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Wayfarer Programme Cohort 2: 2026-2027 - Research Experience & Professional Development for Early Career, Space Sector Graduates

Writer: Callala Support Team
Callala Support Team
Aug 24
7 min read

The Wayfarer Programme aims to address the societal challenge that graduates face. 


How do graduates secure professional space sector jobs without professional experience, even when they're working in other roles?


We believe that meaningful professional development should never come at the expense of fair value exchange. So, rather than offering unpaid internships that take advantage of this lop-sided balance of power, we've designed a mentoring programme that provides research experience through projects that benefit strategic thinking at SustainabilityOf.Space, while developing your professional capabilities.


To be clear on what this is: the Wayfarer Programme is a voluntary mentorship, offered with the aim of amplifying participants' own work for their benefit.  Helping you build a credible, published body of research that supports your transition into paid professional employment.  It's unpaid value-adding research around non-critical work, aiming to create a real learning opportunities without exploitation.


It’s your topic and your work, that we support with time.


Applications for Wayfarer Cohort 2 are now open. Please follow SustainabilityOf.Space on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainabilityofspace) for updates.


Programme Overview


The Wayfarer Programme offers graduates the opportunity to undertake substantive research projects under professional mentorship. Participants work on real-world challenges in space sustainability, space governance, space resilience, space safety or responsible business practice, producing outputs that contribute to thought leadership while building their professional portfolio.

 

  • Duration: 6-9 months, reflecting the reality that meaningful research of this kind is difficult to complete in a shorter window

  • Commitment: Flexible, typically 1-2 days per week on research

  • Support: Approximately 30 minutes per week for check-ins, plus additional time as needed for document and output review

  • Output: Research report with you as lead author and publication dependent on meeting our standards


What We Offer


  • Meaningful Research Projects: Work on substantial topics that align to your ambition and mirror professional consulting or policy analysis

  • Professional Mentorship: Regular support from Callala & SustainabilityOf.Space directors and senior associates with lived experience in sustainability consulting and responsible governance

  • Potential Publication: Research reports that meet our standards will be published with you as lead author and co-authorship that may include reviewers

  • External Amplification: For higher-quality pieces, we also seek external publication opportunities to amplify participants' work. This is pursued on participants' behalf by the SustainabilityOf.Space team

  • Project Management Experience: Structured planning, progress reporting, and deadline management

  • Flexible Structure: Designed around your need to job search, interview, and maintain income through other work

  • Quality Commitment: We commit to making strong work better, but work that doesn't meet minimum standards won't be elevated by our team


More information on the programme can be found in Wayfarer Programme - Work Plan - Cohort 2.pdf




Realistic Expectations


We recognise you're actively seeking paid employment and already working in some form. Whilst our programme provides professional development over 6-9 months, designed to give you tangible experience and outputs, this should not come at the cost of your ability to live and thrive. We expect you to allocate:


  • Top priority: At least 1-2 day per week in existing paid work - e.g. retail, hospitality, gig economy entirely independent of SustainabilityOf.Space - this is mandatory

  • Next priority: At least 1-2 days per week job searching, interviews, and applications

  • No higher than third priority: 1-2 days per week on Wayfarer programme research, drafting and document refinement, alongside career development.


Your time allocation is your choice based on your capacity and commitments.

Our goal is to support you into fully paid professional work, fully understanding the need to pay your way over the life of the programme.


Eligibility


We welcome applications from individuals who:


  • Graduated from an Australian, New Zealand, or UK-based university between 2023-2026 with space, science, engineering, sustainability, law or related technical background

  • Are currently working minimum one day per week in the UK, Australia, or New Zealand, so demonstrating work ethic and real-world engagement

  • Are motivated to engage meaningfully with a research project over 6-9 months

  • Seek professional development rather than unpaid internship employment

  • Value structured, supportive professional mentorship


We focus on science, space, and sustainability research. Strong technical or scientific background preferred due to the specialised nature of our research areas.


How This Works


  1. Project Selection: Choose from available research topics in science, space, or sustainability, or propose your own as part of your application - it should be part of the wider transition to safe, responsible, resilient, lawful and sustainable space activity or policy

  2. Application & Selection: Make an application to hello@sustainabilityof.space  

  3. Planning Phase: Once selected and we've agreed your project, develop a focused work plan and timeline with mentor support

  4. Research Execution: Conduct literature reviews, analysis, and synthesis with regular check-ins

  5. Professional Development: Learn project management, professional communication, and strategic thinking

  6. Review & Quality: Your work will be reviewed and may include co-authors from the review process. Work meeting our minimum standards will be published at https://www.sustainabilityof.space/news

  7. Publication Decision: Work meeting our minimum standards will be published with you as lead author. For exceptional pieces, we will also pursue external publication opportunities on your behalf

  8. Transition: Use experience and research insights to secure paid professional employment


Note: In exceptional cases where there's strong mutual fit after completion, we may discuss further professional development opportunities, but the programme's primary goal is preparing you for external employment.


Application Process


Please send each of the following to hello@sustainabilityof.space 


  1. Written Statement (max 400 words): Focus on your match to this role, so think about why you would be excellent at research-driven professional development, how you approach complex problems, and how you see generative AI as an enhancing tool rather than a replacement for critical thinking. You are absolutely able to use LLMs for this step, but like the expected research, if it carries no personal flavour then the application is likely to sail straight past.


  2. Video Introduction (2-3 minutes): Record yourself speaking naturally (no script, no edits.  Please feel free to pause as you need, and mistakes are fine). Tell us about you, what motivates you, what you enjoy and dislike, how you see yourself today compared to your younger self, what you've learned from different experiences, and why you feel you might be interesting to a target set of employers (i.e. your dream first job). This is a reflective exercise that should help with any job application. We encourage applicants to speak to candid and constructive family and friends about areas where you are already strong and opportunities for growth.


  3. CV: Please attach a 1-page or 2-page CV that is personally created for humans. If we like the written statement and your video, a human will read the CV.


We are reviewing applications received between the 24th of August and 13th of September 2026 on a first come first served basis.  If successful, we will invite an informal conversation to explore fit and expectations. Please ensure you submit your application no later than 2330 (UTC+1) on Thursday 10th September 2026.

 

The Wayfarer Programme reflects our commitment to ethical professional development and our belief that meaningful experience should provide fair value to all parties involved. This undertaking is made voluntarily by Callala Ltd and SustainabilityOf.Space to support early graduates in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom in support of initiatives including the Sustainable Space Initiative - https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainable-space-initiative and Space Scotland Environmental Task Force https://www.linkedin.com/company/environmental-task-force.


Suggested Topics

 

1.  Space Domain Awareness in Middle-Power Space Nations

  • Focus: A UK-Australia Comparative Assessment [Policy].

  • Scope: National security drivers; commercial SDA capability; alliance relationships; regulatory frameworks; the role of southern-hemisphere geography; and AI-enabled space traffic monitoring.

 

2. International Coordination of Space Traffic Management

  • Focus: Comparative Regulatory Approaches Across the UK, Australia and New Zealand [Policy]

  • Scope: How each jurisdiction is translating international STM guidance into domestic regulation; and where gaps could create friction for cross-border commercial operators.


3. Economic Viability of Active Debris Removal

  • Focus: Commercial assessment across divergent sustainability and governance approaches: UK, Australia and New Zealand [Commercial]

  • Scope: How the UK's industry-led sustainability standard; Australia's capability-first approach; and NZ's normative-diplomacy stance each shape market incentives and pricing for ADR providers


4. Sovereign Launch Capability and National Resilience

  • Focus: Scotland, Australia and New Zealand's Small-Launch Ecosystems [Commercial].

  • Scope: Comparative economics analysis behind industrial policy of Scottish spaceports; Australia's emerging launch sites; and NZ's mature Rocket Lab ecosystem; including environmental permitting and community/indigenous engagement.


5. Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Resilience

  • Focus: A UK-Australia Comparative Assessment [Technical; applied science].

  • Scope: GNSS dependence; alternative timing systems; and economic exposure of critical sectors to outages.


6. AI-Enhanced Small Debris Detection for Space Domain Awareness

  • Focus: A Southern Hemisphere Sensor Network Case Study [Technical; applied science].  

  • Scope: ML-based detection of 1–10cm debris using AU/NZ sensor infrastructure, and how it could plug into UK-allied SDA architecture.


7. Environmental Sustainability of Growing EO/Satcom/PNT Constellation Deployment

  • Focus: A UK-Australia-New Zealand Assessment [Technical; applied science]. 

  • Scope: Cumulative environmental footprint; debris generation risk; collision risk; light pollution of constellation build-out licensed from these three jurisdictions. Deliberately scoped to mission deployment only, i.e. not downstream data applications.


8. Governing Dual-Use Space Systems

  • Focus: Balancing Commercial Growth and Security Across the UK, Australia and New Zealand [Policy].

  • Scope: How each nation regulates civil/military-blended capability; and the tension between commercial growth and security oversight.


9.  In-Space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) [1 of 2]

  • Focus: Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) [Technical; applied science / Commercial].

  • Scope: Research, Prototyping and Funding Trajectories Across Two or More Nations; Tracking the direction of travel in RPO thinking and delivery; consideration of early prototype or demonstrator missions; understanding public and private funding mechanics and what that funding patterns imply about which approaches with strongest traction.


10.   In-Space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) [2 of 2]

  • Focus: How mission and payload architectures are anticipating future servicing, assembly and manufacturing [Technical; applied science / Commercial].

  • Scope: Determining whether today's satellite and payload design choices contemplate ISAM compatibility in current mission and payload design; engineering trade-offs involved and commercial logic; current design choices and their signals for expectations for when and how ISAM practice matures.


Previous Projects


Cohort 1 Wayfarer Programme Projects


  1. Panluek, P.; Iwanoczko, A.; McGrath, C.; Muirhead, I.; (2026); Dimming the Shared Sky: A Cost-Effectiveness Framework for Brightness Compliance in Mega-Constellations; https://www.sustainabilityof.space/post/dimming-the-shared-sky-cost-effectiveness-framework-for-brightness-compliance-in-megaconstellations


  2. Goodland, J.; Iwanoczko, A.; (2026), Debris Mitigation Regulation for the EU and the UK: A Comparative analysis of the EU Space Act and UK Regulatory Regime; https://www.sustainabilityof.space/post/debris-mitigation-regulation-for-the-eu-and-the-uk


Graphic Design: Victoria Beall

 
 
 

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