Skip to content

Consolidation of geo-information assets and competences
including new subsidiary in France

The Infoterra Group, a leading geo-information service provider comprising companies in the United Kingdom, Germany and Hungary, has been significantly strengthened by the formation of Infoterra France – integration of ISTAR and teams from EADS Astrium’s Earth observation division. Infoterra’s parent company, Europe’s leading satellite system specialist EADS Astrium, has reinforced its commitment to expand activities in Earth observation services by gathering complementary assets and competences to enhance the group’s operational capabilities.
The Infoterra group, with over 300 staff and a turnover of around 50 M€, is one of the Worlds’ leading providers of geo-information products and services for managing the world’s environment, development and security.
Capability
Customers will benefit directly from the pooling of assets under the Infoterra brand and with the launch of TerraSAR-X (the new German radar satellite, developed in partnership with the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) and EADS Astrium GmbH, for which Infoterra holds the exclusive commercial exploitation rights) later this year, the Infoterra Group will expand the range of resources it can offer customers.
Artist´s view of TerraSAR-X. © EADS Astrium GmbH
TerraSAR-X adds to an established comprehensive range of airborne sensors and access to a variety
of spaceborne data sources. Infoterra’s ADS40 digital sensor, as well as lidar, radar, hyperspectral and thermal instruments, are operated around the globe to provide accurate and cost effective aerial data. Furthermore, access to data from a huge range of established spaceborne sensors, including IKONOS, QuickBird, ENVISAT and SPOT satellites (Spot Image is affiliated with Infoterra through EADS Astrium’s 40% ownership) is available through Infoterra.
After acquiring data Infoterra offers the foremost data processing and interpretation services. The unique multiple sensor processing chain, the Pixel Factory™, automatically processes spatial or digital airborne images, enabling a thorough control of 2D and 3D geometry, creation of specific products and the seamless merge of data from different scales and sources, compliant to various applications.
Aerial Photography. © GeoStore.com
In addition to supplying datasets, Infoterra offer sophisticated geospatial solutions through the interpretation of both satellite and airborne data. Infoterra is accomplished at turning data into useful business information for a wide range of applications around the world: telecommunications network planning, environmental & land management, risk assessment, infrastructure planning and geological mapping. Further examples include:
• Infoterra’s solutions for defence and security support the entire life cycle of geospatial data as used in any defence and intelligence process: tasking commercial satellite imagery assets, turning geospatial data into mapping products and hosting & dissemination enabling users to access data. As an example, TerraSAR-X‘s high radiometric accuracy, weather/daylight independence, quick access time and the possibility to receive 1m resolution data around the globe, will make it an ideal sensor to support time-critical situations.
• To help monitor crops and optimize harvest, Infoterra’s crop management service, FARMSTAR, provides growers with a series of recommendation maps. This service – based on a unique process combining satellite and aerial imagery, agronomic models and meteorological data – is currently helping more than 10,000 farmers in France, and is now being used in many countries including the UK, Spain, Brazil and Argentina.
FARMSTAR crop management service.
• Infoterra’s offshore and onshore geo-information solutions are used widely for the exploration of oil, gas and minerals. From satellite and airborne imagery, Infoterra’s team of geologists can interpret the data to produce onshore structural and geological mapping, and also oil seeps data for global offshore basins.
Over the last few years Infoterra has invested in technologies and developed systems to enable geospatial data to be easily managed, while providing rapid delivery. Today Infoterra operates one of Europe’s largest commercial geospatial hosting service centres, storing thousands of terrabytes of data. This facility is being utilised by a range of organisations, along with the online service, GeoStore® – a flexible online service for businesses to access geospatial data.
GMES Services
Infoterra has established a leading role in the GMES (European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme – a joint initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission (EC).
Infoterra provides efficient, reliable services in three significant GMES priority areas:
European land use/land cover state and change: Infoterra‘s monitoring and periodical mapping of European landuse serves as a basis for a variety of applications, which are developed together with partners across Europe. This data enables improved sustainable planning and successful management of water quality, soil erosion, nature protection and urban/regional planning.
www.gmes-geoland.info
GMES Basic Landcover Mapping. Catchment of river Weser, GE2006.
• Risk management: combining the use of satellite and exogenous data with modelling techniques and information systems, Infoterra and its partners are developing enhanced information services and tools, to help monitor all types of risk and manage crises situations. www.risk-eos.com www.preview-risk.com
• Humanitarian relief: Infoterra, with an alliance of organisations, is working with the humanitarian community to improve access to maps, satellite imagery and geographic information, with the aim to increase the effectiveness of the relief process.
www.respond-int.org
Summary
Marc Tondriaux, chairman of the joint Infoterra Management Board, says: “We are all excited about sharing knowledge and experience throughout the group, and the benefits this brings to our customers. Profiting from synergies among the established entities, we are able to offer a portfolio ranging from data acquisition and processing to sophisticated geo-information services – something only a few companies in this market are able to offer. I am confident that Infoterra will endorse and strengthen its position as a leading provider of geo-information products and services for managing our world’s environment, development and security.”

For more information contact
Sarah Haslam, Infoterra Ltd,
+44 (0)116 273 2300
(Credits Infoterra Group)

In this issue of EOMAG, EARSC will have the privilege to feature an interview with Mr Guy Weets from the Directorate General for Information Society and Media at European Commission.

-In introduction, could you briefly describe the current responsibilities of the Unit of the Information Society related to GMES?
Until now, researchers have painstakingly collected their own data needed to carry out their own research. As many new questions emerged, it became clear that the only way forward was to use existing data, generally collected for entirely different purposes. Since this data was not originally designed to be shared, the interoperability problem has become a formidable task.
No service market will develop if we don’t address properly the issue of data access which is partly only a technical problem. The DG Environment initiative to enforce the creation of a European wide geo-spatial infrastructure for the environment is a key step forward toward a single information space for the environment in Europe. In support of this initiative some of our RTD projects are working on an open service-oriented architecture for the environment which aims at reducing the interoperability problems to a size that is manageable. Another set of projects address the harmonization in in-situ monitoring. We believe that those two set of actions are the prerequisite for a successful deployment of GMES services. In short, most of the future GMES services will require full access to a wide range of ancillary data, geo-spatial or not, and also will need a kind of automatic calibration and validation of EO data thanks to well designed in-situ sensors.
Due to the high numbers of users and the huge variety of application domains, the design of such a unique information space cannot be made using traditional engineering methods, the best metaphor to describe this information space for environment is to see it as an “information ecosystem” very much like the Internet. The challenge is therefore to create the pre-conditions for this “ecosystem” to grow. For us it is partly a research task, partly a huge standardisation effort and last but not least a mechanism (still to be defined) to reach a critical mass of applications and early adopters so the system will be self sustainable
- Is the “Information technology model” a tool in emergency & crisis management?
If access to information is crucial for the researcher, it is also essential to emergency personnel and thus plays a vital role in saving lives. Information interoperability harnesses the power of the network to bring the right data to those who need it most, when needed. Today we stand at the threshold of a network-enabled future; this future may never materialize without a large part of R&D funding being allocated to a common approach to define the architectural framework(s) and the reference models that identify open standards and their pattern of use.
-During a crisis event, the lack of communication is a fact. What are the necessary steps to solve this problem?
Exchange of information involving all the emergency management chain is required with collaboration from different entities and countries. There is a real need for a proposal for standards to exchange emergency information between the different entities or agencies involved in a crisis event.
- How do you see the environmental information systems architecture? How do you see the steps and iterations within INSPIRE and GMES and what about GEOSS?
For the information and society perspectives all the mentioned initiatives are the same. Environmental information needs a minimum set of tools to allow interoperability to reduce the cost of making transaction between information systems.
“For example; I would like to have a kind of “google tool for environment” where I can answer a query from spatial data for a specific zone. The result will be all those data from different sources including the information on where I can find those data”. Nowadays, the problem is not the technology or how to obtain the data. The key question to be solved is “data policy” to share that data. Advanced techniques on the field of information technology will be needed. We are approaching a special “user architecture in connecting systems” which will know in advance what kind of information systems we will need from the beginning and all will be known through a kind of “data browser”. For simplification; a kind of “google for environment”
-Now moving to business and real market, “effective communication” to all the key audience is needed, following your professional experience how should industry build the communication bridge with new customers?
My personal view is that earth observation has been pushed to potential markets. Industry should understand the real user needs in long term vision (customer most of the times doesn’t know technology and industry does not understand the customer approach). Technology should be pulled by market.
The incompatibility between different sensors is also a big issue and that is against to the principle of information society. There is a need at least to offer “interoperability” and “compatibility” to protect the public investment and future markets. The problem could be solved investing more in the ground segment making transparent the process of receiving the data and specially insuring the compatibility between systems to process the information. Space industry should deliver an information product with affordable price. Together with a common understanding for the market exploitation this should be the approach.
-Google Earth or Virtual Earth are big brand initiatives which have shown the potentialities of earth observation for the normal citizen, so it is a kind of EO communication’s revolution driven by market forces. Why was it for EO industry so difficult to anticipate this market movement?
Mainly because the “lack of market vision” of what technology can do outside the domain of interest. Industry should identify the “state of the art” and the advances on communication technology.
The view of what technology can do is obvious; the problem is that industry does not know which kind of information will be required by user. It is always interesting to analyse the following questions: (i) what can technology do (ii) what can market accept (iii) what is the current approach and (iv) what will be the inter-disciplinary domains to work with (that was the success business model for “Google Earth”)
- Could you please provide me with some key indicators to measure the potential progress of the market in Earth Observation, especially the communication initiatives?
Maybe innovative but I would like to see a space sensor integrated in a kind of “semantic way”. There is then a need for “ontology”, a specification of a conceptualization and the hierarchical description of the attributes and topics. Space sector should find its own “ontology”; defining terminology and the existing paths interoperable between sensors. One will need a structure to define the vocabulary for the discipline as well as standards providing the logic from data to service and the right context for each application. Those steps will require an Industry agreement.
Once space community will reach the “standardization”, it will be easier to develop more services. Standards will simplify the output of the system reducing uncertainty. Having more EO VA companies on the market, the specialization of the services will be extremely efficient; a hi-tech performance transformation of data into real applications providing a professional product that market can use today. Companies will cover a piece of the production chain specialising on their products and reducing their cost by a simple “workflow”. When a space value added service is integrated within another sector, the business model is a success.
Last thoughts
The idea to follow is the “internal reorganization” of the systems. The Earth Observation value added sector should evolve with “interoperable services” and using “standards”, independently of the space data and of the sensor. The “quality model” could evolve in various directions and should be flexible, that is “ecosystem” could be the word to use. Finally the model should be “simple” and “affordable”. It is much more difficult to do something simple than complex. So there is a big work to do in front of us but we are looking forward to the future.
CONTACT
Mr. Guy Weets
Deputy Head of Unit Information Society Directorate-General at European Commission
Av. de Beaulieu 31, BE-1160 Brussels,
BELGIUM
Tel/Fax: 32 2 296 35 05/ 95 48
E-mail: guy.weets@ec.europa.eu.

The eoVox Consortium is pleased to announce a one-day workshop dedicated to the common interests of the Earth Observation value adding industry. The workshop will be held under the auspices of ESA/ESRIN on 14 September 2006 in Frascati, Italy

What is eoVox?
Following on from a survey conducted by ESA on the European and Canadian EO service industry, ESA has initiated a number of activities to further explore issues that affect the complete EO service sector; eoVox is one of these activities.
eoVox aims to gather views and comments from all companies within the industry and investigate how their common interests can be best represented via an industrial trade association.
eoVox is therefore an opportunity for all companies to voice their viewpoints on how the Earth observation value adding industry should be shaped. The eoVox study will use the information gathered to help define the public funding required to incubate the industry as a whole.
The results will be looked at carefully by ESA in planning for the period 2008-13 to make sure that the needs of the industry are supported at the right scale, with the right mechanisms and of adequate duration. This is your opportunity to influence this process, by ensuring that your views and needs are heard.
About the Workshop
The eoVox Consortium is pleased to announce a FREE one-day workshopdedicated to the common interests of the Earth Observation value adding industry. The workshop will be held at ESA’s ESRIN site in Frascati (near Rome), Italy on 14 September 2006.
The workshop will be an excellent opportunity to capture the views of all stakeholders in the future of the Earth observation value-adding industry in Europe and Canada.
During the day presentations will be given based on the material produced during the study, with “open forum” sessions to capture a wide range of perspectives on the presented material. The workshop will be structured to ensure that the views of participants can be clearly and freely expressed.
The consortium is creating working documents – to be made public in advance of the workshop – that will provide the initial starting point for the debate. Brief presentations of the study’s findings will be used to prompt input, discussion and debate from the delegates. Book your place now, to have your say.
“Helping the EO service sector define its development needs and set an agenda for public support”
The eoVox Team
The eoVox consortium is led by LogicaCMG UK Ltd. as prime contractor, and includes EARSC (the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies), the Swedish value-adding company Metria, the Canadian value-adding company C-CORE, and consultants ControlWare from Belgium and ESYS from the UK.
How to Register
Please send your details to us indicating your relationship with the EO VA industry.
-By email: Simply email your details to eovox@earsc.org
-By telephone: Please call the EARSC Secretariat on +34 639 584 684
More information can be found at http://www.eovox.org.

EARSC Board is glad to welcome nine new Companies in our Association.
On EARSC behalf, we are certain that new Members will contribute
actively to the aims of EARSC enthusiastically involved in coordinating
and strengthening the Earth-observation chain and promoting the
European Earth observation industry in programmes such as GMES and
GEOSS.
EARSC Membership is nowadays increasing
which encourage us in the Board of Directors to continue to do our best
to fulfill the tasks that you as members could expect of the
association. On EARSC behalf, Welcome!
More information about new members at:
Brockmann Consult (Germany)

C-CORE (Canada, Observer)
Eurosense EOOD (Bulgaria, Observer)
OHB-system AG (Germany)
Starlab (Spain)
VISTA GmbH (Germany)
MEMBERSHIP
EARSC
membership represents the entire spectrum of the Earth Observation
industry including all sector chain: providers, stakeholders and users.
Membership of EARSC is currently 400 Euros per annum. For our members,
the annual membership dues are a cost-effective way to stay informed,
promote their company, political and institutional representation,
networking opportunities with industry players and help support the
future of Earth Observation. Industry together could transform
activities into meaningful action on behalf of our sector.
EARSC membership is composed by:
FULL MEMBERS
Any commercial
European company or partnership offering and undertaking consulting and
contracting services or supplying equipment in the field of remote
sensing which is based in a European Country which contributes to the
European Space Agency or which is a member of the European Community
shall be eligible for membership.
OBSERVER MEMBERS
Companies
from countries associated to European programs but not eligible for
full membership. Any active representative organization, institution or
association party in the field of Earth observation and not engaged in
commercial or profit-making activities such as Public/Governmental
Bodies, International Organisation, International Non Governmental
Organisation (NGO), Private Non Profit Organisation/Foundation,
Network/Association/Aggregation of Intermediaries(profit or non
profit), Business Association, Universities, other?) with interest in
Earth Observation.

More information on membership

A very hectic business year is getting to a close with well deserved vacation time in front of us. One of the last events was the Annual General Meeting of the Association. Among the highlights were a good attendance, actually the best ever, and a very interesting and exciting keynote talk on Microsoft Virtual Earth by VEXCEL, a new subsidiary of Microsoft.
The world of value-adding in Earth Observation is really changing very quickly now and the opportunities for new entrants are considerable. Even more so since important initiatives to help entrepreneurs and start-ups with incubator financing have been launched by the EC and ESA. The INNOVA, INVESAT and FINANCESAT frameworks for example, in addition to existing financial tools put in place by the EC in the previous years, are making easier for new ventures to take off. The domain of space based applications, whether using telecommunications, navigation, Earth Observation techniques or, more and more, some combination of them, is definitely on the rise with plenty of opportunities for new services.
Actually such a boiling synergy will induce an evolution and restructuring of our industry and of its representation. Such topics have been discussed at the EARSC workshop in Paris in March 2006, and will be elaborated further in the next workshop, the Stakeholders Consultation workshop which will cover both VA Industry representation and the Roadmap for Growth. This might well generate a strong new impetus not only for our association but also for the European VA sector in general so that your presence is essential.
In addition to those encouraging steps, all of us must keep in mind the need to strongly support the development of public investment in GMES and we add thus a wish for a positive issue of the budget discussions for the GMES-services inside FP7.
Last but not least, on behalf of the Board of Directors I would like to thank the members for their trust and for renewing our mandate at this last AGM. In the same time I would like to stress that opportunities to join our working groups and our Board always exist and that our Board is looking eagerly at any new marks of enthusiasm or initiatives from our members in these directions.
Waiting for some more expression of these interests I would like personally, as well as on behalf of the Board of Directors, to wish you a relaxing and fruitful vacation.
Looking forward to start the new business year with you at the Consultation workshop on September 14th, 2006 in FRASCATI,
EARSC Chairman
Spread the EARSC News

Start
Date
End Date Event Web link Venue
01-may-06 03-may-06 IMAGIN Conference web Traverse city, Michigan, USA
03-may-06 05-may-06 IST-Africa 2006 web Pretoria, South Africa
07-may-06 11-may-06 2006 NSTI nanotechnology conference and trade show web Boston, USA
08-may-06 10-may-06 First International Conference on the Application of Physical Modelling to Port and Coastal Protection web Porto, Portugal
08-may-06 11-may-06 Remote Sensing: From Pixels to Processes web Enschede,The Netherlands
08-may-06 12-may-08 Atmospheric Science Conference web Frascati, Italy
15-may-06 17-may-06 6th SMOS Workshop web Lingby, Denmark
15-may-06 17-may-06 UDMS 2006, 25th Urban data management symposium web Aalborg,Denmark
15-may-06 17-may-06 EPS MetOp Research Announcement of Opportunity workshop web Frascati, Italy
16-may-06 18-may-06 6th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar web Dresden, Germany
22-may-06 25-may-06 Data Systems in Aerospace, DASIA 2006 web Berlin, Germany
24-may-06 26-may-06 FIEOS06- International Symposium on Future Intelligent Earth Observation satellites web Beijing, China
29-may-06 02-jun-06 26th EARSeL Symposium web Warsaw, Poland
08-jun-06 17-jun-06 COPUOS web Vienna, Austria
12-jun-06 16-jun-06 6th International Conference on Urban Climate web Göteborg, Sweden
12-jun-06 16-jun-06 EUTMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference web Helsinki, Finland
18-jun-06 21-jun-06 Conference on Disaster Management web Toronto, Canada
19-jun-06 23-jun-06 2006 Euro-South East Asia Forum on ICT web Singapore
24-jun-06 29-jun-06 Climate Change Conference web Nyäshamn, Sweden
27-jun-06 29-jun-06 International Conference in GIS and Health: GRAFEPHS 2006 web HongKong, China
03-jul- 06 06-jul-06 “From sensors to imagery”, ISPRS Symposium web Paris, France
10-jul-06 14-jul-06 GICON 2006, Geo-information connects Society web Vienna, Austria
11-jul- 06 13-jul-06 Data Mining & Information Engineering 2006 web Prague, Czech Republic
24- jul-06 04-aug-06 Monitoring of natural hazards from space Summer School web Alpbach, Austria
31-jul-06 04-ago-06 IEEE/IGARS 2006- International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium web Denver, Colorado
31-jul-06 11-aug-06 3rd Envisat Summer School web Frascati, Italy
28-sep-06 30-sep-06 Remote Sensing of Land Use and Land Cover: Applications and Development web Bonn, Germany
05-sep-06 07-sep-06 Sustainable irrigation 2006 web Bologna, Italy
11-sep-06 12-sep-06 Atlantic Europe Conference on Remote Imaging and Spectroscopy, AECRIS web Preston, UK
14-sep-06 14-sep-06 EoVox stakeholder workshop web ESRIN, Frascati Itlay
13-sep-06 15-sep-06 Commercial Remote Sensing Symposium web Washington, DC, US
19-sep-06 22-sep-06 XII Spanish Geographic Information Congress web Granada, Spain
20-sep-04 23-sep-06 4th International Conference on Geographic Inf. Science web Muenster, Germany
25-sep-06 29-sep-06 Advanced Training Course in Ocean Remote SEnsing web Hamburg, Germany
26-sep-06 29-sep-06 URISA´s 44th Annual Conference & Exposition web Vancouver, Canada
17-oct-06 18-oct-06 2nd International Workshop “ the Future of Remote Sensing” web Antwerp, Belgium
03-nov-06 11-nov-06 CCT 2006, 9th International Earth Science Congress web Santiagode Chile, Chile
06-nov-06 08-nov-06 GOCE Workshop web Frascati, Italy
06-dec-06 07-dec-06 International Symposium on Operational Applications web Toulouse, France
23-apr-07 25-apr-07 5th EARSeL SIG IS workshop “ Imaging spectroscopy: innovation in environmental research” web Bruges, Belgium

Enterprise Europe, eMarket Services, an internet portal co-funded by the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, focuses on the use of B2B e-marketplaces to facilitate sales in European and international markets.

eMarket Services provides neutral and reliable information, guiding SMEs in selecting the most appropriate and trustworthy e-marketplaces and business partners. The portal provides interactive services and structured information surrounding electronic marketplaces, business partners and e-commerce in general.
In cooperation with Berlecon Research, the portal has published a handbook “E-markets and online directories – a handbook for small businesses”. It describes the different kinds of e-markets, their potential benefits and risks and how to participate effectively in them.
Access the eMarket Services handbook here.

Milestone in the creation of a European glogal system

April 2006
“Today is an important milestone in the creation of a European global system, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security. During its Presidency of the EU Council, Austria has managed to concretise the second European user-orientated space project after Galileo”, said Eduard Mainoni, State Secretary for Research, expressing satisfaction with the results of the GMES Conference in Graz at a joint press conference with EU Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen.
Almost 200 participants from all over Europe spent the past few days in Graz, amongst them the heads of user institutions such as the European Environment Agency and the European Committee of the Regions, as well as heads of industrial associations. The conference of top-flight experts, “A market for GMES in Europe and its regions – the Graz dialogue”, had been preceded by workshops in Warsaw, Toulouse and Budapest. The results of these workshops flowed into the “Graz process”. “More than 800 experts in total contributed their views on GMES to the dialogue. These contributions were immensely important for this process and flowed into the present concluding conference paper. We have brought the discussions to a conclusion and summarised the results in the “Graz Declaration”. Thus work on implementation can start”, said Mainoni.
The strategic, economic and regional building blocks of GMES are defined in the “Graz Declaration”, wherein the indispensability of this joint monitoring programme is highlighted. The optimum form of organisation will be fixed shortly.
Mainoni and Verheugen above all emphasised the use of GMES both for citizens and for industry. “We can detect changes earlier and use our resources which are growing scarcer to better effect through precise observation of the earth‘s surface. In future, it will also be possible to recognise natural disasters, such as avalanches or floods in time and to react accordingly”, they said.
However, Mainoni also stressed the significance for governments: GMES permits decisions in the fields of environmental protection and security to be put on a better and Europe-wide uniform basis. During the Graz conference we also discussed spheres of application within the European regions and for private users to attain the best possible capacity. As has been proven, the breakthrough of many innovative applications can be helped by widely accessible basic services.”
“With the use of satellites it is possible today to observe large areas independent of borders and in real-time. Satellites are indispensable for rapid distribution of data”, said Dr Volker Liebig, ESA Head of Earth Observation Systems, underlining the importance of GMES. “The Graz dialogue has placed special emphasis on the necessary inclusion and mobilisation of the most important GMES users. By using GMES we will be able for the first time to obtain detailed data about land use in Europe and to document changes precisely”, said Jacqueline McGlade, Head of the European Environment Agency. Michel Delebarre, President of the Committee of the Regions, announced that an increasing number of regions intend to commit themselves to GMES applications.
The cost of the joint EU Commission and ESA project will run to approximately 2.3 billion euro, with part of it being funded by the EU‘s 7th research framework programme. The remaining costs will be covered by the ESA from optional programmes. Additional utilisation budgets are to be tapped. “We expect the first Europe-wide GMES services to be provided as early as 2008. This will be done using the satellite systems in existence up to then. The ESA‘s own GMES satellites are then to go into orbit in 2012. This is how we will guarantee the operational use of GMES services”, Mainoni continued.
Günter Verheugen is going to launch a naming competition to arouse interest in GMES and to make young people more sensitive to innovative projects for the future. “It is a question of giving this initiative a new look which expresses the European character with the emphasis on utilisation of GMES. School classes have until October 2006 to submit their ideas, the best will then be selected by a jury, awarded a prize and also put into practice”, Verheugen said, appealing for involvement.
Information about the naming competition can be found on www.gmes.info.
Contact
Michael Stangl
Spokesperson Office of State Secretary Eduard Mainoni
Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology
1030 Vienna, Radetzkystrasse 2
Tel.: +43/1/711 62-8400
Mobile: +43/664/859 12 74
Fax: +43/1/71 37 876
Mail: michael.stangl@bmvit.gv.at
(Credits EU2006)

In a competition announced by Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, European students will be given the chance to come up with a new name for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initiative (GMES), Europe’s joint effort to make Earth Observation information available to the widest set of users.

“The command and appropriate use of information has important geo-strategic implications,“ said Heinz Zourek, Director-General of the Commission’s Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, “and Europe needs to have available a capacity which allows it independently to evaluate its policy responses in a reliable and timely manner. A comprehensive Earth observing system, using space-borne and in situ techniques on land, in the air and at sea, through well-defined operational services, is key to ensuring the implementation and monitoring of environmental and security policies in the context of sustainable development.”
“The ultimate beneficiaries of more effective and more efficient public policies and services are Europe’s citizens,” says Verheugen. “As with so much of what we do at Community level, we need to connect with them. One way to do this is through the youth of Europe.”
Speaking on 20 April 2006, following the GMES conference in Graz, Austria, Verheugen said, “The title ‘Global Monitoring for Environment and Security’ is an accurate statement of the purpose of this initiative. Unfortunately, ‘GMES’ is not the most memorable of names. We need to find something more attractive, a name that will encapsulate what the services are and also what they stand for – in marketing terms, their brand values. We need to establish the same level of public recognition that is already becoming apparent for GALILEO, the EU’s other space-related flagship programme. That is why I am launching a competition among Europe’s schools to identify a new name for GMES.”
The contest will be aimed at teenagers who are in the final years before they leave school or college for work or university. Participating schools will decide for themselves how to fit information about GMES into their academic curricula. Possible entry points could include geography, environmental studies or physics.
“Once the students have a good understanding of the purpose of GMES and the technologies which lie behind it,” explains Verheugen, “they will work as a team to provide their entry in the competition to find a new name. I am launching this competition in association with the Committee of the Regions and inviting it to make the initial approach to the schools.”
The EU’s Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Heinz Zourek has added, “It’s no secret – young people can sometimes show more imagination than us bureaucrats, and we want to make sure that GMES has the highest possible level of visibility and recognition among the public that it will ultimately serve.”
A dedicated website featuring all necessary information on the GMES name contest will be launched in early May 2006. The winning entry is expected to be named in early 2007.
More information:
(Credits Europa)

On 21-22 April 2006, European ministers responsible for competitiveness met in Graz, Austria, to discuss the theme ‘Investing in excellence and innovation’. The informal debate, which focused on the EU’s upcoming Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7), included exchanges of views on space research, security research, Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES) and European Space Policy.

The creation of the Competitiveness Council in June 2002 was a response to the perceived need for a more coherent and better-coordinated handling of matters related to EU competitiveness. Depending on the items on the agenda, the Council is composed of European Affairs Ministers, Industry Ministers, Research Ministers, etc.
The overarching question addressed by ministers in Graz was how the European Union can best meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive global marketplace. European Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen insisted on the importance of space for meeting the EU’s Lisbon objectives, pointing to the need for a comprehensive approach, including community building, co-operation and coordination.
After thanking the Austrian Presidency for its inclusion of GMES in its Graz dialogue, he said, “GMES is the second space flagship of the European Union, after GALILEO. It will be a major priority under FP7 and we are now pushing for a specific budget line for space infrastructure in the new financial perspectives. We are making good progress on the preparation of a European Space Policy and we expect strong support from the upcoming German Presidency.”
GMES steps
In February 2004, the European Commission adopted a GMES action plan (2004-2008), outlining steps towards the establishment of a system that will harness, coordinate and enhance existing Earth Observation (EO) and monitoring information from satellites and Earth-based and air- and waterborne sensors, in order to support better decision-making for the environment and security. The aim of the initiative is to provide independent, cost-effective, and user-friendly services that can help to anticipate or address crises, such as forest fires or floods, and lead to better management of issues ranging from the protection of the environment to combating illegal immigration.
The Graz Competitiveness Council agreed that concrete policies and measures at both European and Member State level are still needed to ensure the attainment of Europe’s strategic goals in space, including with respect to the GMES initiative.
Role for regions
Austrian Vice Chancellor Hubert Gorbach stressed the importance of the GMES initiative as an integral part of the European space programme. “The GMES conference which has just taken place here in Graz highlighted the question of identifying and developing markets for GMES,” he said. “We know that these markets will depend much on the public sector. In this context, the roles and needs of the European regions will be of key importance with regard to GMES services, including transport, crisis management and environmental services.”
The EU Competitiveness Council has been a strong supporter of the emerging European Space Policy, including the ongoing strengthening of ties between the European Commission and the European Space Agency. With its important debate in Graz on the GMES initiative, the Council has now reaffirmed its commitment to one of Europe’s primary space projects, placing it high on the agenda of European economic competitiveness.
More information:
(Credits Europa)