The first Call for Research Proposals of the   Living  Planet  Fellowship  has  been  opened  today.  This  initiative represents the follow-on of the STSE Changing Earth Science Network.

The  main  objective  of  this  initiative  is  to  provide  support to young researchers  who  have  a  doctoral  degree  and who would like to initiate a scientific  career  in  the  context  of Earth Observation, Earth science and Climate  research.  Candidate  researchers are encouraged to submit  research proposals responding to one of following Programmatic Areas:

A) Support To Science:

-  Scientific  exploitation  of  ESA’s  Earth  Explorer  missions (i.e. SMOS, CryoSat, GOCE and Swarm), developing and validating innovative methods, novel products and promoting new scientific results.
-  Earth  System Science research maximising the exploitation of ESA missions and long-term ESA archives (e.g. ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat), also in synergy with other  ESA  and non-ESA data sets, specifically addressing the new scientific challenges of the Living Planet Programme.

B) Scientific Exploitation of the Sentinels:

-  Development  and  validation  of  advanced  EO  methods  and  products for scientific exploitation of the continued observations and innovative features of the Sentinel missions (Sentinel 1, Sentinel 2, Sentinel 3 or Sentinel 5P).
-  Developing novel scientific methods and tools for enhancing the synergetic exploitation of the Sentinel missions (Sentinel 1, Sentinel 2, Sentinel 3 and Sentinel 5P).

C) Climate Change Initiative:

- Exploiting  Essential Climate Variable (ECV) products generated by the ESA.s Climate  Change  Initiative  (CCI)  for improved understanding of the climate system.
- Examining  Cross-ECV consistency and multiple ECV use (those under the CCI Programme in particular).

Selected  project proposals, will be awarded with a maximum budget of 40KEuro per  year  as  a co-funding contribution to a standard post-doctoral position plus  3KEuro  to  cover  costs  associated  to  travels,  conference fees and publications.   The   Host   Institution   shall  co-finance  and  provide  a post-doctoral  contract  to  the candidate to undertake the research activity proposed.  The  Host  Institution shall contribute with, as a minimum, 30% of the overall cost for the two years.

The  documentation and call information (Call for Research Proposals package) can be downloaded from:

http://livingplanetfellowship.esa.int

Proposal   and   all   supporting  documents  must  be  sent  by  e-mail  to:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  by no later than 30 June 2014 (the Closing Date).