Our team and mission

This position is based at the ESA HQ – Paris, France

The Industrial Policy and Space Economy Division is responsible for setting up and implementing the proactive return management in view of the geographical return objectives of the Agency, in support of the other Directorates.

It implements Agency-wide actions on specific supplier issues and the supplier evaluation process, in close coordination with Programme Directorates and the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality (D/TEC). It manages the relations with Members States and industry to foster dialogue and cooperation with industry and industry associations.

The Division is responsible for the economic research and impact analysis at ESA by developing products and services on economic intelligence of the space sector, socio-economic impact evaluation of space programmes and market analyses. It coordinates and harmonises impact evaluation across ESA and provides additional economic advisory services.

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

Field(s) of activity for the internship

Topic of the internship: Space Economy

As an intern with the Space Economy team, your proposed activities will support:

• the team’s work on measuring the economic, social and environmental impacts of ESA programmes;
• the communication of ESA Space Economy activities, notably through the ESA Space Economy Portal;
• the on-going research on the use of official statistics (from Eurostat and National Statistical Institutes) to identify, measure and monitor the European space sector’s economic value. This research is currently done in cooperation notably with Eurostat and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre.

Learning objectives will include:

• understanding the application of the impact assessment framework (as defined in the European Commission ‘Better regulation’ toolbox, July 2023 edition) to publicly-funded space programmes;
• developing knowledge on the economic, social and environmental impacts of space activities, and in particular of ESA programmes;
• developing skills in writing short articles and summary reports on impact studies to communicate the results to the general public;
• discovering the statistical contours of the space economy in official statistics and within the official classifications of economic activities (Eurostat NACE classification).

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 in your final or second-to-last year of a university course at Master’s level and you need to remain 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 Member State language would be an asset.

Knowledge and educational background in economics and impact evaluation would be an asset.