Who can apply?

To participate, students must fulfil the following criteria:

aged minimum of 18 years old. ESA Academy and relevant partners will only appraise applications from students who have no or limited professional experience in relevant scientific, engineering or other space-related topics;
be a citizen of an ESA Member State, Associate State, or Canada*;
be enrolled as a university student for the academic year 2025-2026 in a Bachelor (i.e., BSc or equivalent), Master (i.e., MSc or equivalent), or Doctoral (i.e., PhD or equivalent) degree programme;
be studying an Engineering or Scientific subject (with good knowledge in space technology).

*Canadian students enrolled in a Canadian post-secondary institution may apply for additional support from the Canadian Space Agency through this Announcement of Opportunity (grant applications must be submitted at least 7 weeks before the event start date – create an account as soon as possible!). This additional support is to cover costs that are not already covered by ESA for selected Canadian post-secondary students.

Selected students will be requested to attend the entire 5-day training week at ESEC-Galaxia. They will be sponsored by ESA to cover accommodation and meals, as well as up to 350 Euros for travelling to and from Belgium.

Students will be evaluated on their group work throughout the Training Week. Upon completion students will receive a certificate and course transcript, allowing them to request ECTS credits from their respective universities.

How to apply?

Fill in the application form via our platform;
Upload a motivation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, no image);
Upload a CV (PDF, Europass format, maximum 2 pages, no image);
Upload a formal recommendation letter (PDF, maximum 1 page, including signature, no image) from a university professor or academic supervisor of the current university (if it is not possible to receive the recommendation letter from your referee, please ask them to send a recommendation email to academy.training@esa.int before the application deadline);
Upload a copy of your Transcript of Grades from the two previous semesters, or, if not available, the previous graded academic year (PDF).

All answers and documents should be in English (Transcript of Grades can be submitted in language of hosting university, if unavailable in English).

The deadline for applications to participate in the CubeSat Hands-On Training Week 2026 is 15th February 2026, 23:59 CET.

The selection announcement will be on 1st March 2026.

For more information, please contact academy.training@esa.int.

About the training

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