One of the goals of the Space Generation Congress (SGC) is to provide an opportunity for interaction between members of the space sector with diverse geographic and technical backgrounds. To enable those members of the SGAC community without sources of funding to attend the event, and recognize our active members, SGAC has been running the Space Generation Leadership Award (SGLA).

The Space Generation Leadership Award facilitates the attendance of international delegates who bring unique and insightful firsthand perspectives to the Space Generation Congress. It selects top international applicants to attend the 21st Space Generation Congress (28 – 30 September, 2023) and the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) (2-6 October, 2023)  held in Baku, Azerbaijan. 

Award

The winners will receive an award in order to attend the following events:

  • 21st Space Generation Congress: 28 – 30 September, 2023;
  • 74th International Astronautical Congress: 2-6 October, 2023.

The winners will receive an award grant as total or partial reimbursement to cover:

  • Round trip travel costs to Baku, Azerbaijan, via economy airfare;
  • Lodging at the official SGC hotel;
  • Visa costs (if any);
  • Space Generation Congress registration fee;
  • International Astronautical Congress registration fee. 

The granted amount will be communicated to the winners individually as it will be split based on different factors out of the 10’000 USD allocated for this scholarship.

How to Apply

Applications to the Space Generation Leadership Award are accepted as part of the SGC delegate applications. You will have to apply to be a delegate of the Space Generation Congress 2023. You can apply and find more information here.
Please do not underestimate the competitiveness of the SGC application process: make sure to properly address the entire application and not just the questions related to the SGLA.

To apply, please submit a SGC delegate application and select the option to be considered for the SGLA. You will be asked to provide additional information listed below:

  • Please describe your contributions to SGAC, and how these demonstrate leadership? (e.g. I was part of the organising team of the last SGC in the delegates team, as such I was supporting the delegates throughout the application process. I was also a project group co-lead for the Space Exploration Project Group and as such I developed the first SEPG series of webinars. I also attended the SGFF in 2017 and 2018 as a delegate and supported the team as the rapporteur.)  (max. 250 words)
  • How have you empowered and supported others to achieve their goals and develop their own leadership skills? (Within your community, company, organization, or SGAC) (max. 250 words)
  • How do you plan to use this experience to make a positive impact in your community, company, organization, or SGAC? (max. 250 words)
  • What are your goals as a leader, and how do you plan to continue growing and developing in your leadership role within SGAC and the Space Sector? (max. 250 words)

To the SGC2023 Application page!

Guidelines

Eligibility

  1. The scholarship is open to all students and young professionals from any UN Member or observer State. Participants must be SGAC members (registered on the SGAC website) between the age of 18 and 35 years as of September 30, 2023.
  2. To be eligible, applicants should have had at least some past contributions to SGAC, as volunteers, or attending SGAC events.
    • Examples of contributions include: attending SGAC events, being a member of an SGAC event team, working with SGAC project groups or being a member of the SGAC team including RCs, NPoCs, Executive Office.
  3. SGLA Scholarship judges and SGC 2023 Manager and Deputy Manager are ineligible for the award.
  4. Previous winners of the Space Generation Leadership Award or Global Grants programme are ineligible for this award.
  5. Winners should not receive support from any other source to attend the event. Should winners receive such support midway through the programme, SGAC should be informed and a solution will be sought.

In the interest of spreading opportunities to more members, SGAC reserves the right to prioritise applicants who have not recently received another SGAC scholarship of a similar nature. “Recently” is defined as having received a travel grant in the past 2 years, in the same category (either international or regional/national) as this posted award. International awards include scholarships for international events such as SGC/IAC, SGFF and Space Symposium, while regional/national awards refer to events, such as the Space Generation Workshops (SGW), national space generation events (SG[country]) or other regional or national conferences. 

Submission

  1. All applications must be submitted in English.
  2. Applicants will submit their application through the Space Generation Congress delegate application form available here, from April 01, 2023. Please select “Yes” when answering “Would you like to be considered for the Space Generation Leadership Award”. 
  3. All submissions must be made by 30 April 2023, 23:59 GMT. Any submissions after the deadline will not be considered.

Responsibility of Winners

  1. The winner shall:
    • Attend the 21st Space Generation Congress 2023 in-person in its entirety;
    • Attend the 74th International Astronautical Congress 2023 in its entirety;
    • Support the running of the Space Generation Congress 2023 (as moderator or rapporteur);
    • Contribute to finalizing the Space Generation Congress 2023 report;
    • Represent SGAC at the SGAC booth at IAC at assigned time slots;
    • Submit a short report (2 pages excluding pictures) and a short video (1 minute) describing their experience at SGC 2023 and IAC 2023 for inclusion on the SGAC website, newsletter or social media and that of our partners.

All responsibilities shall be fulfilled and reports etc. submitted not later than 1st of November 2023.  In case the scholarship awardee(s) do(es) not complete the scholarship requirements on time, the scholarship funds will be transferred to SGAC general budget to continue supporting the mission and work of SGAC.

These tasks offer great opportunities such as being the rapporteur of an SGC working group and helping with writing a group report, being the front face of SGAC at the SGAC booth and meeting interesting people.

Reimbursement

  1. The award will be paid out after the Congress, and upon fulfilment of all requirements in a suitable manner as determined by the scholarship coordinators, including any report submissions and submissions of expense claims. It will be paid out no later than 30 days after fulfilment of all responsibilities.
  2. In case applicants or the winning author receive funding for SGC 2023 and/or IAC 2023 by any other organisation, the Scholarships Coordinators shall be informed. If the applicants don’t inform the Scholarships Coordinators, SGAC holds the right to not reimburse the winning author. SGAC aims to reduce the number of double scholarships and will work with the winners to develop a solution in these cases.
  3. Applicants are advised to not engage in any expenses until they have formal confirmation that the competition has been awarded. The SGAC is not liable for any expenses incurred by applicants in any case where competition is not awarded, or in excess of the value of the awarded grant. Applicants are advised to purchase a travel insurance and flexible tickets to cope in case of sickness or travel restrictions. See also point 5 under liability on this matter. 
  4. Reimbursements will follow the SGAC Scholarships Travel Policy & Reimbursement Guidelines. Please make sure to consult the Guidelines before incurring expenses.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

  1. By submitting an entry, applicants agree to permit SGAC to mention their names, affiliations, and headshot picture in connection with the scholarship. This also applies to video and reports submitted after the event.
  2. Copyright of the submitted entry shall remain with the contestants. However, by submitting an entry all contestants agree that SGAC and all affiliated organisers are granted non-exclusive reproduction rights regarding all submitted entries. SGAC and all affiliated organisers may also present ideas and findings generated by these entries at relevant conferences.

Liability

  1. Organisers shall not be responsible in the event that SGC 2023 and/or IAC 2023 is cancelled. 
  2. Organisers shall not be responsible in the event that the award winner fails to attend SGC 2023 and/or IAC 2023 or is unable to under extenuating circumstances; in such a case the award offer shall become void.
  3. Organisers shall not be responsible in the event that the award winner cannot obtain any necessary travel documents (visas etc). If such required documents are not obtained prior to planned travel, the award shall become void.
  4. The award is non-transferable and not valid for another event or individual.
  5. Following the Reimbursement Guidelines, in the event that event or travel cannot take place due to unforeseeable circumstances (force majeure), including but not limited to illness, death, or weather, the Scholarship Holder will be responsible to try to recover costs through any available travel insurance or trip cancellation insurance. SGAC may reimburse the remaining amount not covered by insurance.

Evaluation

The assessment of applications for the Space Generation Leadership Award 2023 will be evaluated by a panel comprised of SGAC Chairs, Executive Director, Scholarship Team Members and the SGC Manager and Deputy Manager. Each application will be assessed by two reviewers.

Schedule

Entries accepted:

01 April 2023

Submission Deadline

30 April 2023, 23:59 GMT

Review of applications

30 April – 15 May 2023

Information of successful applicants

15 May 2023

Space Generation Congress:

28 – 30 September 2023

International Astronautical Congress:

2 – 6 October 2023

Contact

Questions related to the scholarship can be addressed to the SGAC Scholarships Team ([email protected]).

For any questions related to the SGC2023 Delegates Application process, please reach out to the SGC2023 Delegates team ([email protected]).

Past winners

2022: Matias Campos Abad (Ecuador), Faith Tng (Singapore), Sahba El-Shawa (Jordan), Phylis Makurunje (Zimbabwe), Daniel Seybold (Germany). Check the announcement here.

2021: Elizabeth Barrios (United States), Hamza Hameed(Pakistan), Chris Nie (United States), Marco Romera (Angola), Alina Vizireanu (United Kingdom). Check the announcement here. 

2019: Mansoor Shar (United Kingdom/Pakistan), Bethany Downer (Canada), Florian Ruhhammer (Germany), Ani Vermeulen (South Africa), Ghanim Alotaibi (Kuwait). Check the announcement here.

2018: Abraham Akinwale (Nigeria), Anthony Yuen (Australia), Arnau Pons (Spain), Laura Bettiol (Italy), Tania Mara Robles-Hernandez (Mexico). Check the announcement here.

2017: Carmen Victoria Felix Chaidez (Mexico), Shreya Santra (India), Maryanne Muriuki (Kenya), Marta Lebron Gaset (Spain), Olga Stelmakh (Ukraine). Check the announcement here.

2016: Daniel Brack (Israel), Ramasamy Venugopal (India), Chantelle Dubois (Canada), Hansley Noruthun (Mauritius), Caroline Thro (France). Check the announcement here.

2015: Giampietro Tonoli, Sirisha Bandla, Bruno Sarli, Kyle Acierno.

2014: Reinhard Tlustos, Jacob Hacker

2013: Sandra Gonzalez, Beza Tesfaye, Zihua Zhu, Behnoosh Meskoob

2012: Edu Aymerich, Damian Bielicki, Matteo Emanuelli, Scott Fisher, Katrina Laygo, Laura Rose, Junzi Sun, Victoria Alonso Perez, Seyed Ali Nasseri

2011: Chris Vasko, Marc Cornwall, Oana Sandu, Jürgen Schlutz, Joyeeta Chatterjee, H.Aziz Kayihan, Beata Mihniemi, Nunzia Maria Paradiso, Paul Guthrie, Suresh Bhattarai, Minoo Rathnasabapathy, Ricardo Leandro, Adebowale Shadare, Yohan Ferreira, Ondrej Bruna

2010: Victoria Alonsoperez, Tab Smith, Prospery Simpemba, Pierre van Heerden, Oana Sandu, Muhammad Shafiq, Mario Camiciolli, Maria-Laura Voda, Jessie Ndaba, Israel Ojeda, Ekaterina Gana, Christopher Vasko, Cem Asma, Bernardo Santos, Bekele Erko, Beata Szczepaniak, Artiom Asimov, Ana Alexandra Perez