Strengthening the benefits for Europe of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) - establishing 'EuroGEOSS'

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

In order to accelerate users' uptake of open Earth observation (EO) data and information for the benefit of Europe, there is a need to develop a coordinated and comprehensive EO data exploitation initiative within the larger GEOSS landscape. The challenge is to demonstrate the effective use of European EO resources (including space, airborne, in-situ measurements and citizen observations) to prepare for operational environmental forecasting, and for mitigation and adaptation actions through building on Copernicus services and GEOSS initiatives and flagships.

This action should be an application-oriented initiative, aimed at showcasing and promoting existing European 'GEOSS' actions and scaling them up to deliver services relying on existing strengths in Europe. The focus should be on a coordinated approach to promote collaboration amongst the GEO members and participating organisations within the European region. Based on the core use of a variety of data available within GEOSS, actions should scale up and develop a comprehensive suite of products, services or solutions delivering economic, social and policy value to European citizens, making use of state-of-the-art data integration and fusion techniques. This work should be performed in close collaboration with the European EO programme Copernicus and be in compliance with the INSPIRE Directive, and build on the European GEOSS Data Hub currently developed through the Horizon 2020 project NextGEOSS..

'EuroGEOSS' should also facilitate the access to and integration of untapped national in-situ Earth observation data with research-based data and different sources such as Copernicus, the European research infrastructures, citizen science initiatives and others, into user oriented applications. EuroGEOSS should focus on delivering information for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other GEO engagement priorities in a European context. 'EuroGEOSS' should further advance the GEOSS data sharing and Data Management Principles across Europe.

A plan for longer term sustainability (beyond the life of the project) of the applications developed through the 'EuroGEOSS' action should be elaborated in close coordination with the EuroGEOSS initiative of the European GEO caucus.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 15 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

The project results are expected to contribute to:

• delivering economic, social and policy value to European citizens through a comprehensive and coordinated suite of services;
• a strengthened Earth observation capacity focused on the European region;
• the strengthening and promotion of links between GEOSS and Copernicus, showcasing mutual benefits. This also includes European national contributions to and benefits from GEOSS;
• the coordinated downstream data exploitation of European EO datasets available through the GEOSS (such as Copernicus data sets, data sets from the different European research infrastructures, citizen science initiatives, and national databases of in-situ observations).
• coherent data management, through the use of GEOSS Data Management Principles and best practices (INSPIRE-compliant);
• significant advances in Earth System Science modelling and downstream product development;
• capacity building among current and potential users.

Open Science