ESA Science Programme: Empowering Europe’s Leadership in Cutting-Edge Scientific Research • Sep 2025
Since 2014, the ESA Science Programme has provided ESA Member States’ Delegations with an annual report that tracks the Programme’s performance using a focused set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are designed to reflect both the efficiency of the Programme’s management and the quality of its scientific and technical outcomes, while also enabling consistent year-to-year comparisons.
The most recent data, published
in June 2025, presents figures covering the year 2024.
As a core component of ESA’s
mandatory activities, the Science Programme is guided by a vision of European
excellence and leadership. It plays a key role in placing Europe’s scientists
and engineers at the forefront of global space science efforts.
In 2024, ESA-led science missions
contributed to more than 3,700 scientific publications. Scientific research based
on ESA-led science missions has posted outstanding growth of more than 100% in
the past ten years.
As recorded in the SAO/NASA
Astrophysics Data System (ADS), this total accounts for over 10% of all
refereed publications in astrophysics, planetary sciences, and solar physics
for 2024 (up from 7.5% in 2014). This figure highlights the growing
contribution of ESA-led mission publications over the past decade.
Adding publications from
partner-led missions involving ESA — totalling 1,830 papers — this share
increases to 16.3%.
Among the partner-led
contributions, the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope stand
out, with over 1,000 and more than 700 publications in 2024, respectively.
Notably, nearly 40% of the James Webb publications had first authors affiliated
with institutions in ESA Member States, underscoring Europe’s leading role in
international collaborations.
Looking at long-term scientific
output, Gaia — ESA’s flagship astrometry mission launched in 2013 — continues
to be a cornerstone of the Programme. By the end of 2024, Gaia had generated
over 13,500 refereed scientific publications, including 2,089 in 2024
alone, which places it among the top most scientifically prolific facilities
worldwide.
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