Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity in ESA's Science Programme (M5)

 

29 April 2016

Through this Call for Missions the Director of Science solicits from the broad scientific community proposals for the competitive selection of mission concepts to be candidate for the implementation of a medium-size, or M-class, mission (M5). 

 

Direct link to this Call page:

http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/call-for-m5-missions

Interested parties planning to submit a proposal are requested to send a mandatory Letter of Intent by the date indicated below, and will be invited to attend a briefing meeting for the date and venue indicated below.

The present Call is open to missions in all areas of Space Science and is open to proposals for both European-only missions and missions in collaboration with international partners.

The selected mission will be implemented in the framework of ESA's Science Programme.

The schedule for the issue of the Call and the proposal evaluation process is:
 

Release of Call for M5 mission 29 April 2016
Letter of Intent submission deadline 6 June 2016, 12:00 (noon) CEST
Briefing meeting (ESTEC) 24 June 2016 (TBC)
Proposal submission deadline 5 October 2016, 12:00 (noon) CEST
Letters of Endorsement deadline 8 February 2017, 12:00 (noon) CET
Selection of missions for study June 2017

 

 

CALL INFORMATION PACKAGE

Full details of the Call are available in the information package. It contains the announcement letter, the Call document and the Annex. The package can be downloaded from the right-hand menu, under "Documentation".

 

LETTER OF INTENT (LoI) SUBMISSION

Prospective proposers are required to submit, by the deadline indicated in the Table above, a mandatory Letter of Intent (LoI) stating their intention to submit a proposal in response to the present Call. Proposals not preceded by a corresponding LoI will not be considered.

LoIs are accepted exclusively in electronic form, in PDF format, using the online submission form that can be accessed below or from the left-hand menu (the form opens in a new window).

 

Deadline for LOI submission has passed

The LoI shall have a maximum length of 4 A4 pages, minimum font size 11 pt.

A description of the purpose of the LoI and the expected content is available in the Call document, which is included in the information package.

 

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

Proposals must be submitted by the deadline indicated in the Table above. Proposals are accepted exclusively in electronic form, in PDF format, using the online submission form that can be accessed below or from the left-hand menu (the form opens in a new window).

 

Proposals shall be limited in length to 51 A4 pages (not including bibliography and annexes), with a minimum font size of 11 pt, and a maximum file size of 100 Mbytes.

A description of the expected proposal content is available in the Call and the Annex, which are included in the information package.

 

LETTERS OF endorsement SUBMISSION

Letters of Endorsement from Member State agencies (and international partners, if applicable) will be required after the Proposals submission, according to the deadline indicated in the Table above. The Letters of Endorsement will have to be addressed to the ESA Director of Science, and sent directly by the Member State agencies by email to the address endorsement-M5@cosmos.esa.int.

 

BRIEFING MEETING

Following the submission of a Letter of Intent, proposers will be invited to a briefing meeting, currently planned for the date and place indicated in the Table above. Confirmation of the date and of the logistical details for the briefing meeting will be communicated to the contact points indicated in the Letters of Intent.

 

CONTACT

The main contact point for this Call is:

Luigi Colangeli
Head of the Coordination Office for the Scientific Programme
ESA SCI-CS

ESTEC
Postbus 299
2200 AG Noordwijk
The Netherlands
Tel:  +31 - 71 565 3573
Fax: +31 - 71 565 4791
Email: luigi.colangeli@esa.int