Announcing Secure World Foundation 2025 Space Sustainability Research Fellowships

Friday, May 16, 2025

Application Deadline: June 9, 2025

Posted: Friday, May 16, 2025

Jump To: Compensation | Deliverables | Application | Research Areas

To investigate fundamental questions and clarify fundamental concepts in space sustainability, the Secure World Foundation announces the 2025 call for Space Sustainability Research Fellowships.

Background

The mission of the Secure World Foundation is to work with governments, industry, international organizations, and civil society to develop and promote ideas and actions to achieve the secure, sustainable, and peaceful uses of outer space, benefiting Earth and all its peoples. In the course of our work, often the underlying rationales and concepts of space sustainability become forgotten or misconstrued. Consequently, basic concepts, facts, and rationales underpinning space sustainability necessitate continued investigation, discussion, promotion, and socialization.

Each year, the SWF Space Sustainability Research Fellows are tasked with investigating and answering questions regarding one or more fundamental concepts underpinning space sustainability. In 2025, the focus will be the circular space economy and improved information sharing for space sustainability (see the 2025 Space Sustainability Research Areas below).

Position

The duration of the SWF Space Sustainability Research Fellowships shall be up to four months. Fellows may work in-person in the SWF offices in Broomfield, Colorado, or Washington, DC, hybrid, or entirely remotely. The Fellowships are open to non-US citizens. Fellows will update their designated SWF project manager on a weekly basis on the nature and current status of their work, and upon completion of the fellowship, will be encouraged to present their research and findings broadly. In 2025, SWF is seeking two Fellows to begin their research in early July.

Compensation

Fellows will receive an honorarium of $2,500 USD upon successful submission and acceptance of their research deliverables.

Deliverables

Space Sustainability Research Fellows shall complete and submit a final report on their research topic, comprising between 12,000 to 16,000 words (excluding footnotes/endnotes). The report must be of publishable and professional quality, with original content not published elsewhere, and with appropriate references. In addition to a final report, a two-page executive summary shall be submitted. The report and executive summary will be posted on the SWF website, and SWF will have the right to publish and distribute them under a Creative Commons license, with the Fellow listed as the report’s main author. Fellows shall retain the right to promote and publish their work products with attribution to the SWF report publication.

The deadline for submission of the preliminary draft of the report for internal review is the end of September 2025, and the deadline for submission of the final report is the end of October 2025.

Call for Applications

Choose one of the following specific research areas below, and submit your proposed research agenda (400 words or less) outlining how you would work to answer the research question(s) and submit the deliverables listed above (report and executive summary). Include your current résumé or CV. Applications are due by 9:00 AM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) / 3:00 PM Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Monday, June 9, 2025. No phone calls, please.

Submit to opportunities@swfound.org with the subject line: 2025 SWF Space Sustainability Research Proposal - [your last name].

Submit Application

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility at SWF

The Secure World Foundation provides equal opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, expression or identity, national origin, age, or physical disability. SWF is committed to promoting and supporting more diverse, inclusive, and equitable engagement in discussions on issues related to the secure, sustainable, and peaceful uses of outer space. We believe that we can harness the inspirational power of space to be as inclusive as possible in our workplace and in all our activities, to help create a more tolerant, more inclusive, and more humane society, right here on Earth. As an organization, we maintain evaluation and feedback mechanisms for continued improvement in this area.

2025 Space Sustainability Research Areas

1. Unpacking the Circular Space Economy

Introduction: The term “circular space economy” appears with increasing frequency in discussion on space sustainability and space environment management. It is sometimes suggested that establishing a circular space economy would be the only way to truly achieve space sustainability in the long run. This is usually based on the idea that applying concepts such as repair, repurpose, reuse, recycle to space assets will somehow make space activities sustainable.

However, when one looks past the vague references to these commonly used terms, there is no common understanding of what constitutes a circular space economy; nor of the steps by which such an economy would be established and sustained. How is it distinguishable from the terrestrial economy? This research aims to unpack what the notion of a circular space economy means, and what substance exists behind this concept.

Research Questions:

• What does a circular space economy mean – even as an aspirational notion? What are the boundary conditions?
• Are there terrestrial examples of circular economies in shared domains? If so, what lessons can be learnt from those?
• What are the necessary elements, actors, and efficiencies that would be necessary to achieve the goals of a circular space economy?
• What would be the process to establish such a circular space economy, and what would be necessary for it to be self-sustaining?
• Is the circular space economy a useful concept to advance space sustainability? Or is it actually a misleading and not really useful proxy for another concept that is more useful for enhancing space sustainability, but which has yet to be articulated?

2. Improving Information Sharing for Space Sustainability

Introduction: In order to make progress on addressing specific space sustainability challenges (e.g., space traffic coordination, atmospheric and environmental impacts of space activities; post mission disposal compliance; and lunar safety), improved information sharing practices are necessary.

While each of these space sustainability challenges themselves are different, the barriers and obstacles to improving information sharing may share similar attributes. This research will describe these shared barriers, and start to identify prospects for addressing them.

Research Questions:

• What might incentivize actors (both governmental and nongovernmental) to increase information sharing in key space sustainability challenges? And, what might discourage them from doing so?
• What kind of purposes can be served by information sharing?
• The research might also document or describe the differences between “data” and “info” sharing in this context.