Space Placements in Industry (SPIN): Award scheme 2021
This Announcement of Opportunity closes at 5pm on 29 April 2021 (or earlier if all funds have been awarded).
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The UK Space Agency, supported by its delivery partner the Satellite Applications Catapult, is making at least £75,000 available under its “SPIN” placement award scheme. Projects that seek to develop skills in the intern which are identified within the recently published Space Sector Skills Survey are strongly encouraged. The projects should be suitable to be carried out by an undergraduate or postgraduate student in a relevant discipline over a period of 8 or more weeks in the summer (applicants must be registered with an educational establishment at the time of their application).
This is a competitive process which offers small grants up to a maximum of £3,000 for each award. The scheme is run to support the provision of paid work placements across the sector and to fulfil the skills and careers aims and objectives of the UK Space Agency’s education programme, as set out in its Education, Skills and Outreach Strategy.
For this phase of the call, applications are welcome from all sizes of organisation as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs), universities, charities, not-for-profits and UK government agencies that can propose an inspirational space-oriented project which will develop the skills that the sector needs in their future workforce.
This, in turn, supports the aims of the UK Space Agency by providing a context for students to experience the breadth of opportunities that the sector can offer, developing skills crucial to the success of the sector, supporting the growth of businesses within the sector and raising awareness of the UK’s space programme and STEM subjects in general.
What projects are suitable?
Your project may be targeted at a student of a specific discipline, or simply describe the skills you are looking for. You may use it to highlight critical future skills that your business will require. It should outline a piece of work or role which will take a minimum of 8 weeks and be designed to enhance the skill set of the successful applicant, whilst providing them with a business context in which to apply their skills.
The placement will vary from organisation to organisation and may involve:
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a piece of research or a small project that would otherwise not be done
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working as part of a team on a product or client-focused project, or something more independent.
Placements may be extended beyond 8 weeks, by mutual agreement between the host organisation and the successful applicant.
We anticipate the following schedule:
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received applications will be reviewed every two weeks by the panel and successful applicants notified immediately. In parallel, the completed Advert Template will be forwarded to the Satellite Applications Catapult for upload to the SPIN recruitment webpages. We strongly encourage you to make use of the advice provided by the Space Skills Alliance in their ‘Recruitment Toolkit’;
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the final deadline for placement proposals, should funds not be exhausted before this, will be 5pm on 29 April 2021;
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projects will be advertised to students on the SPIN website for 4 weeks;
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student applications will be sent to hosts immediately after the closing date for shortlisting and selection;
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we ask that all hosts review student applications immediately, make selections within 10 working days of the closing date, and inform unsuccessful applicants within 15 working days;
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as a result of COVID-19, the timing and duration of the placement (beyond 8 weeks) are entirely up to the host organisation. All successful candidates will be invited to attend a virtual SPIN Induction session on the 21 June 2021;
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the SPIN Showcase Event 2021 is under review.
You will receive a notification of your application being accepted within 48 hours of sending. If you do not receive this, we have probably not received your application.