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Category: EARSC Activities

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In November 2026, the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) participated in the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, bringing together the European Earth Observation community and the wider smart cities ecosystem.

Showcasing EO in Action

At our dedicated booth, EARSC members demonstrated how EO solutions support key urban priorities, including water management, flood prevention, temperature and heat monitoring, transport planning, and construction. The strong interest from city representatives, planners, and solution providers confirmed that EO is no longer a niche technology, but an essential tool for cities and regions seeking data-driven, climate-resilient development.

All EO products and services designed for local and regional authorities are available in our Catalogue of Services, which you can download here.

Engaging the Urban Community Through Dedicated Sessions

In addition to the booth, EARSC hosted three focused sessions to foster dialogue between EO providers and public authorities.

🌍 Advancing Urban Climate Adaptation with User-Driven Earth Observation: The SDGs-EYES Way

This workshop highlighted how user-driven EO strengthens urban resilience when local needs shape service design from the outset. Beate Tempel (constellr) and Edurne Estevez (GeoVille Information Systems and Data Processing GmbH) emphasized the importance of co-creation with municipalities and embedding successful EO solutions into governance processes to ensure long-term impact.

🏙️ AGORA Session: Earth Observation for Urban Planning

City representatives Elena MartĂ­n Alonso (Comunidad de Madrid) and Nicolas Kulpinski (MĂŠtropole Aix-Marseille-Provence) shared how EO supports land-use monitoring, vegetation mapping, solar planning, and heat island analysis.
EO providers SĂŠbastien Delbour (CLS Group) and Samuel Fonseca (COTESA) highlighted the need for refined classifications, improved data integration, and AI-driven approaches to deliver accurate and cost-effective services tailored to city needs.

🌊 OCEANIDS Project Session

The OCEANIDS session brought together coastal user representatives and speakers from VALORADA, SEACLIM, and EDITO. The discussion focused on current challenges in coastal monitoring, existing solution gaps, and how the outcomes of OCEANIDS and VALORADA can continue to benefit communities as both projects approach completion.

EARSC’s participation at Smart City Expo reinforced the growing role of Earth Observation in urban planning and climate adaptation. By connecting technology providers with public authorities and international stakeholders, we continue to strengthen the position of the European EO downstream sector as a key partner for smarter, more resilient cities.


In 2026, we will once again join the event together with our members — if you are an EARSC member interested in being part of the EARSC presence next year, we invite you to get in touch and join us.

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On Thursday, 30th of January, EARSC launched the User Uptake webinar series within the SDGs-EYES project, running from January to May 2025, with the aim to engage stakeholders, foster collaboration, and promote Copernicus-based services across five pilot areas. The first webinar focused on “GHG Emissions from Forest Fires: Advancing SDGs Indicators Monitoring, Reporting, and Accounting”.

The User Uptake webinar series builds on previous SDGs-EYES co-design workshops and test validation activities, where potential users contributed to shaping and evaluating the pilot services. The Users Uptake webinars mark a crucial step in bridging the gap between development and operational deployment, ensuring the services meet users needs.  Each webinar features a moderated panel discussion and targeted breakout sessions, offering a space for productive expert dialogue to refine the pilot’s service, identify synergies with existing services, and explore opportunities for wider adoption across other communities and EU countries.

The webinars are open to a broad audience connected to the thematic domains of the SDGs-EYES activities in relation to the monitoring of the SDGs. Participation is encouraged from primary, secondary, and tertiary stakeholders, to foster a moderated dialogue among diverse groups, enriching the outcomes and ensuring the relevance of SDGs-EYES solutions across sectors, including: data providers and trade associations, policy makers, research institutions, private and commercial  users. 

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

The first webinar “GHG Emissions from Forest Fires: Advancing SDGs Indicators Monitoring, Reporting, and Accounting” facilitated a shared understanding among participants that, while EO-based emissions tracking for GHG emissions offers significant advantages, its successful adoption depends on addressing technical, institutional, and methodological barriers. Strengthening capacity, ensuring long-term data reliability, and developing hybrid models that blend EO insights with traditional statistical methods will be essential steps in improving GHG emissions monitoring in the EU.

There was broad agreement on the need for closer collaboration between research institutions, national statistical offices, forestry experts, private companies, and policymakers to advance EO-based emissions monitoring systems. 

Looking ahead, the webinar also highlighted opportunities for collaboration between the pilot GHG emissions initiative and its defined user community. The session successfully sparked interest from potential users who are keen to test the pilot’s platform and apply it within their own frameworks.

If you have missed the live session, you can watch the recording and download the full report at this link. 

Save the date for the upcoming webinars to engage with the SDGs-EYES user community and explore how to scale up the integration of Earth Observation solutions developed under the project’s pilots: 

Don't hesitate to get in touch with francesca.piatto@earsc.org and laurine.tertre@earsc.org for more information on the above topics.

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GAF AG, an e-GEOS (Telespazio/ASI) company, and a consortium of European partners (VITO, Wageningen University, GFZ, e-GEOS, Meridia, and Terrasphere) have been awarded the ESA WorldAgrocommodities contract following a tendering procedure. The project, with a duration of 24 months, focuses on the EUs Deforestation Free Supply Chain Regulation (EUDR). The objective is to support EU Member States in verifying that imported commodities come from deforestation free areas, and the project will contribute to the EU’s emission reduction policies.

Munich, October 24, 2024

A consortium led by GAF AG, and also includingpartners VITO (Belgium), Wageningen University (Netherlands), GFZ (German), e-GEOS (Italy), Meridia and Terrasphere (Netherlands), has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency to perform the ESA WorldAgrocommodities project, which started in the first week of September 2024. It has a duration of 24 months and will make a major contribution to the EUs emission reduction policies.

The EUDR requires that all operators that export commodities to the EU, such as cocoa, coffee, soy, oil palm, rubber, cattle and wood (and derived products), have to provide a Due Diligence Report which identifies every parcel of land from which the commodity was sourced, with geolocation information ensuring there has been no deforestation in these areas since 31 December 2020. The main goal of the current ESA project is to support the EU Member States (MS), which monitor compliance with the EUDR, by providing an approach that can be used to help identify and verify the crop type and if the commodity originates from deforestation free areas. This is a core part of the due diligence that has to be performed by commodity suppliers.

GAF AG and the consortium together form a very experienced group in the agro-commodity mapping/traceability and tropical deforestation monitoring domain. With almost 40 years of experience, GAF is one of Europe’s forerunners and market leaders in satellite data reception and distribution, advanced analysis techniques, AI processes and the tailor-made development of geoinformation and software systems, platforms and consulting solutions. The engagement with the Competent National Authorities (CNAs) of the Member States that have to undertake the verification has already started and a consultative process is at the heart of the project.

About GAF AG

GAF AG, an e-GEOS (Telespazio/ASI) company based in Munich and Neustrelitz, was founded in Munich in 1985 as the first German company with a focus on applied remote sensing. It is now one of the leading commercial geoinformation service providers in Europe. As part of the e-GEOS/Telespazio group of companies, GAF offers an extensive service portfolio that, in addition to the direct reception and distribution of satellite data, also includes highly developed analysis techniques, AI processes and the tailor-made development of geoinformation and software systems and platforms as well as consulting solutions.The products and services in the sector of Advanced Air Mobility Solutions (drones) cover the entire value chain from data collection to system provision. The areas of thematic expertise for public and private clients worldwide include land monitoring, natural resource management, water and environmental monitoring, agriculture and forestry, mining, emergency management and infrastructure security. GAF is also one of the most experienced European service providers in the EU/ESA Copernicus programme, due to its many years of service implementation for the Copernicus land monitoring service, emergency management service and security and in-situ service components.

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KrakĂłw, Poland – October 2024 – On October 8th, the EuroGEO Workshop 2024 hosted the SDGs-EYES Policy Event titled “Harnessing Earth Observation data for Sustainable Development.”  The pivotal gathering aimed at exploring the integration of Earth Observation (EO) data into Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) monitoring, trying to assess its interaction with current and future policy frameworks.

This event underscored the critical role of EO technology in enhancing national and regional capacities for SDG reporting, bringing together a diverse audience, including representatives from national statistical offices, policymakers, researchers, and industry experts. The session commenced with presentations from the SDGs-EYES project team: Dr. Manuela Balzarolo (CMCC), project coordinator, presented the overall goal and approach of the project and introduced one of its pilot activities; Mr. Stefano Natali (Sistema) illustrated the SDGs-EYEs user centred platform and its potentialities for expert and non-expert users. These presentations set the stage for a comprehensive discussion on the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating EO data into national and international SDG frameworks. 

One of the relevant themes was the importance of developing a multi-scalar approach, ensuring the platform’s tools can be applied effectively at various administrative levels, from local municipalities to international organisations. Indeed, the SDGs-EYES platform and the project tools it hosts, incorporates different satellite and local data, and can present a scalable and adaptable solution aimed at bridging the gap between international standards and local realities.

The following panel discussion chaired by Dr. Passani Antonella (T6 Ecosystems) brought further insights into the integration of EO data for SDG monitoring. The panel included: Mr. Przemysław Slesiński, Remote sensing specialist at Statistics Poland and Expert in geospatial data analysis; Mr. Michele Melchiorri, Project Officer at the EU Joint Research Centre and Responsible for integrating the Global Human Settlement Layer into the Copernicus Emergency Management Service; Mr. Stijn Vermoote, Head of User Outreach and Engagement Section at ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts); Dr. Emmanuel Pajot Secretary General of the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC); Dr. Charalampos Haris Kontoes, Research Director at IAASARS/NOA (Astronomy, Astrophysics Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens) and leader of the BEYOND Center for Earth Observation Research. The experts underscored the importance of early user engagement and capacity building to ensure that tools are not only adopted but also optimised for local contexts. The panel stressed that successful implementation hinges on developing effective communication strategies to convey the benefits of EO data.

Flexibility and usability of the SDGs-EYES platform were recurring themes throughout the event. Participants emphasised the need for tools that are not only adaptable to the needs of diverse users but also capable of providing downloadable datasets for further analysis. Such flexibility is vital for making EO data accessible and actionable, fostering data-driven policymaking and enabling precise, localised interventions. The conversation also touched on the development of composite indicators that integrate multiple dimensions of urban risk, providing a holistic view that supports the creation of effective policy scenarios and interventions.

The event concluded with Dr. Balzarolo delivering closing remarks, expressing the SDGs-EYES team’s enthusiasm for the project’s progress and the crucial suggestions provided by the panellists. The collaborative spirit of the event underscored the project’s commitment to refining its platform based on real-world user input, highlighting the importance of continued partnership and stakeholder involvement.

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About SDGs-EYES: SDGs-EYES is a three-year (Starting date: 1 January 2023) European Research and Innovation Action project that aims at boosting the European capacity for monitoring the SDGs based on Copernicus through building a portfolio of decision-making tools to monitor those SDG indicators related to the environment from an inter-sectoral perspective, aligning with the EU Green Deal priorities and challenges. 

To learn more about SDGs-EYES, visit the website: https://sdgs-eyes.eu/ 

Follow the social media channels:

• X: https://twitter.com/SDGsEYES 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sdgs-eyes/ 

The SDGs-EYES Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme for research and innovation under project number 101082311.

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The EU-funded CREDIBLE project is calling for session proposals for its annual summit on carbon farming, taking place in Dublin from March 4–6, 2025. The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2024. This is the perfect opportunity to shape the future of sustainable agriculture, alongside leaders and innovators in the field.

The 2nd European Carbon Farming Summit: Call for Sessions

After a first event in Valencia, the 2nd European Carbon Farming Summit will be held in Dublin, Ireland, from 4–6 March 2025. The on-site participation of over 500 experts is expected from diverse sectors, including farmers, land managers, scientists, and representatives from various industries, all united around a common ambition: Putting Carbon Farming to Practice.

The summit is envisioned as a space to enable in-depth conversations toward the design and implementation of policy instruments and the deployment of practical solutions. This will be achieved through a combination of sessions that aim to deliver concrete outcomes – such as consensus views, debated topics for further exploration, practical recommendations, and closing knowledge gaps.

Call for Session Proposals

The organisers invite you to propose a session to contribute to this vital conversation. This is your opportunity to share your ideas and insights at the summit. Proposals should align with one of three main themes:

  • Carbon farming practices for land managers
  • Rewarding mechanisms for impactful climate actions
  • Monitoring and verification tools

A detailed list of topics related to the above themes, and of the objectives of the summit itself, can be found on the summit website. In the selection process, priority will be given to applicants that represent multiple stakeholders’ organisations or networking initiatives.

Session Format

Proposed sessions will be 1.5 hours long where multiple voices contribute toward advancing the summit’s goals and objectives.

Deadline: Thursday 31 October, 2024

Please submit your session proposal here.

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SpaceSUITE is an Erasmus+ Blueprint project for the development of innovative resources for education and training to bridge the gap between the supply and demand of skills in the ever-growing downstream space sector. The project was kicked off in January 2024, and it will end in December 2027. It integrates 28 partners, including 3 affiliated entities, from Academia, vocational education and training (VET) providers, associations, and representatives of industry companies. The partnership is complemented by 9 associated partners, mainly local and regional public bodies. The project was promoted in the framework of the SPACE4GEO Large-scale Skills Partnership on Space Data, Services and Applications (www.space4geo.eu) were EARSC is key partner and will support the achievement of its strategic objectives in the framework of the EC initiative Pact for Skills.

With the aim of ensuring the development of advanced skills in space-related fields and the provision of education and training activities for higher education and VET providers for upskilling and reskilling, in particular for professionals, entrepreneurs, graduates and students, the SpaceSUITE consortium will:

  • release a Sector Skills Strategy, providing details on the way major trends in the downstream space sector are expected to impact skills’ needs in the sector, which will be continuously updated, and defining the roadmap to ensure medium and long term skills development through up-skilling and re-skilling actions for the current workforce, as well as the attraction of talents from other sectors and among youngsters. 
  • enhance and further develop the Body of Knowledge (BoK) on Earth Observation and Geo-information, also embracing Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) and Satellite Communication (SatCom), 
  • design “core” curricula for current in-demand and emerging occupational profiles, develop educational and training materials, and organise training actions for different persona, from a technician to a decision maker,
  • create an online “Open Space Academia” to provide these contents in a open flexible manner using the most recent learning techniques and including guidance to candidate learners.

The direct beneficiaries of this action are the 230.000 professionals currently employed by the EU downstream  space sector, which accounts for close to 80% of the global space economy.

Sources:

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SDGs-EYES is a three – year Horizon Europe Research and innovation action (RIA) project (January 2023 – January 2026) that aims to strengthen Europe’s capacity to monitor the the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the basis of Copernicus by building a portfolio of decision-making tools to monitor SDG indicators related to the environment from a cross-sectoral perspective and in line with the priorities and challenges of the EU Green Deal. 

Led by a consortium of 10 partners representing diverse disciplines, SDGs-EYES embodies the spirit of collaboration, cross-fertilization, and knowledge integration. One of the key strengths of SDGs-EYES lies in its ability to combine data from Copernicus’s six core services to develop more accurate SDG indicators. Through a scientific and technological framework, EARSC is leading the using engagement of the project facilitating access to Earth Observation (EO) information while enhancing its usability for a wide range of stakeholders, as e.g. national statistical offices, SDG custodian agencies such as FAO, UNEP, the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) or the Working Group on Geospatial Information (WGGI), etc.

In addition to its core objectives, SDGs-EYES embarks on a pilot-driven approach. Indeed, the project solutions are demonstrated through four EU and one non EU pilot areas (Sahel Countries, North Sea area, City of Turin (Italy), Romania, and Cosenza province (Italy). 

Overall, SDGs-EYES aims to:

  1. Facilitate Access and Increase Usability of EO Information: SDGs-EYES focuses on designing and developing a robust framework for aggregating and processing EO data provided by Copernicus’s core services and the space and in-situ components. By improving the accessibility and usability of EO information, the project empowers stakeholders with valuable insights for decision-making.
  2. Improve Reliability, Robustness, and Accuracy of SDG Indicators: Through a pilot-driven approach, SDGs-EYES demonstrates the potential of Copernicus-enhanced measurement for six SDG indicators related to SDG13 Climate Action, SDG14 Life Below Water, SDG15 Life on Land, and a cross-goal indicator will be also formulated to explore the exposure of vulnerable communities under cumulative climate extreme. These indicators are evidence of the project’s commitment to advancing the quality and accuracy of SDG monitoring efforts.
  3. Advance Stakeholder Capacity in SDG Monitoring: SDGs-EYES seeks to empower stakeholders by creating a range of user-friendly data products tailored to simplify the tracking and reporting of specific SDGs. These service-oriented products are developed, showcased, and co-designed in collaboration with a diverse community of users and stakeholders within designated pilot areas.

More information about the project are available on the website: https://sdgs-eyes.eu/ and on the project social media channels: LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sdgs-eyes/)  and X (@SDGsEYES)

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With the European Digital Strategy, the EU plans to build a strong policy and legislative framework to ensure fairness in the digital environment, stimulate a competitive data market, open opportunities for data-driven innovation and make data more accessible for all. In this context, the Data Act (currently in trialogue negotiations) and the Data Governance Act (entered into force on 23rd June 2022) will support the set up and development of the Common European Data Spaces in making more data available and facilitating data sharing across sectors and EU countries. Following up on the Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information, the Commission’s DG CNECT has also adopted on December 2022 the Implemented Act on a list of High-Value Datasets.

The Green Deal Data Space (GDDS) will be a transversal, cross-sectoral data space building the Common European Data Spaces among sector-specific spaces. The Green Deal Data Space Foundation, the GREAT project, funded by the Digital Europe program, aims to establish the GDDS and its Community of Practice which builds on both the European Green Deal and the EU’s Strategy for Data. The project will deliver a roadmap for implementing and deploying the GDDS, an infrastructure that will allow data providers and initiatives to openly share their data to tackle climate change in a multidisciplinary manner. By filling in the following questionnaire you will contribute to identifying the challenges and gaps related to the use of Green Deal data and your answers will be used to assess use case proposals.

Click on the link below to open the questionnaire!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X3JVV52

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X3JVV52

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A number of further economic benefit studies were published over the last couple of months in 2022 within the Sentinels Benefits Study. Oil spill in the Mediterranean looks at how the CleanSeaNet (CSN) service operated by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) helps national authorities monitoring their waters.CSN uses Sentinel-1 and other data to identify potential oil slicks and possible polluters and, in a matter of minutes, transfer this information to the national competent authorities such as SASEMAR in Spain and Transport Malta. The increased risk of detection and successful prosecution is deterring ship’s captains from washing out their tanks and oil spills were reduced by up to 65% in the last 10 years.

Water Quality Management in Finland looks at how Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 data are being used to monitor water bodies in Finland. These measurements allow the environmental institute of Finland and regional environmental agencies, known as ELY Centres, to monitor the quality of water in lakes throughout their region to a degree that is not possible using traditional in-situ water sampling and testing. Using satellite data is especially helpful in a country like Finland where the large amount of water bodies would imply enormous associated costs for authorities should they have to use traditional monitoring methods across the whole country. Sentinel data therefore helps authorities to improve water quality at a lower cost, which in turn improves the quality of life for citizens, aids in the protection of biodiversity and helps to ensure environmental sustainability.

Next to these and other in-depth case studies, we published a visual summary report that provides a great overview of the learnings and conclusions we have been able to draw from our case studies so far. The report also gives a comprehensive picture of all the associated benefits derived from the use of Copernicus Sentinel data!

Besides our case analyses, we organised three sector workshops to engage with public sector stakeholders and to better understand the uptake of Sentinel data in these areas. The targeted sectors were road infrastructure management, forest management and water quality management. The workshop results can be accessed at our SEBS website!

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2019 ended very successfully for PARSEC, with two-weeks-long extension of the first Open Call, and 348 applications from 38 countries! If you have already applied, you would like to join or you are still considering how to benefit from PARSEC ecosystem, stay tuned for what is happening in 2020.

After the closing of the application period, more than three hundred applicants are currently taking part in peer-2-peer evaluation. On the 10th of February the evaluation will close, points will be counted, and 100 beneficiaries will be selected.

The selected beneficiaries will meet with PARSEC consortium on the 27th of March in Stuttgart, Germany, to start working on their ideas and on creation of cross-border and/or cross-sectoral consortia. During the three-day-long Bootcamp, beneficiaries will take part in workshops, lectures, coaching sessions, and most importantly, in matchmaking event.

Beneficiaries of Open Call 1 will be looking for partners to form cross-border and/or cross-sectoral consortia throughout the spring. Apart from Bootcamp, accessible only for beneficiaries, five matchmaking events will be organized. To facilitate the access to the events, two of them will be hosted online, while three others will be organized in different regions of Europe. Matchmaking events will invite SMEs, entrepreneurs, innovators, and researchers to cooperate in creating of new Earth Observation-based product or service. Events will be open for representatives from Food, Energy, Environment and Earth Observation sectors, interested in joining the consortia.

The consortia will present their ideas and compete for further funding during two-day-long Demo Day, which will take place on the 3rd and 4th of July in Brussels, Belgium. Interested investors will have a chance to meet innovative teams and to discuss their further development.

To learn more about what PARSEC is up to in 2020 follow us on social media and check our website to learn more about upcoming events (more details soon!). To make sure you don’t miss any date, sign up for PARSEC email updates (subscription available through the website).