Table 2.

Top 10 issues detected by our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis and our recommendations to solve or minimize their impact in European space omics research

Potential risk	Recommendations
No co-ordination at international level to align ESA and state member policies.	A common policy on data sharing, including human subject’s data, should be established at ESA level.
Members from European research institutes remain isolated in non-thematic centers.	A virtual Space Omics research center (network) should be established.
A specific space omic/database community (similar to GeneLab) is missing in Europe.	Adoption of a common ESA database and funding computational analysis of deposited space omics data should be considered.
Lack of omics standards for principal investigators in the ESA calls for opportunities	ESA should consider the adoption of omics standards, perhaps utilizing the International Standards for Space Omics Processing or similar international consortia recommendations. In concert with commercial spaceflight industry to implement them
ESA has lower launch capabilities for spaceflight experiments than other agencies and the associated costs remain high.	ESA should embrace the emerging commercial spaceflight sector as a route to obtain more space omics data.
Single state members have different mechanisms to fund space scientists.	ESA should consider mechanisms to ensure funding for multi-national research collaborations/teams.
Limited career options and opportunities for postgraduates.	ESA should consider mentorship schemes and support for individual researchers, in addition to the traditional project-based funding schemes, for example in collaboration with the commercial spaceflight industry
Brain-drain of European researchers.	Establishment of a space omics research program at the international level via partnerships with NASA and JAXA at a minimum, and consideration of space biology as a fundable space activity in EU calls.
Long process from project concept to execution and publication of results.	Better use of ground-based facilities program to prevent research arrest period between spaceflight opportunities. For example, omics collection in human subjects in analog environments.
The strong life science community in Europe is not interested in Space Biology.	ESA sponsoring space omics researchers at life science-focused conferences in Europe may help recruit interested researchers.