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UK Space Agency Exploration studentship

Award overview

  • Level: Postgraduate research
  • Mode of study: Full-time
  • Tuition fee status: Home
  • Type of award: Full tuition fees plus stipend
  • Number of awards: One
  • Deadline: 11 July 2025

One funded 3.5-year PhD studentship is available at Birkbeck, University of London, to applicants on the MPhil/PhD Geology programme. Funding is provided by the UK Space Agency.

Full project title: Interfacing the cross-instrumental capabilities of the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover with science traceability matrices.

The surface of Mars is thought to have been habitable throughout its earliest history (the Noachian–Hesperian, more than 3.5 billion years ago). Traces of life may be preserved in exceptional sedimentary horizons on Mars, but their identification will likely require multi-technique approaches. ESA’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover mission, set to launch in 2028, will conduct such an interdisciplinary investigation of its landing site, Oxia Planum, using a suite of highly complementary imaging and geochemical instrumentation. The rover will characterise aqueous geochemical environments while searching for traces of past life predominantly within sedimentary rocks.

During this project, the student will contribute to mission preparations for the Rosalind Franklin rover mission, using emulators of three payload instruments – PanCam, CLUPI and Ma_MISS – to perform imaging and geochemical analyses of Mars-analogue sedimentary and igneous rocks. The student will obtain representative mission-like datasets and produce a reference data library of relevance to Oxia Planum. This analytical campaign will require close collaboration with international ExoMars instrument teams to analyse samples under mission-representative conditions, and then to perform advanced data interpretation to develop specific workflows for each of the three instruments. These workflows will be presented to ExoMars science leadership for collaborative integration into rover operational strategy. Laboratory characterisation at Birkbeck will provide complementary insights into the efficacy of ExoMars instruments in identifying features of palaeoenvironmental and potential astrobiological interest.

This project will be conducted in collaboration with colleagues at UCL (London), the Space Exploration Institute (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) and INAF (National Institute for Astrophysics, Roma, Italy). In addition to joining a dynamic research environment at the School of Natural Sciences, Birkbeck, the student is expected to participate fully in mission preparations, including annual ExoMars Rover Science Operations Working Group meetings and conference presentations, thereby integrating themselves within the European Mars exploration community.

This project would suit a student with experience in planetary science, geology and/or geochemistry and an interest in developing their expertise in planetary exploration, Mars science and astrobiology.

Eligibility

You should usually have an upper second-class undergraduate honours degree, or equivalent, and a master's degree, or equivalent.

Applicants must be full-time Home (UK) students.

Applicants must be prepared to start on 29 September 2025.

Value

The studentship is up to 3.5 years in duration and will include Home tuition fees and a stipend at UKRI rate.

Deadline

Applications and supporting documentation must be submitted by 6pm BST 11 July 2025.

How to apply

You should submit an application to the MPhil/PhD Geology programme: 4 years, full-time, on campus starting 2025–26.

You do not need to provide a research proposal when applying for this studentship. Instead, please provide a CV together with certificates and transcripts of your qualifications. Please also provide a brief statement in support of your application (maximum 1,000 words), commenting on your interest in, and qualifications and experience relevant to, the studentship. Please upload these two documents in lieu of the research proposal.

The finance section of the online application form will ask you whether you would like to be considered for a funding scheme. Please ensure that you answer 'yes' to this question and specify ‘UKSA studentship’. Applications that do not include this detail cannot be considered.

Interviews

You will be notified within several days of the deadline whether you have been invited to interview. Interviews will be held on 22-24 July 2025 and will take place over Teams.

Further information

Please contact Keyron Hickman-Lewis for further information about the project. Further details regarding the application process can be obtained by contacting the Birkbeck Faculty of Science Postgraduate Research team.