Background
The space sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, and the UK government has its sights set high within the international space scene. By pairing students with space companies for their individual project, we hope to contribute to this growth towards a larger and thriving space sector within the UK.
This new scheme allows students to gain real experience, improve their employability, and get their foot in the door within space companies. It has been designed upon feedback from several academics and industry professionals to ensure the process is as smooth as possible for all involved. We have recently added the option for academics to also apply for projects, allowing them to then select an appropriate student. Being a new scheme, we welcome any feedback to improve.
Remember, there are two ways projects are assigned:
Route 1: A student applies for the project directly after talking to their university about the suitability of the project for their research module.
Route 2: You, an academic at a university, applies for the space project, and later chooses a student who you think would be suitable for the project.
Making it work
Our priority is to make sure the project scopes are up to the standard you require, so that they fulfil the intended learning outcomes for your individual project module. Students who apply for a project will only be considered with the support of an academic willing to supervise them, and should be supported by someone from the partnering company with regular meetings.
We recognise you might have procedures in place and might regularly work with some organisations for this sort of collaboration. If students at your university are selected, this scheme may allow you to form new relationships with different organisations. For consistency within the scheme, given a single organisation might select students from multiple different universities, it would be great if you could follow the procedures we have designed.
Academics who apply directly for projects will be able to more easily discuss and define an appropriate project scope with the partnering company, ahead of student selection. If you, an academic, are chosen by a company for a project, it is then at your discretion to choose the student who completes the project.
Scheme Handbook
The handbook below provides all the details of this scheme. We recommend reading it and getting in touch if you have any questions.
PDF version: Link