f

document title/ titre du document

D O C U M E N T

G UIDELINES FOR THE

S UBMISSION OF P ROJECT
P ROPOSALS

prepared by/préparé par ESA EO R&D Section

reference/réference ENVI-DTEX-EOPG-TN-07-0003
issue/édition 6
revision/révision 6
date of issue/date September 2015
d’édition
status/état Final
Document type/type de Technical Note
document
Distribution/distribution

a
ESRIN Guidelines for Full
Proposals092015.docx
Via Galileo Galilei - Casella Postale 64 - 00044 Frascati - Italy
Tel. (39) 06 941801 - Fax (39) 06 94180 280
s Guidelines for the Submission of Project Proposals
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1

2 LOGIN MY EARTHNET .......................................................................................1

3 STARTING THE SUBMISSION OF A FULL PROPOSAL ...................................3

4 SUBMITTING A FULL PROPOSAL .....................................................................6

4.1 Cover Page .........................................................................................................................................6
4.1.1 Title ................................................................................................................................................6
4.1.2 Application Domains and Location ...............................................................................................6
4.1.3 Executive summary ........................................................................................................................6
4.1.4 Principal Investigator information .................................................................................................7
4.1.5 Co-investigators .............................................................................................................................7
4.2 Team Composition, Experience, Innovation and Contribution .........................................................7
4.2.1 Experience of the team ...................................................................................................................7
4.2.2 Innovative character of the proposal ..............................................................................................7
4.2.3 Contribution to the mission objectives ...........................................................................................7
4.3 Detailed description and Schedule of the proposal ............................................................................7
4.3.1 Detailed description .......................................................................................................................7
4.3.2 Schedule .........................................................................................................................................8
4.4 Data Requirements: Instruments and Products ..................................................................................8
4.4.1 Products selection...........................................................................................................................8
4.4.2 Data requirements ..........................................................................................................................9
4.5 Other data used...................................................................................................................................9
4.6 Upload a file .......................................................................................................................................9
4.7 Terms and Conditions acceptance....................................................................................................10

5 HOW TO MODIFY AND SUBMIT A PROPOSAL .............................................. 10

6 EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS ....................................................................... 11

6.1 Evaluation and selection procedures ................................................................................................11
6.2 Evaluation criteria ............................................................................................................................11
6.3 Follow-on actions and activities.......................................................................................................12

7 ANNEX: LIST OF POSSIBLE APPLICATION DOMAINS ................................. 13

s Guidelines for the Submission of Project Proposals
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1 INTRODUCTION

To be authorized to access on demand 1 ESA or ESA TPM data, a Full proposal is needed. Data is
provided free of charge; no programming or production fees are applied. ESA may however
request the user to provide a contribution in case of requests for very large datasets.

Through the Full proposal, the Principal Investigator needs to produce detailed information about
the following topics:
• Title of the Proposal /Coordinates of Principal Investigator
• Description of the proposal
• Summary of data requirements
• Acceptance of ESA Terms and Conditions for data use

The proposal should be submitted via the WWW (https://earth.esa.int/aos/Cat1).

To facilitate assessment English is preferred, but French is also acceptable.

Should you have any problem to submit your proposal, you can contact EOHelp:
https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/contact-us

After the receipt of your project proposal, a peer review will be carried out in line with the
approval procedure. Typically evaluation results are provided to the PI 4/6 weeks after submission.

2 LOGIN MY EARTHNET
A pre-requisite to access the Submission area is to be logged-in to My Earthnet (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Login My Earthnet and Registration buttons in two different pages of EO-DISP

1
Data that need to be produced and eventually planned, and for which a product/programming quota set by ESA is
compulsory.
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In case you are not registered to ESA Earthnet (https://earth.esa.int ), please select the button
Register: this will lead you to the ESA EO-SSO registration area (see Figure 2), where you will
have to create a user name (UMSSO-ID), select a Secret question and the reply, a password (at
least 8 characters long and contain digits, lower and upper case letters as well as symbolic
characters -such as !?@$*), and provide your Email address. A registration link will be then sent to
the provided Email address, allowing to activate your registration and, consequently, to login to
My Earthnet. In case of problems, please contact: http://earth.esa.int/contactus/ .

In case you lost your EO-SSO password,

the system online at: https://eo-sso-idp.eo.esa.int/idp/umsso20/admin will allow you to generate an
Email with a link to create a new password. When accessing that link you will be requested to
reply to the Secret question defined when creating the account.
Note: in some cases ESA created an user account for you in the past. If you are unsure about it and
you do not remind having set a Secret question, you can try using firstname.lastname as User ID
and reply to the default question (Who is your favourite singer) with your firstname.lastname, even
if you are offkey…In case of problems, please contact: http://earth.esa.int/contactus/.

Important: Proposal submission is responsibility of the person uniquely associated with an

ESA EO-SSO code: this corresponds to a name, lastname and Email and can’t be shared.
This person (PI) will accept online the Terms of Conditions for the use of the data, therefore
no delegation of the submission to third parties is acceptable. In case third parties need to
have full visibility on the proposal, we advise the submitter of the proposal to include them in
the proposal as co-investigators.
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Figure 2: ESA EO-SSO interface

3 STARTING THE SUBMISSION OF A FULL PROPOSAL

The submission of a full proposal can be started in several different ways, among the others:
1. From the Data Access pages, eg by browsing data products and selecting one (“Get data”)
2. From the PI Community pages, by selecting the links “Apply for Data” or “Full proposal”
3. From the PI main area in My Earthnet, by selecting the Link “New Project”

The location of 2 and 3 is illustrated in Figure 3.

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Figure 3: Top -PI Community homepage, links to submit a full proposal or to access My Earthnet are shown on
the right, Bottom -My Earthnet page, the link to submit a new project is shown on the right, the link to access
Online data is also shown on the right.

On acceptance of the proposal, the information provided about the PI, PI's Institute, Project's
Summary and Schedule will be publicly available on the Website, unless differently requested and
justified in the Detailed description of the proposal.
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The following sections illustrate name and content of the forms that the PI must fill-in to provide
all the detailed information to allow ESA to evaluate the proposal properly.

The submission forms are tailored to several different aspects of the proposal:

 The Cover page: general information about the PI and an overview of the project
 The Team Composition, Innovation and Contribution section
 The Detailed Description and Schedule of the proposal
 The Data Description pages
 Acceptance of ESA Terms and Conditions

Figure 4: The Submission area, enabling the navigation through the various parts of the proposal. Please note:
only after the proposal will have been duly filled-in the Submit button will appear (to the right of the Quit
button), enabling formal submission of the proposal
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About the Systematically Available data

In the case you want to access exclusively products systematically available on the
internet, you can simply select them from the My Online data link shown in My Earthnet
area (Figure 3). Note: if this is the first access to the interface (eg no proposals already
submitted or no systematically available data already selected), to access the
systematically available data you will be requested to provide some basic information
(eg: Name, Lastname, Country of residence, broad Study Area location, Application
domain of your research, and a short Executive summary to explain how you plan to use
the data). Once this information has been provided, you can add at any time the
systematically available data you need, without having the resubmit such information
(unless you want to update about changes in affiliation, country of residence or new
research objectives)… Access to such data is normally instantaneous (as soon as the
online Terms and Conditions are accepted) and download links will appear in My Online
Data interface, unless further configuration work to grant access to the data is needed by
ESA Help and Order Desk.

4 SUBMITTING A FULL PROPOSAL

4.1 Cover Page *

4.1.1 TITLE
Title of the proposal (should not exceed 256 characters)

4.1.2 APPLICATION DOMAINS AND LOCATION

The applicable Theme(s) for the proposal can be specified in this section. Table 1 in Appendix
contains an overview of the possible themes, including (for explanatory reasons only) several sub-
themes. The field Study-area enables to broadly define the geographic area of study.

4.1.3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A concise resume is required describing the objective, method and deliverables of the project.
Availability of funding to run the project must be specified in this section (should not exceed 4000
characters).
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4.1.4 PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR INFORMATION

This section contains details about the Principal Investigator (name, institution, town, address,
postcode, phone...). The fields Fax and Acronym of the Institute are not compulsory, the fields
Email can not be modified (it can only be updated within the UMSSO interface at: https://eo-sso-
idp.eo.esa.int/idp/umsso20/admin). All communications will be addressed to the Email provided in
this section.

4.1.5 CO-INVESTIGATORS
Co-Investigators are entitled to order and receive data on behalf of the PI. To add a coinvestigator
the PI is requested to provide his/her Email address and search it in the system:
• If the person is found, the PI is requested to confirm the selection
• If the person is not found, the PI is requested to submit further information –if available-
about the co-Investigator (eg name, lastname, address, town, postcode, country of
residence, phone, fax…). None of the fields presented in this section is compulsory.
Note: on proposal submission, the co-Investigator will receive an Email to inform about
involvement in the project

4.2 Team Composition, Experience, Innovation and Contribution *

A tentative list of the team members should be provided; the overall experience of the team shall
be described.

4.2.1 EXPERIENCE OF THE TEAM

Respective experience of the Project leader and co-Investigators must be described (should not
exceed 2000 characters).

4.2.2 INNOVATIVE CHARACTER OF THE PROPOSAL

If relevant, the innovative character of the proposal can be described, indicating the related
domains (should not exceed 2000 characters).

4.2.3 CONTRIBUTION TO THE MISSION OBJECTIVES

The contribution to mission objectives must be described. Further details can be provided in
the Detailed Description of the proposal (should not exceed 2000 characters).

* After project proposal approval "Cover page" and "Team composition,Experience ,Innovation and Contribution" information will become
public available in the area of the ESA PI Community dedicated to your project (accessible from the Search interface of the PI Community). Should
you prefer not to show this information please email Eopi team (eopi@esa.int) after project proposal submission.
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4.3 Detailed description and Schedule of the proposal

4.3.1 DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This is the main part of the proposal and the main basis for its evaluation. It should include as a
minimum the following information:
• Technical and scientific approach and methods proposed to meet the proposal’s objectives,
and the success criteria of the project.
• Anticipated results and deliverables of the investigation, and schedule for availability of
such results and deliverables.
• Work Plan of the investigation, including a description of the key milestones and associated
deliverables, the planned use of data, models and facilities.
• Justification for the amount and type of requested data products.
(should not exceed 12000 characters).

4.3.2 SCHEDULE

The schedule must show the project phases (preparation, data acquisition, analysis) as well as the
plan for reporting preliminary and final results (should not exceed 2000 characters).

4.4 Data Requirements: Instruments and Products

4.4.1 PRODUCTS SELECTION
In order to better complete this section, providing the necessary information about the requested
products, before submitting a proposal it is strongly suggested to consult the ESA Catalogues at:
https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/data-access/catalogue-access .

In this section the PI can list the products requested to ESA to carry out the research. One
dropdown menu enables selection of ESA products and a second dropdown menu enables
selection of Third Party Mission products. The selected product can then be confirmed by
pressing the button “Add Product”.
Please, before applying for Third Party Mission data, ensure that you are entitled to request them
by checking at the address https://earth.esa.int/TPM the conditions of distribution.

Should the PI request “framed” products (SAR, ASAR…), details about number of scenes to
be used during the project (total, archive and new acquisitions) and broad location of the
acquisitions may be asked. Note: in case systematically available data are requested, on
full proposal submission immediate information access will be found in the section of My
Earthnet dedicated to My Online Data (see Figure 3).

Details about type, amount of data (or time interval of the requested data) and
eventually geographic coverage requested can be provided in the following Data requirements
section. Once all the needed products have been selected and confirmed, the PI can access the
following pages by pressing the button “Next”.
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4.4.2 DATA REQUIREMENTS

In this section the PI can provide detailed information about the requested products. It is in
particular important, when relevant to the content of the proposal, to specify the required operating
modes of the instruments.

The box “ESA Data: details about archive products” can be filled-in with information about the
requested ERS or ENVISAT archived data (=data already acquired from ESA missions at the
moment the proposal is being submitted) by providing a list including type of product and
acquisition dates of the requested products. The geographic name(s) of study area(s) can be
indicated. Please note that the data specified in this section should not be regarded as a final data
request. This box can be left empty by users planning to request exclusively new ESA acquisitions
or Third Party Mission data (see below).

The box “TPM Data: Details about requested products” shall be filled-in with technical
information (geolocation constrains, acquisition dates, polarization in case radar data are requested
and any other needs) about the requested Third Party Mission Products. Please note that the data
specified in this section should not be regarded as a final data request.

Should you request SPOT , RapidEye or other TPMs, specific restrictions may be applied, please
check the relevant documentation for each TPM Mission requested (e.g. Terms of applicability)
available at the corresponding TPM info area https://earth.esa.int/web/guest/pi-community/apply-
for-data/3rd-party.

Should you be willing to provide more information about the requested products (e.g. PROBA
requirements table for new acquisitions requests, kml file of the area of interest, or a file generated
by the ESA catalogue EOLI- with detailed information about the requested products), you can use
the “Upload a file” facility available in this page. Please note: only one file can be uploaded in this
area: should you have more files, please zip them together.

4.5 Other data used

If a source other than ESA (e.g. other Space Agency, ground/airborne campaigns) should provide
data for the completion of the proposed project, the procurement approach must be specified in the
"Comments" field.

4.6 Upload a file

Should you need to provide more information (e.g. tables, list of publications, references,kmz file
of area of interest etc), you have the possibility to upload a file. A short description of the file shall
be provided in the relevant comment field. Please note: only one file can be uploaded in this area:
should you have more files, please zip them together.
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4.7 Terms and Conditions acceptance

The Principal investigator shall have read and accepted the Terms and Conditions for the
utilisation of ESA Earth Observation data and/or ESA Third Party Missions data, as applicable.
Terms and Conditions for ESA data are available at: https://earth.esa.int/files/terms;
Terms and Conditions for TPM data are available at: https://earth.esa.int/files/TPMterms;
Acceptance of the terms and is expressed by ticking the boxes available on the page.

5 HOW TO MODIFY AND SUBMIT A PROPOSAL

Proposal submission can be quit at any moment, the PI shall ensure to press the "save" button in
order to save all the information to be re-accessed at a later stage of proposal submission. To re-
access the proposal the PI shall access his My Earthnet area and will find it listed in the section
My Projects, with its associated status. A project with status “initial” can be still modified and
updated by the PI, once a proposal has been submitted, this can not be any more modified.

Final submission of the proposal can be done only after all the fields have been duly
completed: a "Submit" button will appear in the Proposal Submission Area. Pressing the
button will produce a formal submission of the proposal (e.g. no more changes can be
performed on the proposal's contents) and an automatic submission acknowledgement will
be sent to the Email of the PI.
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6 EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

6.1 Evaluation and selection procedures

Proposals received for use of ESA data will be reviewed by a Committee composed of individuals
appointed by ESA:
• With expertise that encompass scientific research, technology, applications development,
national and international research programs
• With a broad understanding of the uses of Earth Observation data, including uses in
operational systems. Each panel will cover a scientific or application area.
Candidates must indicate on the first page of the proposal the panel they consider most appropriate
to evaluate it.

The purpose of the review is:

• To assess if the specific projects are in accordance with ESA data policy
• To evaluate the scientific, application and technical merits of the proposed projects in relation
to their technical feasibility.

After review of the project proposal with regard to its relevance and feasibility, ESA notifies the
user of the acceptance of the project, assigning a maximum quota for instrument planning and/or
for product delivery.

Final decisions concerning the acceptance of Project proposals will be made by the ESA Mission
Management based on the recommendation of the Committee. These final decisions will take into
account the relevance to ESA Earth Observation mission of proposed projects, the overall balance
between the different proposals, their requirements in terms of spacecraft resources and the
feasibility for ESA to meet such requirements.

6.2 Evaluation criteria

Within the overall context of the ESA Earth Observation mission objectives, the evaluation process
is expected to identify opportunities to exploit the potential of the ESA Earth Observation mission.

The following criteria are used in the evaluation process:

• Suitability of the proposal to the conditions of ESA and ESA Third Party Mission data use
• Relevance of the proposed project to the objectives of the ESA Earth Observation mission.
• The merit of the project from a scientific, technological, economic and operational viewpoint
and the degree of innovation of the proposal.
• The technical feasibility of completing the project and achieving positive results within a
period of typically two years, with special emphasis on the adequacy and practicability of the
schedule presented in the proposal.
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• The competence and relevant experience of the Principal Investigator and collaborators, as an
indication of their ability to complete the project successfully.

6.3 Follow-on actions and activities

Following notification, the selected principal investigators, can start ordering/accessing the data. In
some cases the principal investigator will be required to amend his proposal in order to meet the
acceptance criteria and in accordance with the remarks expressed by the evaluators.
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7 ANNEX: LIST OF POSSIBLE APPLICATION DOMAINS

Theme Sub-Theme
 Atmospheric Constituents: Retrieval, Geophysical Results
 Clouds, Aerosols, Surface Parameters
 UV Radiation, Air Pollution
Atmosphere
 Trend Analysis, Assimilation
 Chemistry Models, Radiative transfer
 Wind profiles
CAL/VAL  Calibration/Validation of ESA data
 Bathymetry mapping
Coastal zones  River discharge mapping
monitoring  Coastal protection and change monitoring (algae blooms,
erosion assessment, water pollution...)
Geodesy  Geodesy
 Geological mapping
Geology  Geodynamics
 Archaeology
 Volcanoes monitoring
 Earthquakes
 Earth motion (Crustal motion, Subsidence...)
 Floods
Hazards
 Oil
 Fires
 Landslides and Soil erosion
 Damage assessment
 Snow melt
 Soil moisture
Hydrology  Wetlands
 Run-off
 Water cycle
 Ice sheet mapping
Ice
 Ice-sheet dynamics and properties
 Environment (Urban SAR-climatology, Global change...)
Land environment  Land surface temperature
 Desertification
 Algorithm development, Software development, Product
Methods
development
 Wind-wave
 Primary production (Geochemistry, Fisheries, SST...)
Oceanography
 Ocean dynamics (Circulation, Sea-level, NRT...)
 Sea features (Ship detection, Air-sea features...)
 Agriculture
 Vegetation
Renewable resources  Forestry
 Land cover/use mapping
 Biomass
Sea-ice  Sea-ice
Topographic mapping  DEMs

Table 1: Possible themes and correlated sub-themes