Belgian Senator Tilmans Meeting: solutions to getting young people involved in space sciences
Participants of the meeting with Senator Tilmans, included, Dr. Mae Jemison, 100 Year Starship; Alires Almon, 100 Year Starship; Roya Ayazi, Nereus; and Federica Bartelot, Nereus. Conclusions and ‘next steps’ of the meeting include: • The average age of space professionals is too high (around 48-50 in EU and US), and that there are too few graduates in supporting sciences to cover the vacancies to be created in coming decades; • According to Tilmans, EU will have about 60-80 thousands of jobs by 2030 made vacant due to aging of current work force in space; • The role of STEM (the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and need for more incentives for young people to study and graduate; • There is too high a level of drop-outs, especially among women; • There is a need for Professional internships, to put young people in touch with industry and help them feel like they have a future in the direction they chose; and • There is a need for more female role models in these fields Special events to make young people and industry meet will be organized in the near future, including a conference organized by ISC, Intelligence in Science on STEM. Ian Jones of Goonhilly, UK, also attended the meeting. Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station is located on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, UK. It’s famous for many reasons, but perhaps most notably, for receiving the first ever trans-Atlantic satellite TV images, broadcast by Telstar, on 11 July 1962. Goonhilly is a member of the African-European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP). AERAP is a response to the calls of the European Parliament, through the adoption of the Written Declaration 45/2011, and of the Heads of State of the African Union, through their decision “Assembly/AU/Dec.407 CXVIII”, for radio astronomy to be a priority focus area for Africa-EU cooperation. AERAP is a stakeholder forum of industry, academia and the public sector established to define and implement priorities for radio astronomy cooperation between Africa and Europe. The overall goals of the platform are to leverage radio astronomy, advance scientific discovery, improve knowledge transfer and stimulate competitiveness across both continents. The platform will also enable effective dialogue to build a shared vision for international cooperation in radio astronomy. AERAP is organising a seminar on the occasion of the 4th Africa-EU Summit, which will offer a prime opportunity to inform the EU and African decision makers about AERAP’s mission to enable major research and technological advances that will drive socioeconomic development and competitiveness in both, Africa and Europe. For further information on the event: http://www.aerap.org/event.php?id=33 Media Enquiries Simona Ondrejkova ISC Intelligence in Science e-mail: simona.ondrejkova@iscintelligence.com Tel: +32 (0) 2 88 88 107 Mob: +32 (0) 472 845 054 www.iscintelligence.com Or Jessica Hadjis ISC Intelligence in Science e-mail: jessica.hadjis@iscintelligence.com Tel: +32 2 88 88 100 Mob: +32 487 163 107 www.iscintelligence.com Editor’s Note The African-European Radio Astronomy Platform (AERAP) AERAP is a response to the calls of the European Parliament, through the adoption of the Written Declaration 45/2011, and of the Heads of State of the African Union, through their decision “Assembly/AU/Dec.407 CXVIII”, for radio astronomy to be a priority focus area for Africa-EU cooperation. AERAP is a stakeholder forum of industry, academia and the public sector established to define and implement priorities for radio astronomy cooperation between Africa and Europe. The overall goals of the platform are to leverage radio astronomy, advance scientific discovery, improve knowledge transfer and stimulate competitiveness across both continents. The platform will also enable effective dialogue to build a shared vision for international cooperation in radio astronomy. Further information on AERAP: www.aerap.org Goonhilly Earth Station Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station is located on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, UK. It’s famous for many reasons, but perhaps most notably, for receiving the first ever trans-Atlantic satellite TV images, broadcast by Telstar, on 11 July 1962. Goonhilly Earth Station is set for a transformation to a new Space Science centre by a new company Goonhilly Earth Station (GES) Ltd. Goonhilly is already open for commercial business, and is fully operational as a satellite communications teleport. Goonhilly Earth Station carries business internet data, and also is used as a command and control centre gateway for controlling various satellites. Further information on Goonhilly: http://www.goonhilly.org/
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