Category: Uncategorized

Early Career Network of the UK Royal Astronomical Society

The Early Career Network (ECN) of the UK Royal Astronomical Society would like to welcome expressions of interest from Early Career Fellows to join their Committee.

The ECN Steering Group is a Committee dedicated to building a supportive and welcoming community for early career researchers, supporting them in their career progression, and helping them to build relevant skills such as networking, conducting research and writing funding applications.

The Committee is responsible for, amongst other things, organising the RAS early career events, connecting early career researchers with other Fellows who can support them and act as a liaison between the early career community and the RAS senior Fellows, staff and Council. The Committee expects to meet regularly (approximately once a month), and the meetings are typically hybrid or fully virtual.

If you are interested in joining, please send a short expression of interest to ecn@ras.ac.uk outlining your interest in joining and any experience relevant for a role on the Committee. Looking forward to your comments.

Travel Award for UK and Ireland based Early-career researchers

The Europlanet Ireland & UK Hub is pleased to open a travel award call for Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to attend a conference, meeting, or other event pertinent to their planetary science research in 2025. Please submit applications here: https://www.europlanet.org/ireland-uk-hub-ecr-funding-scheme-2025/

Please consider the following when applying:

Applicants must:

  • be affiliated with a UK or Ireland institution.
  • be individual members of Europlanet or be based at an institution with an organisational Europlanet membership. Proof of Europlanet membership must be included in the application.
  • assess applications based on need, while being mindful of meeting timelines.
  • be ECRs, which Europlanet defines as anyone whose last degree was obtained no more than 7 years ago (not counting parental leave, serious illness, and similar career breaks).
  • submit no more than one application each.
  • name in their application the specific conference, meeting, or relevant event taking place in the UK or Ireland in 2025 with publicly available dates and other information.
  • submit their application at least one week before the first day of the meeting they plan to attend.
  • ensure they claim their expenses by 31st December 2025.

The Ireland & UK Hub will:

  • make individual awards of up to €250 to cover registration, travel, or accommodation costs. The total value of the fund is €1,000.
  • inform successful applicants in a timely manner by email and provide instructions on how to claim expenses.
  • act as liaison between successful applicants and Europlanet to reimburse expenses after the event has taken place.

Post-doc position: Modelling Titan’s atmosphere (University of Amsterdam)

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral (PD) position at the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy (API) at the University of Amsterdam Netherlands (UvA) to work with assistant professor Alessandra Candian on modelling hydrocarbon evolution on Titan’s atmosphere.

Deadline for applications:
February 2nd, 2025

Application and more information here

Opportunity at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern (Switzerland) and ISSI-BJ in Beijing (China)

The International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern (Switzerland) and ISSI-BJ in Beijing (China) invite proposals for establishing International Teams to conduct, at their respective meeting facilities, research in the Space Sciences. To be eligible, research projects must involve the interdisciplinary analysis and evaluation of space mission data. They may also draw on complementary ground-based data and/or theoretical modelling where this adds scientific value. For the purpose of this call, Space Sciences include Astrobiology, Astrophysics and Cosmology, Earth Observation, Fundamental Physics in Space, Magnetospheric and Space Plasma Physics, Planetary Sciences, Solar and Heliospheric Physics, and Solar-Terrestrial Sciences.

Deadline for proposals:
March 13, 2025

The Call for International Team proposals is available on the ISSI website

Opportunities with ESA

Here are a few very relevant ESA announcements for our community:

1. Open Space Innovation Platform – OSIP – Campaign: ‪Investigating Biological and Physical Effects of Radiation” (IBPER)

 The call specifically includes Astrobiology: Exploring the potential for life in extreme environments by simulating space radiation conditions and studying its effects on microorganisms.

The schedule for the IBPER Announcement of Opportunity is as follows:

  • Release the AO – 13th January 2025
  • Letter of Intent –  13th February 2025
  • Virtual Workshop Q&A session: 24th February 2025
  • The link to the conference: Join the meeting now
  • Full proposals deadline – 23rd  March 2025

Investigator’s Workshop at the GSI site in Darmstadt- Fall 2025 (date to be announced)

2. Open call for members in the ESA Life Science Working Group or Physical Sciences Working Group

Open Space Innovation Platform – OSIP – Campaign: ‪Call for Expression of Interest to become a Member of ESA’s Life Sciences Working Group (LSWG) or ESA’s Physical Sciences Working Group (PSWG)‬

The deadline for submission of expressions of interest in response to the present Call is: 28 February 2025 at 23:59 CET

This call is open to Early Career Researchers. Interested persons are invited to contact current or past members of the LSWG (https://scispace.esa.int/working-groups/life-sciences-working-group/) and PSWG (https://scispace.esa.int/working-groups/physical-sciencesworking-group-pswg/) to know more about these committees.

3. CORA Ground-Based Facilities – SciSpacE (continuously open call)

ESA provides access to a variety of ground platforms and gives scientists an opportunity to conduct research necessary to advance knowledge relevant to the effects of space on humans and/or biological life in general, as well as on physical or material science and systems, aiming to enable space exploration.

Opportunity with the Space Generation Advisory Council on two papers for GLEX 2025

An opportunity for early-career planetary scientists to collaborate with the Space Generation Advisory Council on two papers for the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2025) has come up! They are looking for passionate individuals who are capable of carrying out in-depth research, have a strong critical mind and are natural team players. Applicants who have a background or interest in planetary geology are especially desirable.

The projects are 1) Ocean Worlds 🌊 and 2) Asteroid Hopping ☄️. The role of the selected applicants is predominantly on the selection of landing sites for such missions. 2-3 team members are expected to be selected per project.

Applications are due by Sunday the 3rd of November at 23.59 GMT. Any questions get in touch with Ciaran Jenkins.

This is a great opportunity for ECR planetary scientists to connect with the global space community that you might not meet within academia, including engineers, lawyers and policymakers.

For more information and to apply >> click here <<

AbGradE is on Instagram!

We’re thrilled to announce that AbGradE is now on Instagram! 🎉 Follow us @_AbGradE_ for the latest updates, events, and community highlights. Join us and stay connected with fellow early-careers!

See you there! 📸

AbGradEPEC’24

We are back! AbGradE will once again team up with EPEC for EPSC2024, expanding network opportunities for early career scientists and students.  

This year we invite you on Sunday, September 8th in Berlin (Germany) at the Freie Universität for a symposium comprising of contributed talks and a workshop on professional development given by an ESA fellow and a former ESA intern. The event fee is 10 euros, details on how to pay will be sent to you in due course.  

The deadline for registration is June 30th and can be accomplished with the following form.

The deadline for abstracts is June 1st. For contributed talks, please send a short abstract (max. 200 words) using the template to abgrade@eana-net.eu.  We invite early careers to present the work that they either present as a poster at EPSC’24 or any other project not presented at EPSC’24. Letters of acceptance will be sent out by mid-June.

We look forward to meeting you in Berlin! 

Help the Earth Science Women’s Network understand more about the mentorship needs of the community

This survey is being administered to identify gaps in mentorship opportunities, the corresponding needs and challenges of the Earth Science Women’s Network ESWN community, and to help future development of ESWN mentoring activities. These activities would include workshops, professional development opportunities, leadership opportunities, or development of a mentorship and/or mentoring education program.

They want to learn about your mentoring experiences, both formal and informal. Mentoring is defined as a relationship between someone less experienced in some area (the mentee) and someone more experienced in that area (the mentor) who shares their knowledge of the subject.

They are seeking responses from women in the earth and environmental science community who consider themselves mentors, mentees, or both. 
Please take 10-15 minutes and complete the survey.

Deadline to complete the survey is Feb. 16, 2024 (extended from February 9 2024).
If you have any questions, please email Mimi Hughes (Co-Chair of Member Engagement, ESWN Associate Board of Directors)