30/07/2024

 

POMP 4

 

ABOUT THE MELiSSA FOUNDATION

The MELiSSA foundation is a non-profit organisation created by the MELiSSA consortium. The Foundation manages a fund dedicated to support MELiSSA PhD students and postdocs. The board of the Foundation consists of Prof. Claude-Gilles Dussap (Scientific Director) and Rob Suters LLM (Managing Director). The committee in charge of evaluating PhD applications consists of representatives of the MELiSSA community, ESA and independent scientists.

The MELiSSA Foundation PS is a private foundation (private stichting) based in Brussels incorporated under Belgian law registered under nr. 0547759097. 

For contact details please visit contact.

 

MELiSSA PROGRAM

 

THE MELiSSA SPACE RESEARCH PROGRAM

The acronym MELiSSA stands for 'Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative'. It refers to a space project for circular life support systems for crewed space missions. The MELiSSA Project is managed by the European Space Agency (ESA). MELiSSA was started over 30 years ago and is based on a collaborative development program between 16 partners and a large number of supporting subcontractors. The MELiSSA project is internationally recognized as the most advanced effort to develop artificial eco-systems to sustain astronauts during long term space missions. 

 

The MELiSSA Consortium 

The MELiSSA consortium consists of 16 partners and includes the European Space Agency, the MELiSSA Foundation, several universities, private research organisations, and private companies. Our partners are from Belgium, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway, but we collaborate with a multitude of partners across the globe. If you wish to contact one of the MELiSSA Partners please send a message to the MELiSSA Foundation.  

Please visit the Downloads section below, if you wish to review the keywords that summarize their contribution to the MELiSSA project which should be used as a guideline for PhD applications. 

• European Space Agency University of Clermont Auvergne (France) 
• Ghent University (Belgium) 
• SEMiLLA IPStar B.V. (The Netherlands) 
• SCK•CEN, Belgian Nuclear Research Center (Belgium) 
• Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) 
• Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek N.V. (VITO) (Belgium) 
• Sherpa Engineering S.A. (France) 
• University of Naples Federico II (Italy) 
• University of Mons (Belgium) 
• University of Antwerpen (Belgium) 
• EnginSoft S.p.A. (France) 
• NTNU Samfunnsforskning AS (Norway) 
• EAWAG (Switzerland) 
• Nantes University, ALGOSOLIS (France) 
• MELiSSA Foundation PS 

 

PhD PROGRAM

CALL FOR DOCTORATE (PH.D.) / POSTDOC PROPOSALS 

A new MELiSSA Call for Doctorate and Postdoctoral Proposals is under preparation and opens in July 2024. Deadline for submissions is September 15th, 2024, 23:59h CET.  

 

Background and objectives

ESA, an international organization with 22 Member States (www.esa.int), is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. 

Targeted Areas of Research

The MELiSSA project has been initiated with the objective to develop closed-loop life support systems to reach the highest degree of circularity and sustainability in long-term crewed space missions, in complete autonomy from Earth and in the most efficient, safe, reliable and robust manner. The main objective of the project is to design and engineer a life support system allowing the highest degree of waste recycling to produce oxygen, water and food utilizing a combination of compartmentalised transformation processes, based on microorganisms or plants. Such an ambitious objective comes with challenges, among them the highly multidisciplinary approach and the very long-term research effort. Due to its nature and principal objectives, the MELiSSA project requires a strong strategic vision on the interaction between different processes as well as between research institutes. 

In order to reinforce this interaction as well as the continuity of the research, national delegations, external audits as well as MELiSSA Partners have recommended to organize a Pool of MELiSSA PhDs and Postdocs, abbreviated: the POMP program. The POMP program is set up to attract students belonging to the faculties of Sciences, Engineering and Agronomy. The main objective is to organize an international competition for MELiSSA PhDs and Postdoctoral candidates. The current call concerns hosting universities from: Belgium, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. 

 

Please note that candidates can be from any country in the world. The hosting university however must be in one of the abovementioned countries.    

 

Management

The POMP program and fund is managed by the MELiSSA Foundation. The MELiSSA Foundation will also leverage the POMP program by involving the Ph.D. students and postdocs in ‘team events’ such as the MELiSSA Summer University, the yearly MELiSSA meetings and a variety of conferences. 

Eligibility

To be admitted to the POMP PhD / postdoc program, candidates must:

• Hold a university degree equivalent to a master's degree with a focus in the same subject as the intended field of study. 
• Have a good command of English and of the working language of the university they plan to do their PhD or postdoc with. 

Further specific admission requirements may be set by the department that has advertised the position. 

 

Proposal Submission Process

To enrol in the POMP program, candidates should submit their application following the information written in the call for applications. 

 

What the MELiSSA Foundation finances 

• Stipends or PhD / postdoc salary
• Bench fees
• Academic enrolment fees
• Travel expenses

Proposals including co-financing will be considered. Please also note that the Foundation does NOT finance more than 5% overhead in the event the student is directly employed by the hosting university. Applications without overhead are treated on a priority basis. 

 

How to apply

Applicants must:

1. Fill in the POMP4 Application Form providing the requested information and email the documents as pdf file only to applications@melissafoundation.org. Please visit the Downloads section below to access the form.
2. Pay € 20.00 (administration fee). This fee will be refunded to all applicants who are invited for an interview.  

Please transfer the administration fee using the following information:
MELiSSA Foundation PS
IBAN: BE50 3631 3283 9318
BIC: BBRUBEBB
VAT: BE547759097 

 

Downloads

The following documents are available for download to help to prepare a proposal to this call: 

1. POMP4 Application Form
2. List of MELiSSA Partners (with keywords about their activities) which will collaborate with the university departments interested in the call.
3. List of main MELiSSA publications
4. List of research themes proposed by the MELiSSA Partners that could serve as discussion base with the hosting Universities 
   
5. 1. MELiSSA C1: Inoculum and consortium characterization and standardization
   2. MELiSSA C2: MEC design optimization, characterization, and modelling
   3. MELiSSA C3: Modelling and predictive control of C3
   4. MELiSSA C4a: Deciphering Limnospira indica strain morphological changes
   5. MELiSSA C4a: Understanding and characterization of EPS production in high intensity photobioreactors  
   6. MELiSSA C4b: Study and characterization of plant biomass and plant transpiration through canopy images   
   7. MELiSSA C4b: Response of higher plants to nitrogen sources from processed urine
   8. MELiSSA loop: Description of the S, P, and Na-cycle (assimilation, mass balance).

 

HOW TO PREPARE A PH.D. OR POSTDOC PROPOSAL FOR THE POMP PROGRAM 

Each POMP Ph.D. or postdoc project must be structured as a collaboration between four parties: 

• Hosting university (laboratory / department) 
• Ph.D. student or postdoc 
• MELiSSA Partner 
• MELiSSA Foundation. 

The application shall be submitted by the hosting universities laboratories themselves. Based on the proposed abstracts, the hosting universities shall develop their own research program knowing that the program of work shall include a year abroad within one of the Melissa Partners’ premises. A proposal without an identified PhD student will not be evaluated. The complete application should be sent by email to the MELiSSA Foundation. 

The hosting university must be located in Belgium, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Spain or Switzerland. The MELiSSA Partners are located in the following countries: Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Norway and Switzerland.  

The MELiSSA Foundation invites Latvia to be the hosting university for topic 4 and Poland for topics 6 and 7 mentioned above. 

The duration of the Ph.D. will be 4 years and includes the time required for the writing and the defence of the thesis. During this period the Ph.D. student must spend 12 months at the premises of a MELiSSA Partner situated in a different country than the country of the hosting university. Deviations are only allowed upon written approval from the MELiSSA Foundation. 

 

Deliverables

If the proposal is selected, the MELiSSA Foundation will sign a contract with the hosting university and the candidate. In the frame of this contract, the hosting university shall provide deliverables to the MELiSSA Foundation all along the PhD or Post-doc. Based on this delivery, the payments will be done according to the payment plan previously defined in the contract.