:

• platforms for Research, targeting frontier domains such as quantum technologies, advanced materials, data systems, and sustainability;
• collaborative Research Calls, enabling cross-sectoral teaming and experimentation;
• strategic Technology Foresight, guiding the selection of conundrums worth solving and informing ESA’s long-term innovation agenda;
• community Management and Talent Development, fostering a vibrant ecosystem of researchers, start-ups, and institutional partners.

As an intern at ESDI, you will be embedded in a high-performance, interdisciplinary environment that connects ESA’s strategic priorities with Switzerland’s research excellence. You will contribute to ESDI’s mission by engaging in tool-building, data modelling, and strategic analysis that support the Centre’s foresight and research coordination efforts. This includes translating frameworks such as ESDI's Neglectedness Framework and Ecosystem Maps into operational tools that help identify underexplored technological domains with high strategic relevance.

Candidates interested are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Development of a tool to operationalise the Neglectedness Framework for Deep-Tech foresight 

This internship supports ESA’s technology foresight capability by enabling the development of a tool that operationalises the “Neglectedness Framework” for Deep-Tech domains. You will work with an existing ESA intrapreneurship codebase to rebuild and/or extend its functionality, including where appropriate through AI-assisted prototyping, using “vibe coding” techniques to rapidly iterate and deploy exploratory software.

You will contribute to the development of a tool designed to operationalise the Neglectedness Framework for strategic foresight in Deep-Tech domains. This work builds on an existing codebase and concept developed under an ESA intrapreneurship initiative, which provides initial elements for mapping underexplored technological areas, integrating weak signal detection, and visualising ecosystem gaps.
The internship will focus on extending and refining this tool. 

This internship builds on technologies like GraphQL (Graph Query Language) and related tools to enable dynamic queries across distributed datasets. The approach supports persistent identification of facilities, organisations, and actors, ensuring robust data integration for ecosystem mapping. Outputs will feed into ESDI’s foresight and capability frameworks.

Key activities include:

• translating a conceptual framework into a prototype tool including interactive visualisations;
• integrating patent metadata, infrastructure, capability mapping, and technology foresight signals into a unified interface;
• identifying, collecting, and integrating new data sources relevant to ecosystem mapping (e.g. research facilities, organisations, patents, funding flows) to enrich the tool and ensure thorough coverage of the European deep-tech landscape;
• extending the tool’s capabilities to support strategic decision-making in technology prioritisation;
• collaborating with the team from the Phi-Lab at ESDI and potentially other Phi-Labs to validate neglectedness signals across deep-tech domains such as quantum technologies, advanced materials, or industrialisation;
• collaborate with ESA Patent management team to study the usefulness of patent databases (public and private) to understand how to use the patent classification, identify patent citations and/or paper publications, potential collaboration/licensing in order to enrich the ecosystem mapping;
• rapidly prototype and iterate a tool;
• elaborate data collection and refinement protocols;
• collaborate with ESA colleagues across establishments involved in the development of deep-tech foresight and deep-tech ecosystem mapping.

Learning Objectives:

• apply your software engineering or data science skills to develop and refine tools for technology foresight and topic identification;
• gain practical experience in translating conceptual frameworks into operational software for mapping underexplored technological domains;
• contribute to ESA’s efforts to identify and address neglected technological domains with high strategic relevance;
• develop skills in data modelling, interface design, protocol design, and exploratory tool-building within a mission-driven research centre;
• experience working in a multidisciplinary, high-performance research environment, collaborating with experts in data science, innovation management, and technology foresight. 

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation
Operational Efficiency
Fostering Cooperation
Relationship Management
Continuous Improvement
Forward Thinking

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You must be a university student, preferably studying at master’s level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your University for the entire duration of the internship.

Additional requirements

The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.

During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.

Knowledge and skills in several of the following areas are required:

• programming languages, software engineering, and tools for prototyping (e.g. Python, TypeScript, Jupyter Notebooks);
• statistical software (e.g. R, PowerBI);
• data science;
• understanding and some practical experience in using APIs, and in using languages like GraphQL;
• use of AI and Large Language Models for “vibe wrangling” (rapid, AI assisted prototyping, and coding);
• data automation and dashboards;
• MS Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint.

Knowledge and background in data science, innovation management, and software engineering are an asset.