The European Space Agency (ESA) is recruiting an AI-enabled Scientific Knowledge Management and Discovery intern for its Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands. The internship lasts 3 to 6 months, starts from February 2027 onwards, and applications close on 30 November 2026 at 23:59 CET/CEST. At Youth Works Hub, we reviewed the full vacancy: you will build a digital tool that helps researchers find and reuse knowledge from ESA's Life Sciences Handbook.
Vacancy at a Glance
🆔 Job Requisition ID: 21113
🎓 Type of appointment: Intern
🚀 Directorate: Human and Robotic Exploration
🏙️ Workplace: Noordwijk, NL
📍 Location: ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands
🌐 Publication method: external only
⏳ Closing date: 30 November 2026, 23:59 CET/CEST
🗓️ Duration: 3 to 6 months, from February 2027 onwards
About the Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration
The Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration is responsible for Europe's human and robotic exploration activities in low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station and future post-Station activities, as well as exploration of the Moon and Mars. Its work combines science, technology development, mission preparation and operations.
You Will Work Across Two Teams
For this internship, you will work across two complementary teams: a science team that provides the research context, and a software and artificial intelligence team that is your technical home base.
The Exploration Science Office (HRE-S)
The Exploration Science Office develops and implements the scientific element of the Human and Robotic Exploration programme, including the biological and life sciences research. The team works closely with the European scientific community to define research priorities, prepare experiments and bring biological payloads and investigations to the International Space Station and other research platforms.
It also captures and maintains the scientific knowledge, experimental results and lessons learned generated through these activities. This team will provide the scientific context for your internship and represents the main user community for the solution you will develop.
The Software and Artificial Intelligence Team (HRE-FI)
Your technical home base will be the Software and Artificial Intelligence Team, which develops and applies software and emerging digital technologies across human and robotic exploration. The team works in areas including software engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, extended reality, data technologies and quantum technologies.
You will work in a multidisciplinary technical environment and receive support in areas such as software development, data systems, artificial intelligence and digital solution design.
Why Working Across Both Teams Matters
By working across both teams, you will have the opportunity to translate a real scientific knowledge-management challenge into a practical technical solution, while working directly with the scientists and stakeholders who are expected to use it.
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ESA's Life Sciences Handbook
The European Space Agency's Exploration Science Office has established a Life Sciences Handbook to capture scientific knowledge, lessons learned, experimental results, technologies, standards and research recommendations generated through decades of space life sciences activities.
What the Handbook Is Meant to Do
The handbook is intended to help researchers make better use of previous experience when designing new experiments, payloads and protocols. This can include very practical questions, such as which materials, methods, environmental conditions or preservation approaches have already been demonstrated successfully.
By making this knowledge accessible, the handbook can help researchers avoid repeating known mistakes, build on previous findings and design more robust science.
The Challenge: Discovery, Understanding and Reuse
As the handbook grows, its value will increasingly depend on how easily the scientific community can discover, understand and reuse its content, and on how effectively new knowledge can be captured and added over time.
Your Mission as an Intern
During this internship, you will design and develop a digital solution that helps the scientific community make best use of this growing knowledge base. Your work is organised in three task areas, listed below.
Task 1: Understand Users, Data and Existing Solutions
🗣️ Work with scientists to understand how they would use the handbook, what information they need and where current barriers to adoption and discovery lie.
🤝 Consider different levels of digital affinity and trust within the user community and translate these into functional and technical requirements.
🗂️ Analyse the structure, content and metadata of the existing handbook and associated data.
🔎 Review relevant existing tools, platforms and approaches within and outside the European Space Agency, for example ESA Data Labs, scientific data archives and comparable knowledge-access solutions used by other research communities, and assess their relevance to the use case in order to inform build, reuse, integration and hosting decisions.
Task 2: Design, Prototype and Evaluate the Solution
🌐 Assess suitable ways of making the solution accessible to its intended users, for example through integration with an existing website or other digital environment, taking into account hosting, authentication, access rights, permissions and deployment constraints.
🔐 Coordinate access, integration and deployment considerations with relevant scientific, technical and service stakeholders and reflect the resulting requirements in the proposed solution.
🖥️ Assess and prototype suitable user interfaces for accessing the knowledge base, for example structured browsing, category-based navigation, filters, search, visual exploration or conversational artificial-intelligence interfaces.
🧭 Evaluate suitable retrieval approaches, including semantic search, retrieval-augmented generation and conversational artificial intelligence, considering accuracy, transparency, user trust and maintainability.
🛠️ Design and implement a working prototype connecting the underlying knowledge base with the selected user interface and search and retrieval components.
🧪 Test and refine the prototype with representative users from the scientific community.
Task 3: Enable Sustainable Growth and Future Operation
♻️ Design a sustainable data pipeline that allows new experimental results, lessons learned and recommendations to be captured, reviewed and incorporated into the knowledge base with minimal manual effort.
📝 Document the solution and provide recommendations for further development and operational use.
What You Will Gain From the Internship
Through this internship, you will gain hands-on experience in these areas, while contributing directly to the reuse of scientific knowledge in future space life sciences research:
📚 Scientific data and knowledge management
🎨 User-centred design
💻 Software prototyping
🕸️ Web-based information access
🧠 Artificial intelligence
🔍 Information retrieval
🚰 Data pipelines
Who Can Apply: Education
You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year of university course at Master's level. In addition, you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your university for the entire duration of the internship.
Skills and Experience ESA Is Looking For
You bring the following skillset to the team:
🔬 Academic background in data science, scientific computing, bioinformatics, information science, knowledge management, human-computer interaction, biology or a related scientific or technical field.
📊 Experience working with scientific data, structured datasets or knowledge bases.
📋 Ability to translate user needs into functional requirements for a digital solution.
⌨️ Practical programming or scripting skills sufficient to build and adapt a working prototype.
🧩 Experience designing or prototyping web-based interfaces, including search, filtering, navigation or data-driven components.
🗄️ Understanding of databases, data structures and how digital applications connect to underlying data sources.
🤖 Familiarity with artificial intelligence, semantic search, large language models or retrieval-augmented generation is an asset.
🛰️ Experience in academic, research or space-related environments is an asset.
The Profile ESA Is Particularly Interested In
ESA is particularly interested in candidates who combine an understanding of scientific or research data with the ability to design and prototype digital tools for accessing and reusing that information.
Working Languages
The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.
Behavioural Competencies
ESA assesses candidates against its Core Behavioural Competencies. The vacancy lists these six:
🎯 Result Orientation
⚙️ Operational Efficiency
💬 Fostering Cooperation
📞 Relationship Management
📈 Continuous Improvement
🔭 Forward Thinking
For more information, the vacancy refers to the ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook.
Which Nationalities Can Apply?
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Export Control and Sanctions Requirement
Applicants must be eligible to access information, technology, and hardware which is subject to European or US export control and sanctions regulations.
Duration, Start Date and Application Limit
According to ESA's announcement for the 2027 student internships, an internship lasts 3 to 6 months and starts from February 2027 onwards. The exact start date is agreed with the ESA tutor.
A candidate can apply for up to two ESA internship opportunities.
Selection Tests and Interview
During the recruitment process, the Agency may request applicants to undergo selection tests. During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. It welcomes applications from all qualified candidates irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, disability or other characteristics.
Support for Applicants with Disabilities
ESA values diversity and welcomes people with disabilities. Whenever possible, it seeks to accommodate individuals with disabilities by providing the necessary support at the workplace. The Human Resources Department can also provide assistance during the recruitment process. The contact email for this is listed at the end of this post.
Important Information
The information published on ESA's careers website regarding internship conditions is correct at the time of publication. It is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. The vacancy does not state an allowance for this internship.
Find more opportunities like this in our internship and traineeship listings on Youth Works Hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the ESA AI-enabled Scientific Knowledge Management and Discovery internship take place?
The internship is based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, within ESA's Human and Robotic Exploration Directorate. You will work across the Exploration Science Office and the Software and Artificial Intelligence Team.
What will I build during this internship?
You will design and develop a digital solution that helps the scientific community discover, understand and reuse the content of ESA's Life Sciences Handbook. This includes a working prototype connecting the knowledge base with a user interface and search and retrieval components, tested with representative users.
What is the ESA Life Sciences Handbook?
It is a handbook established by the Exploration Science Office to capture scientific knowledge, lessons learned, experimental results, technologies, standards and research recommendations from decades of space life sciences activities. It helps researchers design new experiments, payloads and protocols based on previous experience.
How long is the internship and when does it start?
ESA internships last from 3 to 6 months and begin from February 2027 onwards. The start date is agreed with the ESA tutor.
Who is eligible to apply?
You must be a university student, preferably in your final or second-to-last year at Master's level, and you must be able to prove that you will be enrolled at your university for the entire duration of the internship. You must also be a national of one of the States listed in the vacancy.
Which academic backgrounds fit this internship?
ESA lists data science, scientific computing, bioinformatics, information science, knowledge management, human-computer interaction, biology or a related scientific or technical field. It is particularly interested in candidates who combine an understanding of scientific data with the ability to prototype digital tools.
Do I need experience with artificial intelligence?
Familiarity with artificial intelligence, semantic search, large language models or retrieval-augmented generation is listed as an asset, not as a requirement. The vacancy does require practical programming or scripting skills sufficient to build and adapt a working prototype.
Which languages do I need?
The working languages of ESA are English and French, and a good knowledge of one of them is required. Knowledge of another ESA Member State language is an asset.
How many ESA internships can I apply for?
A candidate can apply for up to two ESA internship opportunities.
Is an allowance stated in the vacancy?
No. The vacancy does not state an allowance for this internship.
What happens after I apply?
The Agency may request applicants to undergo selection tests. During the interview, your motivation for applying to this role will be explored.
What is the application deadline?
Applications close on 30 November 2026 at 23:59 CET/CEST.
Deadline
⏳ 30 November 2026
Links
🔗 Apply now (ESA vacancy 21113): https://jobs.esa.int/job/Noordwijk-Intern-in-AI-enabled-Scientific-Knowledge-Management-and-Discovery/1452989133/
📰 ESA Student Internships 2027: https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/ESA_Student_Internships_2027_are_now_open
🌌 ESA website: https://www.esa.int
📧 Contact for disability support: ESA.Student.Internships@esa.int
