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The Space Domain will be operating without administrative support, with the loss of our previous Research Coordinator Dr Charlene Murphy, for the upcoming academic year 2020/2021. This lack of administrative support will impact both planned and ongoing activities across the Space Domain.
Charlene will be joining the Department of Physics and Astronomy as a Research Officer on a 12-month secondment. We wish her the best in her new role at UCL.
The Space Domain committee will be working closely with colleagues at UCL to maintain some limited core elements of the Space Domain, such as a social media presence and training/engagement opportunities for the Domains’ members. The committee will also be exploring options to reinstate the full range of activities planned for the Space Domain in the near future
Thank you for your understanding, patience and continued support of the Space Domain at this time.
Any questions, or would like to be involved with the day-to-day running of the Space Domain please contact: Prof Alan Smith.
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Call for UCL Space Domain Postgraduate Student Ambassadors
The UCL Space Domain is currently accepting applications for the 2020/21 academic year for our new Space Domain Postgraduate Student Ambassadors Programme.
Benefits
The Space Domain Postgraduate Student Ambassador’s Programme seeks to develop our selected students’ leadership, research, communication and engagement skills base.
Space Ambassadors will have the opportunity to attend external events representing the UCL Space Domain including having their conference fees covered to attend meetings/conferences and networking events with the Royal Aeronautical Society and other opportunities as they arise across the breadth of the Space Sector.
Space Domain Student Ambassadors will be in contact with key BEAMS faculty, researchers, staff members and leaders in the Space Sector including ESA_Lab@UCL and developing and strengthen their professional networks.
Expectations
The responsibilities for this role will be shared between Student Ambassadors and these will include attending conferences and networking events at UCL and externally along with other public engagement and outreach activities and programs coordinated by the Space Domain. Student Ambassadors are also expected to be a positive reflection of what the Space Domain represents (see Terms of Reference of UCL Space Domain) and act as a role model for their peers and other UCL students. Student Ambassadors will also be expected to actively promote and share Space Domain events and activities via social media including writing blog pieces around events attended.
Qualifications
1. Currently enrolled UCL postgraduate (MSc/PhD) student in BEAMS.
2. Commitment/Involvement in Space Sector
3. Excellent communication skills including social media skills.
The Space Domain would particularly like to actively encourage the participation of postgraduate students who identify as underrepresented groups including women, BAME, LGBT + community and disabled individuals at UCL to apply for this opportunity. In this spirit, we would like to reach out to senior colleagues/staff at UCL and ask them to strongly encourage their postgraduate students who may not normally feel confident to come forward and apply for this career opportunity. It would be appreciated if Supervisors and Course Tutors could bring this opportunity to the attention of their students.
Procedure for selection:
Please submit a brief (2 page max) CV and concise covering letter (1 page max) outlining how you feel you are a good fit for this position. Both CV and covering letters may be in graphical/written/audio or video format. We encourage all postgraduate students to discuss this opportunity with their supervisor/s or line manager/s for their support/sponsorship before submitting an application. Please email both CV and covering letter to the Research Coordinator for the Space Domain.
The Space Domain’s Organizing Committee will review the applications received and reach a decision by the end of October 2020. The Space Domain Organizing Committee expects to appoint approximately 1-2 Space Domain Postgraduate Student Ambassadors.
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Call for Speakers
Our One O’clock lunchtime Webinar series is intended to be an informal platform for sharing on Space related topics to a general, non-specialist audience including UCL undergraduate and postgraduate students, staff members, and is open to the general public. All lectures now take place via Microsoft Teams virtually between 13:00-14:00. Time permitting, we open up the chat for questions at the end of the lecture.
We are looking for either 20 minutes (in which we would have two speakers to fill the slot with 10 minutes for Q&A each) or 40 minutes presentations with 20 minutes for Q&A, time permitting. We welcome contributions related to Space Research/Projects/Competitions/Interests taking place at UCL. Although definitely not exclusive, we are particularly interested in topics which fit within the following Themes:
- Earth/Climate Change
- Humans in Space
- Space as a Natural Asset
- Science in, about and from Space
- “Living with a Star”
- ‘The Exploration conversation: Robots or humans or both?’
- Local Space
- ‘Propulsion; from rockets and motors to the future’
- National and International Space Policy
- What is New Space: Privatization, commercial exploitation of space, or democratization?
- How to get involved in space – career paths and journeys
- Space and culture – a historical relationship
- Xenobiology/Astrobiology – Learning from extreme environments on Earth
This is a fantastic opportunity for Early Career Researchers and Postgraduate Students at UCL to engage, communicate and reach out to a wider audience with their research. As well as providing excellent exposure for their research and showcasing future leaders in the Space Sector this series offers a supportive, collegiate environment for sharing ideas/research and the potential of constructive comments/feedback/insights from a wide audience including senior academics at UCL, leaders in the Space Sector, student peers, industry professionals and the wider interested general public.
Speakers can be very diverse, including senior academics describing their research, post docs describing recent result and students outlining an area of current interest. We particularly encourage the participation of Early Career Researchers, postgraduate students and other researchers particularly those who identify as underrepresented groups including Women, BAME, LGBT + community and disabled individuals at UCL. In this spirit, we would like to reach out to our senior UCL colleagues and staff and ask them to actively encourage their Early Career Researchers and Postgraduate Students who may not normally feel confident presenting or sharing their work to come forward and apply.
To be considered to speak please fill out the form or email an abstract (of approximately 250-300 words) or alternatively a graphical/ video/ audio abstract to the organising committee. Please note that we encourage all postgraduate students to discuss this opportunity with their supervisor/s before submitting an abstract.
Past One O’clock Space lectures can be found here.
Additional Requirements
If you anticipate having any additional requirements when presenting, please make us aware of these when you register. These may include accessibility, access, caring responsibilities or other additional requirements that will enable you to present.
Accessibility
It is expected that presentations and handouts adhere to Advance HE’s accessibility requirements and we will provide presenters with the relevant guidance material.
The UCL Space Domain’s lunchtime One O’clock Space webinar series is looking for Speakers for Term 1 & 2 for 2020/21.
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OneWeb on the recovery, ready to conquer broadband satellite services again
Prof Serge Plattard, Deputy Director, Space Domain, UCL
On July 11, the bankruptcy judge validated the takeover of OneWeb by the BidCo 100 Limited consortium made up of the British government (Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy-BEIS)) and the Indian telecommunications company Bharti Global Limited for an amount of $ 1 billion. The ruling concluded OneWeb’s bankruptcy proceedings, which had been under Chapter 11 of US bankruptcy law since last March. In this way, OneWeb can once again conquer the global broadband satellite service provision market, competing with SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper constellations. To date, OneWeb has deployed 74 of the 720 satellites in its Ku / Ka band constellation in low Earth orbit (1200 km).
End of August, the company received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the deployment of 1280 additional V-band satellites at an altitude of 8500 km, as well as the carriage of V-band payloads on the 720 satellites of the first constellation. The FCC believes that this new infrastructure will increase the services offered as well as competition in the sector and lower the costs of access.
This decision follows a request from OneWeb filed last May with the FCC to launch 48 000 additional satellites. According to FCC licensing criteria, OneWeb will have to deploy half of this mega constellation by the end of August 2026 and the remaining by the end of August 2029.
For the record, SpaceX has already launched more than 700 Starlink satellites and has started Beta tests with very good performance. For its part, Amazon received approval in July from the FCC for the deployment of 3236 satellites of its Kuiper constellation into low Earth orbit for the provision of broadband services. The mega constellation race seems now well underway indeed!
Blog Post: The OneWeb Crash, first space victim of Covid-19 by Prof Serge Plattard, Deputy Director of the UCL Space Domain. April 30, 2020.
Sources: Parabolic Arc, August 27, 2020, and the September Space Newsletter of the French Embassy in Washington DC. http://www.parabolicarc.com/2020/08/27/oneweb-gets-fcc-approval-for-additional-1280-satellites/
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Code for Inclusion – Making Tech more inclusive
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The UCL Code for Inclusion team create volunteer projects designed to engage Disabled people from backgrounds underrepresented in the technology industry. Key focuses are on anti-racism and inclusion.
- Students – volunteers are needed from all backgrounds to join as project leaders, research assistants, coders, wellness officers, diversity, equality and inclusion directors (to name a few). All training is provided, and no experience is needed.
- Academic staff – call for articles on inclusive technology to be published on their website.
Code for Inclusion particularly welcome applicants from Disabled People and BAME backgrounds as they are underrepresented in the charity and technology sector.
For more information, contact: Alina at ucl@keenuk.org |
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Improving support for online data collection and survey tools
In the light of the increased need to carry out research remotely, a new ISD project is looking at the use of online data collection platforms in research. There are a wide range of tools being used for this purpose and, in order to identify the support researchers need and improve it, the project team would like to capture a better understanding of why people choose particular survey tools and what the major pain points are when using them. Whether you conduct research online yourself, or your role involves supporting others to do so, please share your input via the short survey:
Improving support for survey tools.
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Beacon Bursaries are now live
The Engagement team at UCL Culture are delighted to invite UCL academic and professional services staff, as well as postgraduate research students, to apply to this year’s round of public and community engagement funding. Up to £ 2000 is available per application and the deadline is 12:00 (midday) on Monday the 19th of October.
For more information, details on how to apply and how to access informal advice please see: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/projects/beacon-bursaries
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Trellis: EPSRC Community Partnership Building Events
UCL Culture is looking for EPSRC funded UCL staff/students/research groups interested in building or developing partnerships with communities, individuals or local organisations in east London.
We are able to fund a small number of networking events and activities that bring together UCL researchers and external east London based partners with potential follow-on catalyst grants of up to £ 2000.
Please fill out the expression of interest form by 31st October if you are interested in participating or get in touch with engagement-east@ucl.ac.uk if you have any other enquiries.
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UCL Health of the Public Communities
UCL Health of the Public (UHoP) invites applications to lead three new UCL Health of the Public Communities.
UHoP is looking for dynamic and innovative leaders to proactively develop themes that bring together new research communities, develop new research and education collaborations, and showcase UCL’s expertise. These Academic Leads will act as a catalyst to increase UCL’s cross-disciplinary public health research capacity. They will involve disciplines that would not usually be considered to be within the public health field, and encourage innovative perspectives in research and education to ensure a healthy future for all.
Each theme will be led by two academic leads from distinct disciplines. You will need to submit a joint application from both Academic Leads. We expect distinct disciplines in order to effect cross-disciplinary working.
- Academic Leads need to understand the current and potential future activity in their theme area and be able to respond to new research and education opportunities as they arise.
- We will accept proposals for themes that bring together cross-disciplinary communities in any area that improves population health. We are particularly interested in bringing together communities around the ‘environments’ that influence the health of the public, identified in the Academy of Medical Sciences ‘Improving the health of the public by 2040’ report, and the research goals identified in the Strategic Coordination of the Health of the Public Research’s (SCHOPR) paper on ‘Health of the public research principles and goals’. See full list on our website.
- When considering applications for themes, we will seek to avoid any duplication or significant overlap with existing cross-disciplinary networks or themes, including within the UCL Research Domains and UCL Grand Challenges.
- Each theme will receive a small budget of approximately £2000 per year for events, travel or other costs that directly further the work of the theme, and they will also benefit from excellent professional services support.
- These positions would appeal to those ready to take on a challenging and rewarding leadership role with a strategic focus. It would be a great opportunity for those working towards promotion to Professorship, who require experience of working on strategic and interdisciplinary research/initiatives. Read the full eligibility criteria.
- Term of service would be two-years, extending to three years by mutual agreement. The role would be expected to be approx. 0.1 FTE.
- These leadership positions are voluntary and carry no additional salary support.
Deadline for applications is Tuesday 10 November 2020 (23:59 on 10/11/20)
Find out more and apply on the UHoP website.
Make yourself a coffee and join us on Tuesday 27 October 2020 for a ‘Coffee and Collaborate’ webinar to hear more about our Health of the Public Communities and to discuss your ideas for a proposed theme with our Co-Directors Dame Anne Johnson and Professor Graham Hart. Register on Eventbrite.
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Space Sector Response to Covid-19
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Knowledge Transfer Network
Knowledge Transfer Network uses deep sector expertise to make powerful connections across sectors, geographies and skill-sets to drive change through innovation. These connections have never been more important as – globally and as the UK – we respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Funding and External Engagement Opportunities
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Horizon Europe European Green Deal Call Open to Applications
The European Commission has launched the European Green Deal Call for research and innovation projects that respond to the climate crisis and help protect Europe's unique ecosystems and biodiversity. The aim of the Horizon 2020-funded European Green Deal Call is to spur Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis by turning green challenges into innovation opportunities.
The Commission is making available €1 billion under the Green Deal Call - the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020. The call is designed to respond to the climate crisis, provide more protection to Europe’s biodiversity and habitats under threat, and accelerate a sustainable recovery.
This Green Deal Call differs in important aspects from previous Horizon 2020 calls. Given the urgency of the challenges it addresses, it aims for clear, discernible results in the short to medium-term, but with a perspective of long-term change. There are fewer, but more targeted, larger and visible actions, with a focus on rapid scalability, dissemination and uptake.
The projects funded under this call are expected to deliver results with tangible benefits in ten areas:
Eight thematic areas reflecting the key work streams of the European Green Deal:
- Increasing climate ambition.
- Clean, affordable and secure energy.
- Industry for a clean and circular economy.
- Energy and resource efficient buildings.
- Sustainable and smart mobility.
- Farm to fork.
- Biodiversity and ecosystems.
- Zero-pollution, toxic-free environments.
And two horizontal areas - strengthening knowledge and empowering citizens, which offer a longer-term perspective in achieving the transformations set out in the European Green Deal.
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: 'The €1 billion European Green Deal call is the last and biggest call under Horizon 2020. With innovation at its heart, this investment will accelerate a just and sustainable transition to a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. As we do not want anyone left behind in this systemic transformation, we call for specific actions to engage with citizens in novel ways and improve societal relevance and impact.'
Applications to the 20 European Green Deal topics must be submitted by 26 January 2021 (17:00 CET).
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Nominations for the 2021 IBM PhD Fellowship Award program will be accepted until October 23, 2020 at 12:00 AM (EST). Notification of the results will take place in March of 2021
The IBM PhD Fellowship Program recognizes and supports exceptional PhD students who want to make their mark in promising and disruptive technologies. Focus areas include the following topics of particular interest:
- Hybrid Cloud
- Quantum Computing / Quantum Systems
- Artificial Intelligence
- Cloud / Open Source Technologies
- Security / Cyber Security
- Data Science
- Systems
Nominate PhD student for an IBM PhD Fellowship Award
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The SmartSat CRC is a consortium of industry and research organisations that will develop game changing technologies to bootstrap Australia’s space industry and catapult it into the 1/2 trillion dollar global economy.
SmartSat CRC has secured $245M in funding and are actively looking for research partners.
The Space Domain is keen to facilitate future research collaborations with SmartSat CRC. Please get in touch with Alan Smith with interest and proposals.
Further details: https://smartsatcrc.com/
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Belmont Forum Pre-announcement of Upcoming Pathways to Sustainability Call
Belmont Forum has announced the planned launch of a joint Collaborative Research Action (CRA) on the theme of Pathways for Sustainability. The goal of the new CRA, which is expected to be launched mid-June 2020, is to produce the necessary knowledge and propose options to help underpin sustainable development within a stable Earth System.
Therefore, to help provide a science base for achieving sustainability goals, Belmont Forum and partners are supporting a three-stage programme for proposals that focuses on integrated qualitative and quantitative approaches to develop Earth-system-based transformation pathways for sustainable development taking as a basis the four 'life-supporting SDGs':
- Goal 6 - Clean water and sanitation
- Goal 13 - Climate action
- Goal 14 - Life below water
- Goal 15 - Life on land
Funding will be directed towards designing cross-cutting activities and competitive seed grants to build the community, mobilise capacity, bring together existing focused projects, develop networks focused on stakeholder mapping, engagement of stakeholders, and evaluation of existing efforts.
Support will be for activities spanning no more than two years. It is anticipated that the call will open in mid-June 2020 with a deadline in October 2020.
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Geomatics on the Move Competition
The European GNSS Agency (GSA), in collaboration with the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE), has launched the Geomatics on the Move competition with the aim of fostering the use of the EU satellite programmes Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus to create innovative geomatics applications and solutions across Europe.
Building and expanding on the CLGE Student Contest, the new Geomatics on the Move Prize also targets applications that integrate the use of additional technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, as well as supplementary remote sensing data sources like drones. Solutions animated through mobile phone applications or other easy-to-use platforms are also welcome.
Students, young professionals, entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) are eligible to participate individually, or in teams of up to three participants. All participants must be located in the EU Member States or in Norway or Switzerland.
A total of €30,000 will be awarded in two categories:
Traditional Geomatics
Five prizes will be given to solutions for which main innovation is based on the usage of EGNSS, employing traditional equipment such as surveying or GIS grade GNSS Receivers for applications such as cadastral, marine and mining surveying or GIS mapping. These solutions can be supported or combined with Copernicus satellites data.
Integrated Geomatics
Five prizes will be given to integrated surveying solutions that use Galileo or EGNOS, leveraging cutting-edge tools and technologies like drones, mobile mapping, laser scanners or Augmented/Mixed Reality that can either be used within geomatics applications or beyond. These solutions can be supported or combined with Copernicus satellites data.
The prizes in both categories are:
- 1st Prize - € 5,000
- 2nd Prize - € 4,000
- 3rd Prize - € 3,000
- 4th Prize - € 2,000
- 5th Prize - € 1,000
The deadline for submission of ideas is 16 October 2020.
A maximum of 10 projects will be chosen to present their pitch during the finals. The official award of the Geomatics on the Move Prize Contest will take place virtually, during the European Space Week (7-11 December 2020). During this event, each finalist will present their solution to the evaluation board.
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Have you made shareable software, code or tech?
The Wellcome Trust are looking for examples of shareable software/scripts/tech that were created in Wellcome Trust funded projects. This is a scoping mission to find the range of tools that you all have made, what they do & in what research space, to help inform their new programme.
If you have written code, from small data viz scripts to big platforms - please share your github or papers in the twitter thread! |
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World Space Week 2020 4-10th October
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The Satellite Applications Catapult is one of a network of UK technology and innovation companies which aim to drive economic growth through the commercialisation of research. Upcoming online Webinar events and opportunities can be found here.
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Public Engagement at UCL is offering training designed to assist staff and students whatever the stage of their public engagement journey. Whether you’re just starting out and need support finding your voice to communicate your research to others outside the university, or whether you’re ready to develop a dialogue, make collaborative decisions and work with external groups.
Online/remote training
They have developed a package of online training available for you to complete at any time, wherever you are in the world. These courses are designed to be taken in order, but you can dip in and out if you are looking for specific content. More information.
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UKSEDS Virtual Student Space Symposium on October 10th 2020.
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A virtual Forum on 19 – 21 October 2020 examining the latest data solutions and thinking to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and more urgently the monitoring and recovery from COVID-19.
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Postponement of ESWW17/ESWW2020
The 17th European Space Weather Week (ESWW17/ESWW2020) has been postponed to 01-05th of November 2021 in Glasgow. Therefore, the 17th European Space Weather Week will now be known as ESWW2021.
In addition, the organizers are looking at the possibility of having a European Space Weather online meeting in November 2020 – and this will be completely separate from the ESWW series. The ESWW medals will also still be going ahead for 2020. Announcements expected soon.
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POSTPONED 2021 - Global Space Exploration Conference, St. Petersburg, Russia.
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71st International Astronautical Congress – The CyberSpace Edition. Virtually 12 – 14 October 2020.
NB: 72nd International Astronautical Congress, IAC 2021 Dubai, U.A.E 25 – 29 October 2021.
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Global Milsatcom 2020, London, 3-5 November 2020
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11th IAASS Conference, Osaka, Japan, **New Dates** 26-28th October *2021*
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43rd Committee on Space Research now COSPAR 2021
28 January – 4 February 2021, Sydney, Australia.
http://cospar2020.org/
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