Industry-University Education MoU – Press release material

On June 21st, 2017, a group of major European space manufacturing industries (all members of Eurospace: Airbus Defence & Space, Arianegroup, Avio, OHB, RUAG Space, Telespazio, Thales Alenia Space) and universities (Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers of Paris, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm, University of Montpellier, La Sapienza University of Rome, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Von Karman Institute of Brussels) have signed at Le Bourget a memorandum of understanding on an education partnership agreement aiming - through their joint and coordinated efforts - at organizing for multi-nationality teams of students a structured transition  between their educational path and their entry into the professional world. This is intended to take place by means of dedicated projects to be developed by teams of students coming from universities in different countries and working on industry's selected priorities, teams being selected by industry via competition of international teams. 
This initiative, aiming at educating more specifically students by means of a longer industrial project phase has been given the name of: "Advanced Student Team Research in space Industry" (ASTRI), and is intended to materialize into ad hoc specific agreements involving at a time at least one industry and a team of at least five students coming from universities in at least three different countries. 
Each ASTRI Programme is intended to devote globally eighteen months to carry out a project in industry with a first phase lasting six months that could be part of the thesis final project to accomplish a standard master, while a second phase, lasting the remaining twelve (12) months, would have to be carried out at the premises of one of the industrial Parties.
The MoU will remain valid for four years. It will be implemented via a first cycle of projects from early 2018 to mid-2019, with the corresponding diplomas, namely "First Distinguished Certificate of Excellence", being delivered in mid-2019. The MoU is intended to open to new Parties (industry and/or universities) at the end of each academic cycle.