Our team and mission

Within the European Space Agency’s (ESA)’s Directorate for Human and Robotic Exploration, the Exploration Science activities are a cornerstone of the Explore2040 strategy, driving innovation at the intersection of human exploration and scientific discovery. It integrates exploration-focused science, essential for future missions, with exploration-enabled science, leveraging space for groundbreaking research. With access to ground-based analogues, the ISS, future commercial LEO platforms, the Lunar Gateway, the Moon, and Mars, the programme offers unique opportunities for transformative research in diverse environments. Guided by European values of collaboration, excellence, and responsibility, the programme emphasizes open science, international cooperation, and inspiring future generations. From developing countermeasures for spaceflight to searching for life on Mars, ESA Exploration Science advances knowledge for space and Earth alike.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Structuring and building analytics databases for Exploration Science

Science projects in the Human and Robotic Exploration directorate, in particular in the Science Utilisation and Human Research offices, take many different forms and shape. While completed projects are added to the Human and Robotic Exploration Data Archive (HRE Data Archive), including science data, there is no efficient central, authoritative, internal platform to store key information about ongoing projects.

This information, i.e. the composition of science teams, their affiliations, the various ESA points of contact, links to other projects, date of milestones … is not centralised. Extracting information from our internal files at the end of reporting periods adds inconsistencies and uncertainty to our performance indicators, such as the diversity of the composition of the science teams working with us or the scientific output of our projects.

During this internship, you will be in charge of implementing a simple platform centralising all the relevant information about the ongoing projects of our office. This platform should rely on standard database tools, and be editable in a user-friendly way. You will also be tasked to propose solutions to automate the retrieval of scientific publications for our ongoing projects, ensure compliance with ESA’s Data Protection standards, and – time allowing – interface with existing platforms, such as the above-mentioned data archive, the Open Space Initiative Platform (ideas.esa.int) and ESA's Activities platform (activities.esa.int). The platform will be initially tested within the Science Utilisation and Human Exploration Science team with the aim to extend it to other Exploration Science teams in a second step.

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.

You should also have:

• Databases (SQL, MongoDB, …);
• Simple API management (FastAPI, Flask, …);
• Programming languages (Python, …);
• Knowledge of data protection and willingness to enforce it.