Summer School 2025 : Space and Sustainability

Over a two-week period, the TIRIS Summer School 2025 is designed to meet the needs of international students around the critical issues of space and sustainability.

You will benefit from excellent interdisciplinary training, combining practical workshops, inspiring lectures and exchanges between experts. You will also get the chance to discover Toulouse, European capital of space and aeronautics, while earning ECTS credits towards your degree. TIRIS Summer School 2025 is part of a unique dynamic, driven by the TIRIS project and supported by UNIVERSEH and the University of Toulouse.

By combining science, technology and societal reflection, TIRIS Summer School 2025 aims to train you as tomorrow's leaders, capable of imagining innovative solutions to climate and space issues.

Who is it for?

The TIRIS Summer School is open to students with a master's level or PhD students who wish to broaden their knowledge and deepen their interdisciplinary approach in the field of space studies and sustainability. With limited spots available, this program aims to deliver high-quality courses on critical issues and trends.

Program overview

The TIRIS Summer School offers an immersive, interdisciplinary experience entirely in English, structured around 3 main themes:

• Environment and sustainable space: Using space technologies to understand climate change
• Society and sustainable space: Reflecting on ethical and governance issues related to New Space
• Human and sustainable space: Addressing the challenges of human resilience in space exploration.

Example of a typical day:

• Morning: Lectures, masterclasses and round tables with international experts
• Afternoon: Hands-on workshops and site visits
• Evening: Networking activities and cultural discovery of Toulouse

A program of immersion and excursion:

• A guided excursion around Toulouse
• A visit of la Cité de L’Espace
• Two Social events

Detailled view of the program

Theme 1 : Environment and sustainable space: Using space technologies to understand climate change

This theme will cover the remote sensing aspects of observing terrestrial ecosystems, oceans and forests, in order to study, quantify and prevent pollution, and carry out carbon and greenhouse gas assessments and their impacts on ecosystems.

To understand the issues at stake, different types of presentations will be offered in the form of lectures (on oceans and forests, for example) and hands-on workshops using remote sensing tools and satellite data. Participants will be able to exchange ideas with PhD students from the school's partner laboratories, during a half-day of in-person poster sessions and “ma these en 180 s” pitch sessions.

Pre-programme (subject to confirmation)

• Remote sensing
• Space mission from conception to satellite launch
• Carbon footprint
• Greenhouse gases

Educational activities highlights :

• Hands-on workshops with members of the School of Remote
• Sensing on handling satellite data OMP Doctoral students' workshop, Q&A in the form of poster presentations and Doctoral students' pitches

 

Theme 2 : Society and sustainable space: Reflecting on ethical and governance issues related to New Space

Today, the space sector is of strategic importance in economic, political and societal terms.

• In economic terms, the emergence of the “New Space” is profoundly transforming industrial approaches, with the entry of new private players, sometimes from outside the traditional space sector.
• Politically and geopolitically, it represents a major challenge for national sovereignty.
• On a societal level, the space sector raises legitimate questions that require the involvement of all players in society, not just engineers, scientists and political decision-makers.

Pre-programme (subject to confirmation)

• Space industry economics overview and New Space financing
• Space law
• Geopolitics & Geo-strategy of space: the key challenges
• Space Policy, Space Programs
• Ethics and Perception: Acceptability of space & Ethics: cost and benefit, reality of space, space tourism

Presentations will take the form of lectures, covering the concepts and issues relating to the economic, geopolitical and ethical aspects of space. Visits to start-ups can also be organized.

 

Theme 3 Human and sustainable space: Addressing the challenges of human resilience in space exploration : Challenge “The mars Village”

Teams will be formed to design the first living base on Mars.

Lectures and keynotes will be offered to students to help them meet this challenge by integrating the issues and knowledge needed to take up this challenge, for example:

• Mars planetology (characteristics, constraints, Mars-Earth opposition (where to locate the base? when to communicate?))
• Risks and potential countermeasures in the Martian environment: hypogravity, radiation, regolith, isolation, confinement, contamination, etc.
• Living bases in hostile environments: general principles, environmental control, life support system, energy, logistics
• Martian astrobiology: exploration and protection of traces of life
• Space agronomy
• Augmented man for space exploration: myth or reality?
• Space law, governance and ethics of Martian exploration

Participants will have to meet this challenge by integrating the knowledge provided according to a set of specifications to be supplied at the start of the module. The proposed interventions will help build a proposal for a living base on Mars. Each group will be evaluated by a jury during an oral presentation at the end of the session.

How to apply?

The TIRIS x Universeh Summer School Space and Sustainabily is open to students both within and outside our university network. With limited spots available, this program aims to deliver high-quality courses on emerging business trends. It is designed for students enrolled in Higher Education, whether at the Master’s or PhD level.

To apply, you will need to fulfil a short online questionnaire and submit:

• a cover letter
• a CV or resume
• a proof of English proficiency
• your most recent grade transcript

Submit your application online
Deadline for application : March the 14th, 23h59

Practical information

Cost

100 € corresponding to administrative fees for master's level students
300 € for PhD students

Mobility and Excellence fellowships will be available for selected students.

TIRIS Summer School is a free Excellence Program for skilled students.
The package includes*:

• Housing in collective in a 2-to-4 fully furnished apartment or individual on demand**
• Public transport
• Lunches (from Monday to Friday)
• All travel cost and entry tickets to all activities and excursions included in the program
• Welcome breakfast and farewell cocktail

For students applying through the UNIVERSEH program, no tuition fees are applied. For more information please check with your international office.

* The package does not include flights, insurances (medical insurance), visa, breakfasts, dinners and all extra costs.
** Individual rooms are available on demand - a surplus will be charged

Timetable

• Application: End of January - 14th March 2025 (23h59)
• Evaluation : 14-31 March 2025
• Announcement of results : End of March
• The course will be held on site from June 30th to July 11th, 2025.

Contacts

For questions or information on sponsorship, please contact: summerschool-tiris [at] univ-toulouse.fr

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