Author: EARSC

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today launches a loan and
grant programme to help small- and medium-sized businesses conserve
biodiversity at the same time as they reduce poverty.

Over the next 18 months, the initiative, called Equator Ventures, will
disburse “loan investments” of $30,000 to $500,000 in a pilot
programme, starting today, and will provide expertise in building
enterprises, it said. Equator Ventures will disburse funds provided by
UNDP, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of development banks and UN
agricultural and industrializing agencies, the World Bank, the
Government of Japan, the Dutch DOEN Foundation, the Critical Ecosystem
Partnership Fund and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
UNDP said.

“Equator Ventures is dedicated to showing that small entrepreneurs are
a key link in the chain towards achieving sustainable development and
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Grassroots
entrepreneurship, through its ability to bring great environmental
benefits while also raising incomes, has the potential to transform the
way we think about development,” said Jeffrey Sachs, head of the poverty-reducing UN Millennium Project.

The MDGs, agreed on at a UN summit in September 2000, are designed to reduce socio-economic ills significantly by 2015.

The new loan and grant programme, to be administered by the UNDP-led
Equator Initiative, aims to carry out the recommendations of a recent
report sponsored by the agency called “Unleashing Entrepreneurship:
Making Business Work for the Poor.”

“The Equator Ventures partnership fills a critical niche by addressing
a major gap in sustainable development finance that goes beyond
microfinance, on the one hand, and project finance, on the other,” said
Olav Kjorven, Director of UNDP Energy and Environment Group.

For more details go to UN News Centre.

Around 60 nations and more than 40 international organisations
participated in the Third Earth Observation summit on 16 February 2005
in Brussels. The EO Summit took place within the context of Earth and
Space Week, a major EU-ESA sponsored event. Assembled delegates at the
summit formally agreed on a ten-year plan to implement a Global Earth
Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). The plan summarises the steps
that need to be taken to put a Global Earth Observation System of
Systems in place. Building a GEOSS means bringing together numerous EO
sources and datasets and creating a sustainable network for the
distribution of data and information products and services. GEOSS aims
to increase responsiveness to user needs and improve information
delivery to users. The creation of a single, comprehensive and
sustained system for Earth Observation could help countries to identify
and address global environmental and economic challenges, including
climate change and natural disasters.

More info:

1. Earthobservations.org
2. Article

In December 2002, the ProVention Consortium, in collaboration with
the World Bank awarded grants to 65 individuals and/or teams from 27
developing countries to encourage them to become more involved in
disaster risk reduction. Fifteen of the projects presented were
selected, and the team leaders for these projects presented their
findings at the “Global Sysmposium for Hazard Risk Reduction” at the
World Bank Headquarters. Encouraged by the success of the program,
Provention is now teaming up with the Asian Disaster Preparedness
Center, the Disaster Mitigation for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme
at the University of Cape Town, and the Disaster Management Center at
the University of Wisconsin to sponsor a second round of grants to
support research on disaster risk management.

The Consortium is inviting young professionals (35 and under) from
developing countries to submit proposals in the form of research
projects, professional internships or professional development
programs. They should focus on the links between disasters, development
and the environment, and should fall into three general categories (i)
risk identification and analysis, (ii) risk reduction, and (iii) risk
sharing/transfer. Since the proposals are meant to be pilot activities
to test ideas, their implementation timeframe should not exceed nine
months.

A maximum of US$ 5000 will be awarded to selected proposals. Proposals
(in English only) must be sent by May 15, 2005 to
email. Additional information on the submission of
the proposals can be found at ProVention Consortium.

The European Commission has unveiled its plans for the Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7), which propose a duration of seven years
(2007 to 2013), a budget of 73 billion euro and a structure based on
four specific programmes: Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities.

For further information, please consult the following web address:
http://www.cordis.lu/fp7/
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/research/future/index_en.cfm

The European Commission has published a call for proposals for
‘Space 2005’ under the Sixth Framework Programme‘s ‘Aeronautics and
Space’ activity. This is one of the areas covered by the ‘Integrating
and strengthening the European Research Area’ specific programme.

The areas covered by this call are: GMES (global monitoring for
environment and security): water resources; security; long-term
sustainability of GMES; data harmonisation for geo-information in
support of integrated GMEWS/INSPIRE services; education and
training; networking the users; international cooperation.

Satellite Telecommunications: convergence and integration of satellite
telecommunications with GMES; convergence and integration of satellite
telecommunications with Galileo; end-to-end satellite
telecommunications systems; analysis of future potential combined
Galileo/satellite telecommunications services; international
cooperation.

In specifying the instruments to be used in these areas, the call
requests the use of Integrated Projects (IP), specific targeted
research projects (STREP), coordination actions (CA), and specific
support actions (SSA). Proposers are advised to consult the full call
text at the address below in order to find out the particular
instruments requested for each area.

The total indicative budget for this call is 45 million euro.
Remarks: The deadline for submitting proposal documents is 13.7.2005.
Before contacting the Commission, proposers are strongly advised to
consult the original call text in the Official Journal of the European
Union at the reference below.
Data Source Provider: Official Journal of the European Union
Document Reference: OJ No C79 of 01.4.2005, p.34
Programme Acronym: FRAMEWORK 6C; FP6-INTEGRATING;
FP6-AEROSPACE
Subject Index : Scientific Research; Aerospace
Technology
To see the call text, please visit this site.

INSPIRE is an EU initiative to establish an infrastructure for
spatial information in Europe that will help to make spatial or
geographical information more accessible and interoperable for a wide
range of purposes supporting sustainable development.

Resource of information

The EIROforum paper on science policy describes their collective
vision on the future of European scientific research in order to
support the Lisbon Process by working, alongside the Commission, for
the implementation of the European Research Area. In combination with
the individual success and expertise of each of the EIROforum partners,
this provides a strong boost to European Research and thus to the
Lisbon Goals of developing a knowledge-based economy. The EIROforum is
a collaboration between seven European intergovernmental scientific
research organisations that are responsible for infrastructures and
laboratories. As world leaders within their respective fields of
science, the seven member organisations of the EIROforum constitute the
vanguard of European science, enabling European scientists to engage in
truly cutting-edge research and be competitive on a global scale. These
organisations have a vital role to play in the future of European
research.

For more information, go to EIROforum.

As part of ESA‘s Living Planet Programme, the Earth Explorer
series of satellites are designed to address critical environmental
issues and, as such, are an important contribution to the global
endeavour to further our understanding of the Earth.

Resource information

By tabling the first “Competitiveness and Innovation framework
Programme (CIP)” the Commission has adopted a coherent and integrated
response to the objectives of the renewed Lisbon strategy. Running from
2007 to 2013, it proposes a budget of more than EUR 4 billion over the
7 year period.

Source information.

The objective of this work is to establish the Payload Data Ground
Segment architecture for the Sentinel satellites following the
principles of the Open Operational Ground Segment enabling seamless
access to different satellite data to large user communities. The work
shall define the integration of each Sentinel satellite mission in the
existing multi-mission infrastructure, defining the related evolutions
in a way to ensure full compliance with the requirements of the
Sentinel satellite missions and the continuity of the services for the
ESA Earth Observation users. Furthermore, the specification work shall
ensure interoperability with other European and International missions
relevant for the objectives of the GMES, implementing related
interfaces, and shall consider the impact of requirements coming from
the security community. The work shall be carried out in tight
coordination with the Sentinel system definition and with the ESA
activities related to the interoperability.

More information.