ESA, together with the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC), an entity under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the P.R. China, have cooperated in the field of Earth observation application development for the last 29 years. This cooperation has been successively strengthened by the creation of a dedicated joint Earth Observation cooperation called the Dragon Cooperation.

This successful cooperation between Europe and China will continue in 2024 with the latest follow-on, Dragon 6. ESA and MOST/NRSCC are pleased to offer the opportunity to join the Dragon 6 programme. This presents European and Chinese scientists in the EO community a unique opportunity to work on a broad range of projects, which encourage increased exploitation of ESA and Chinese Earth observation satellite data, using optical, infrared, thermal and microwave sensors.

The Dragon 6 Cooperation Call is now open, with a proposal submission deadline of 11 December 2023.

Read the Dragon-6 invitation letter to learn more.

How to apply for Dragon-6

1. Read the Dragon 6 Cooperation Announcement of Opportunity Information and Conditions
2. Go to the Dragon-6 submission page on ESA's User Services Portal 
3. Register or log in to ESA EO Sign In – (please note that both European and Chinese PI must be registered/Have an active ESA EO Sign in account)
4. After logging in, complete the Dragon 6 proposal form and the sub-form following the submission guidelines including two mandatory files (Data requirements and Team composition). We advise downloading the files before starting the proposal, and completing them in collaboration with your European/Chinese PI counterpart.
5. Submit the Dragon 6 proposal
6. The proposal will be evaluated by ESA and NRSCC
7. The results of the evaluation (acceptance/rejection, request for modifications, or requests to combine proposals from different teams) will be communicated to the European and Chinese Principal Investigators (PIs) who shall inform their teams accordingly by Q1-2024.

Related Resources

Read the terms and conditions and legal notices for the use of ESA and Copernicus Sentinel data

• Legal Notice on the use of Copernicus Sentinel Data
• Terms and Conditions for the utilization of ESA Data
• Terms and Conditions for the utilization of ESA Third Party Missions Data

The date and location of the Kick-off Symposium for the Dragon 6 Cooperation Projects will be announced on this website and the Dragon 5 website in November 2023.

Further detailed information on the previous Dragon 5 Programme are available on the ESA/MOST Dragon 5 Cooperation Programme website.