European Space Agency

The European Space Agency maintains a world-leading Science Programme with missions in heliophysics, planetary science, astrophysics, and fundamental physics. Within ESA’s Directorate of Science, the Department for Science and Operations and the Science Engagement and Oversight Office host the scientists and engineers that oversee the space missions from study to end of operations; they develop the science operation systems for the missions and conduct the mission science operations in flight; they archive and curate the mission data during operations and beyond. The main objective is to maximise the scientific return of the missions for the benefit of humankind.

Homepage: https://www.esa.int

To increase the scientific return from its space science missions, the European Space Agency (ESA) welcomes applications from scientists interested in pursuing research projects based on data publicly available in the ESA Space Science Archives (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc).

The ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme is open to scientists, at all career levels, who are affiliated with institutes in ESA Member States and Cooperating States. All visits must comply with the ESA security directives, which may necessitate additional checks. Early-career scientists and PhD students are particularly encouraged to apply. We encourage applications from women and minorities. The peer-review evaluation process is anonymised to ensure equal opportunities for all applicants.

During their stay, visiting scientists will have access to archives and mission specialists for help with the retrieval, calibration, and analysis of archival data. In principle, all areas of space research covered by ESA science missions can be supported.

Residence lasts typically between one and three months, also distributed over multiple visits. Research projects can be carried out at ESAC (Madrid, Spain) and at ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands). To offset the expenses incurred by visitors, ESA covers travel costs from and to the home institution and provides support for lodging expenses and meals.

Applications received by 10 November 2025, 23:59 UTC, will be considered for visits in spring and summer 2026.

For further details, including areas of research and contact information, please refer to https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/visitor-programme or write to the programme coordinators at arvp@cosmos.esa.int