People entering space will be exposed to a high level of physical and psychological risks. They will live in restricted, stimulus-impoverished environments and will have to make do with severely limited equipment and supplies.

Looking toward future human exploration, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) would like to invite the scientific and industrial community to answer to a Call for Ideas devoted to the problems related to human space flight of long duration for exploratory missions. This Call is for proposals based on highly collaborative efforts and innovative ideas in the field of Biotechnology for human exploration.

Originality of the experimental strategy and direct approach to the problems related to space exploration will be particularly favoured. Four proposals will be selected for a 12-month study (Phase A). The maximum budget available for each one of these studies is 400 Keuro. At the end of the first phase a new selection will be performed to choose a maximum of two proposals for the subsequent phases. The funding of the two finally selected programmes is yet to be determined.

The specific e-mail for the call is: biotech@asi.it