ACTIVITIES

Between 3-4 April, in Timisoara, ESERO Romania (the European Space Education Resource Office) is organising the finals of the first National CanSat Competition dedicated to students older than 14 years. The eight cansats of the finalist teams will be launched at the height of 1 km to land using a parachute. The winning team of the National competition will qualify directly to the finals of the European CanSat competition, which will be organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) near Lisbon, Portugal, from 25 to 28 June 2015.

Four teams of Romanian students aged 11-19 years have qualified for the next stage of the second space robotics competitions organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), IRISS. The teams were selected following a letter of intent sent to ESA, accompanied by a video presentation of the team, of the strategy they will adopt for their robot and of any hardware prototype that they had built.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the Summer of Code in Space (SOCIS) annual programme dedicated to student software developers from ESA Member States. The winning applicants will be paid to develop innovative open-source software for space projects and will get the chance to work on their project during their summer time.

The Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) is inviting schools, astronomy clubs, science centres and other youth-engaged Romanian organisations to enroll in the VMC campaign, organised by the European Space Agency (ESA). For three days, the VMC camera (Visual Monitoring Camera) onboard Mars Express mission will make observations based on the requests received from the public. Those interested can submit their proposals online until 27 March at 13:00 GMT. The best of them will be selected by ESA, and observations will be made between 25-27 May.

The Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) invites Romanian teachers to apply for the 'Summer Teachers Workshop 2015' organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) from 8 to 10 July 2015 at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The workshop is dedicated to both primary and secondary school teachers of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects residing and working in ESA Member or Cooperating States. The deadline for application is Friday 3 April 2015.

The Romanian Space Agency is the partner of ASUR (The Romanian Secular-Humanist Association) in organising the ‘Nicolaus Copernicus’ national contest, which runs from 19 February to 24 September 2015. The competition aims to encourage secondary education students' interest in astronomy and science, to consolidate their existing knowledges and to form new ones and to enhance their creativity.

On Friday, 6 February 2015, Timisoara hosted the first meeting of the “Space Ambassadors”, event attended by Mr. Virgil Pop, ESERO Romania manager from the Romanian Space Agency, Mrs. Clara Cruz Niggebrugge, coordinator of the ESERO project at the European Space Agency level and the eight Space Ambassadors.

Update 5.03.2015: The team composed of the Romanian students Alex Danţis, Alex Dumitrescu and Anda Truta, together with Julian Laval from France, all of them studying at the UK’s University of Bristol, won the first prize of the annual ESA App Camp with their FarmIQ application. Details here.

Three Romanian students are members of the teams selected for the annual ESA App Camp, following an intense Appathon weekend held simultaneously at six ESA Business Incubation Centres and partner locations across Europe on 24–25 January. More than 170 participants from about 30 nations have competed to win a ticked for the ESA App Camp, which will take place in Barcelona from 25 February to 3 March.

The Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) invites school students aged between 11 and 19 to apply to the second space robotics competition organised by the European Space Agency (ESA). The participants are challenged to design a robot that can move cargo from one end of an International Space Station (ISS) mock-up to another.

Update 13 July 2015: From 8 to 10 July, more than 100 primary and secondary school teachers from 18 ESA Member States took part in the ESA Summer Teachers Workshop at ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Top level space experts, such as ESA astronaut André Kuipers, Rosetta Project Scientist Matt Taylor, award-winning solar astrophysicist Pål Brekke, and ESA Copernicus Space Segment Manager Guido Levrini gave teachers unprecedented access to inside information from the people directly involved in the various space projects.

Romania ESERO invites studentes and secondary school teacher to enroll the first national CanSat competition - Romania 2015, until 5 January 2015.

Teams of four students (aged over 14 years until 1th April 2015) coordinated by a teacher will complete until this date a registration form available online and they will send it by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The subprogram Research projects to stimulate the establishment of young independent research teams has been launched within the Human Resources Program of the National Plan for RDI, 2014 competition.

The aim of the competition is to support young researchers, with a PhD, who have just started or are already strengthening a research team, after they established a program of independent research, obtaining significant results in their specific field.