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Please find here for your information the paper sent by EARSC to the EC in the frame of consultation process undertaken by the European Commission in view of the continuation of the Research Framework Programme.

EARSC, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies, is the trade association representing the EO geo-information services industry sector in Europe. It is a highly innovative sector comprising primarily of SME’s characterised by a highly educated workforce. New companies are regularly being created by entrepreneurs looking to commercialise ideas – often developed during research in universities or other research organisations under EC Framework Programmes. These ideas may lead to new EO geo-information services or products but may equally lead to technology in the field of geo-information more broadly; geographic information systems (GIS) or related IT technologies. As such, the European research programme is a particularly important source of support for R&D and innovation in the sector with wide benefits.

EARSC companies are present on the world market. Many seek to develop opportunities in export markets as befits a global technology such as Earth Observation. In our recent position paper “GMES; Exploiting Operational Services” (1) we focused on several factors that we consider will enable the industry to create economic value from GMES by taking products into commercial markets in Europe and through exports. Support to R&D and innovation is particularly important to maintain a flow of new products and services to supply these competitive markets where local entrants are present.

The creation of the space element of the Framework Programme has been particularly welcomed. Support from FP6 and FP7 has been especially critical to stimulate the research into new geo-information products for GMES. We should also acknowledge the strong role that ESA play in supporting market development activities that are quite complementary to those of the EU. This innovative and dynamic sector would struggle to develop without both of these programmes.

In considering the next Framework programme, EARSC wishes to highlight 4 issues that should be addressed:

  • Considering GMES, the initiative was started in 1998 and the first research projects started in 2002. We are only now, 10 years later starting to see some procurement of services developed under GMES and it is generally acknowledged that this will not expand greatly before 2015. 10 to 15 years is a long time for an industry to invest without a direct return and the business case for that investment is especially hard to make. For an SME this is particularly difficult. Where industry has to invest alongside grants from the EC then a visible return is mandatory. Currently, industry participation is set at 50% (2) of the budget and as a result of this and the long time to see operational budgets being created is resulting in industry slowly withdrawing from the FP. If industry is to participate at the same level as universities and research organisations then there needs to be equal treatment. A higher level of funding, beyond 50% is essential if industry is to be able to benefit from European research funds.
  • The sector is comprised largely of companies employing between 3 and 200 people ie SME’s by European definition. They are innovative and seek to bring new ideas to the market. Generally, they need results to attract finance and support from the FP is very important to take ideas forward. Today, SME’s find it hard to find a place in the FP and it is important that new measures are taken to ease their participation. The next FP should contain new measures to encourage SME participation which could include fast-track projects, obligatory SME partners in projects led by larger organisations or other schemes.
  • Whilst GMES is a very important programme for Europe and for the EO geo-information industry, it represents only a part of the potential market. Companies are equally looking to commercial markets such as the insurance sector, agriculture, transportation, energy, oil and gas amongst many. Some of the products developed for GMES will be applicable to these markets but research is also needed into more specific topics. The next FP should ensure that there is the possibility to support research into products and services for markets other than the public sector to be directly served by GMES.
  • Time to market is critical for an SME that can be threatened by larger organisations. Once developed of course the ideas, products and services become attractive for larger players which make them key partners either earlier or later in the research project. The present mechanisms for bidding and launching projects can take 12 months or even more from the launch of a call through to contract signature. Faster processes are necessary to support the industry.

A more flexible, SME friendly FP can strongly help the EO geo-information sector to create jobs and economic benefit for Europe.

(1) EARSC position paper on Exploiting GMES Operational services (www.earsc.eu)
(2) Industry participation is set at 50% except for SME’s that have the possibility to claim up to 75%

1 July 2011 marks the start of Poland’s chairmanship of the Council of the European Union. Poland is taking over the Presidency from Hungary which has presided over the EU for the past six months.

The Polish Presidency will address the future of space policy with an optional future space programme. Besides, it intends to work on developing instruments that could help prevent the loss of biodiversity, such as spatial planning and sustainable forest management. The Presidency is indeed planning to organise two high level conferences addressing these topics.

The programme of the Polish Presidency can be found at Presidency

Source GMES.Info

On 1 July 2011 started of a new innovation competition – the GMES Masters. The European Earth Monitoring Competition calls for new ideas and services making the best use of earth observation data from Europe’s flagship programme on global monitoring for environment and security.

With the aim of making the best use of possibilities that come along with global monitoring in the domains of environment and security, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and T-Systems have launched a new competition – the GMES Masters.

The GMES Masters 2011 encourages students, researchers, entrepreneurs, start-up companies and SMEs to develop market-focused applications from data gathered through the EU-led GMES initiative. Until 15 September 2011 you are invited to submit your applications and business ideas for one of the following five “challenges”:

  • Ideas Challenge
  • Best Service Challenge
  • ESA App Challenge
  • DLR Environmental Challenge
  • T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge

The overall winner of the competition – the GMES Master – will be selected among the winners of the Ideas Challenge, ESA App Challenge, DLR Environmental Challenge, and T-Systems Cloud Computing Challenge. The GMES Master will receive a cash prize of EUR 20,000.

To learn everything about the new European Earth Monitoring Competition and to submit your applications and business ideas please go to www.gmes-masters.com

Source GMES.Info

After 16 years spent gathering a wealth of data that has revolutionised our understanding of Earth, ESA’s veteran ERS-2 satellite is being retired. This pioneering mission has not only advanced science, but also forged the technologies we now rely on for monitoring our planet.

ERS-2 was launched in 1995, following its sister, the first European Remote Sensing satellite, which was launched four years earlier.

Carrying suites of sophisticated instruments to study the complexities of the atmosphere, land, oceans and polar ice, these two missions were the most advanced of their time, putting Europe firmly at the forefront of Earth observation.

The twin satellites were identical, apart from ERS-2’s additional instrument to monitor ozone in the atmosphere. Both exceeded their design lifetime by far, together delivering a 20-year stream of continuous data.

In 2000, ERS-1 unexpectedly stopped working and now it is time to bid farewell to ERS-2 before it succumbs to a similar fate.

To avoid ERS-2 ending up as a piece of space debris, ESA will take the satellite out of service by bringing it down to a lower orbit while there is still sufficient fuel to make the careful manoeuvres.

The decision to retire ERS-2 was not taken lightly, but after orbiting Earth almost 85 000 times – travelling 3.8 billion km – the risk that the satellite could lose power at any time is clearly high.

The deorbiting procedure will be carried out over a number of weeks by spacecraft operators and flight dynamics experts at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany.

Starting on 6 July, a series of thruster burns will gradually lower the satellite’s orbit from its current altitude of 800 km to about 550 km, where the risk of collision is minimal. Eventually, ERS-2 will enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.

Its destruction will occur within 25 years, in accordance with European Code of Conduct on Space Debris Mitigation.

ERS-2 has been delivering data right to the end. In one of its last operations, the satellite was placed in an orbit that allowed it to capture radar images every three days of some of Earth’s most rapidly changing features.

Source ESA

China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday said it will lauch an experimental orbiter in China’s Shi-Jian satellite series in coming days.

The orbiter, SJ-11-03, will be boosted by China’s indigenous Long-March II-C rocket at an appropriate launch window, said a press release provided by the center.

Currently, the orbiter and rocket are in good condition and all preparations for the launch are going smoothly, said the press release which gives no further details.

Xinhua
Spacedaily

Galileo Services Association welcomes with enthusiasm the European Parliament Resolution of 7 June 2011 on ”Transport applications of Global Navigation Satellite Systems – short- and medium term EU policy”.

With the dedicated budget being exhausted, 2010 would have been the year of the last FP7 call for GNSS – thereby effectively removing Europe’s opportunity to continue boosting downstream industry and taking advantage of the momentum created by the large investment made in Galileo. However, after more than one year of committed lobby campaign1, hope is reborn among European GNSS downstream Research and Innovation actors when reading the recent resolution of the European Parliament.

Among the decisive statements raised in the resolution the European Parliament reminds that “the commercial transport applications of GNSS and Galileo represent a growing global market which should be secured as far as is possible for the economic benefit of European industry and for the creation of skilled jobs” and, more widely, that “investment in this sector has implications for all EU policies, and whereas its expansion and implementation will have a direct impact on the realisation of the EU 2020 Strategy and from the point of view of developing the potential of the European market in GNSS applications and services so as to create jobs and enhance Europe’s competitiveness.”

The European Parliament “calls on the Commission to ensure that the EUR 100 m likely to be underspent in payment appropriation for research within the Seventh Framework Programme is made available for the development of GNSS applications.”

As already stressed frequently by industry, Europe has a golden opportunity but only for a very limited period of time. The world enters into the time of multi-GNSS multi-sensor technologies, enabling the development of crucial applications and services for Europe. An absence of funding up to 2014, delaying the technological progress as well as knowledge in the GNSS domain, constitutes a huge risk both for European GNSS programmes and Europe’s competitiveness.

The resolution2 (P7_TA-PROV0250) follows the report3 of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A7-0084/2011) on GNSS applications in transport, adopted on March 24th, 2011. These papers deal not only with short- but also medium-term EU policy and set out the main issues of GNSS in transport domain.

The reallocation of the budget mentioned by the European Parliament would enable the publication of a 4th Call for Proposals for GNSS applications within FP7. From a short term perspective this would prevent a critical rupture of the way to European Excellence and Competitiveness in the GNSS field and must be followed by substantial funding for the coming years.

1) http://www.galileo-services.org/library/library.html
2) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2011-0250+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
3) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2011-0084&language=EN

***
bq. For further information:
contact: Axelle Pomies, Galileo Services Permanent Representative
e-mail : axelle.pomies@galileo-services.org or visit www.galileo-services.org

On 29 June 2011, the European Commission launched a consultation on standards that will affect everybody’s life.

With INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe), the European Union is creating common standards to make environmental information quickly and easily accessible. This will translate into clear benefits for European citizens, ranging from improved emergency services to a healthier everyday environment. Common standards will help to cut costs and improve the basis for decision making at all levels.

Hundreds of experts from across Europe have been working together for several years to agree common definitions in important policy areas such as energy, climate change, biodiversity, the marine environment and human health. The proposed standards are now open for public consultation and testing to assess their usability across disciplines and nations.

Further information is available at INSPIRE

Source GMES.Info

ESA’s project could help Norway to map avalanches

The European Space Agency (ESA) has recently shown that satellites could help to monitor avalanche falls in Norway, where they pose a risk to road users every year. A pilot study called “Innovators II–AvalRS” was launched through ESA’s Earth Observation Data User Element programme to do that.

The project tested two different approaches: one focusing on the texture of the avalanche deposits and the other focusing on topographic features of the avalanche such as aspect direction. Both methods have yielded promising results. The remaining challenge is to distinguish between shadows and rocks and also make classifications within areas in shadow.

The project has shown that satellite images and these new techniques could be used to add a significant degree of confidence to avalanche mapping from space, which would have the knock-on effect of keeping Norway’s roads safe in the winter.

More information can be found at ESA website

Source GMES.Info

The open house inauguration of TRE’s new headquarters was held on Monday 13th at Ripa di Porta Ticinese 79, in the ‘Navigli area’ – a very typical and attractive suburb of Milan.

During the event, all TRE staff and the Board of Directors greeted over 50 guests, including some clients and data providers, and the Politecnico di Milano University’s delegation headed by the Rector Professor Giovanni Azzone.

Alessandro Ferretti was pleased to show the guests around the new 1000m2 offices, which now offer significantly more space for TRE’s sales & marketing, software development and post-production departments. The computer processing centre has also been upgraded, which has an increased storage capacity and processing power.

The new offices are evidence of TRE’s continued investment in technology, knowledge and R&D activities, in order to be able to offer pioneering services and products to our clients, while always looking after all other stakeholders: staff, consultants and providers. As many of the guests commented during the event, the new offices present a far better working environment for its staff.

Founded in 2000, TRE is the first spin-off company from Politecnico di Milano University, with the patenting of its first proprietary algorithm, PSInSAR™, now developed into its second generation algorithm SqueeSAR™ TRE has expanded from a small group of SAR experts to employ over 40 professionals from diverse disciplines.

TRE offers its clients maps of surface deformation to millimeter accuracy by analyzing SAR (Synthetic Aperture radar) satellite images with SqueeSAR™, thus providing a quantitative understanding of ground response to both natural and anthropogenic activities. TRE has two offices: Milan and Vancouver

Source

The NGI project for the European Space Agency kicked off recently with the aim to demonstrate next-generation, near real-time satellite imagery delivery services. The target is to provide rapidly access to GIS-ready imagery within 10 minutes of transmission to ground.

Leading the NGI project, Spacemetric is coordinating an experienced team from Sweden and the UK that will develop and demonstrate the new technologies during the 18-month project. Partners SSC and Metria bring a wealth of experience from ground station operations and satellite image value-adding respectively. At the same time, Magellium Ltd brings in-depth experience from satellite mapping systems developed by its parent for French Government agencies. The project is financed within ESA’s GSTP programme and is expected to provide service solutions of high interest in a range of application areas including rapid mapping and media.

Use of open service standards, such as OGC, is an important element of the project strategy along with the use of Spacemetric’s Keystone Image Management System as a COTS to jump-start the technical development work.

Source