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The links below provide access to all of the slides and other materials presented at the workshop, plus slides capturing the key feedback received at each session of the workshop.

Opening
Session 1: The VA Services Industry: Significance and New Trends
Session 2: EO Industry Expectations from its Trade Association
Part 1: eoVox initial analysis and findings – presentation by B. Holt Andersen, ControlWare)
Part 2: Scope of representation – presentation by J. Hartnor, Metria
Part 3: New benefits from a European trade association – presentation by M. Stuttard, Chairman of BARSC
EOPAGES Prototype (Link to online version)
Session 3: Working Groups
Feedback received from the three working groups
Session 4: Road Map for the future
Presentation by P. Kamoun, EARSC
Information on the Open review Process
(Source eoVox)

EARSC Board is glad to welcome four 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:
1. BARCO Belgium – http://www.barco.com
2. CLS (Collecte Localisation Satellites) – http://www.cls.fr
4. Kayser-Threde GMBHhttp://www.kayser-threde.com
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 and observer members
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 than 120 representatives of the European and Canadian EO value-adding sector took part in the ‘eoVox Stakeholders Consultation Workshop’ held on 14 September at ESRIN, ESA’s Centre for Earth Observation in Italy.

The workshop focused on the status and future of the Earth observation value-adding (EO VA) industry. It was organised by the eoVox Consortium which includes the European trade body for the industry – European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC). The eoVox Consortium was initiated by ESA to explore common issues affecting the Earth Observation (EO) service industry sector in Europe and Canada.
At present, some 250 (mostly small) companies are involved in the EO VA sector processing raw and semi-processed data from remote sensing instruments, and converting these into commercially useful information for end users.
The European sector employs about 2900 people and generates an estimated turnover of around €300 million, an amount that is growing annually at a rate of 6%.
Companies in this sector operate in a diverse range of land and ocean applications including agriculture, cartography, environmental monitoring, marine surveillance, ice mapping and monitoring of hazards both on land and sea (e.g. floods, fires, oil spills).
The eoVox workshop attracted a wide range of participants including representatives from many EO value-adding companies; potential customers of EO services such as AMEC (civil engineering), Shell (oil and gas), Microsoft (Virtual Earth), and a number of national EO trade organisations within Europe.
Conley-AMEC (left),Shaw-Shell Oil & Kamoun-EARSC
The prime objective of the workshop was to discuss a new industry Position Paper presenting the combined needs of the industrial sector and addressing the question: What should the public sector do to incubate the EO value-adding sector, and Why?
This paper is a first attempt to synthesise the risks and challenges that the EO VA sector faces and chart a commonly endorsed road map for the industry covering the next 10 years which identifies development actions for public funding to help the sector grow and strengthen.
Presentations at the workshop covered the key aspects of the EO services industry – significance and new trends and EO industry expectations from its trade association.
Participants were encouraged to voice their different opinions during splinter meetings on three important issues:
GMES and GEOSS: is it going to help or hinder the EO service industry?
• Making the most of research and development (R&D) and new technologies,
• Can EO industry work together to expand the downstream commercial market?
The workshop ended with the presentation of an item that the industry considers urgent; a one-page declaration on behalf of the industry to the EC lobbying for firm commitment of resources in the short to mid term (2006-2010) for key activities such as Global Monitoring of the Environment & Security (GMES), where the EO services industry can deliver benefits.
The eoVox Position Paper is now undergoing an open review process in which all those associated with the EO service industry in Europe and Canada are invited to participate. All comments and feedback should be sent to the eoVox Consortium by mid-October for the paper to be finalised by end-October, prior to being presented to the EC and ESA.
eoVox stakeholders consultation workshop
More information (including the Position Paper and the workshop presentations) can be found at the eoVox website.
(Source ESA)
Interest links

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

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.

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.

The workshop is an excellent opportunity to capture the views of all stakeholders in the future of the value-added industry in Europe and Canada.
During the day various informative presentations will be offered based on the material produced during the study. The workshop will be structured to ensure that the views of participants can be clearly 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.
An expression of interest will be appreciated in order to have a good estimate of the number of attendees. Please send your details to eovox@earsc.org
More up to date info at www.eovox.org

The eoVox consortium has conducted a first consultation round with VA companies and trade associations with the aim to identify industry views concerning common issues across the complete EO service sector and collect their views concerning how common industry positions on these issues can be represented via industry trade associations.

A total of 60+ VACs have been interviewed by telephone or face to face meetings (for half of them) by three of the Consortium members with the following geographical distribution: Southern Europe (EARSC); Northern Europe (CONTROLWARE) and Canada (C-CORE). In addition, similarly, more than 10 Trade Associations have been contacted (by LOGICA CMG and EARSC) and contributed to the understanding of the position of such Associations. These include international (e.g. ISPRS, EURISY), European (e.g. EUROGI, EUROSPACE), French (e.g. AFIGEO), Italian (e.g. AIPAS) and North American (the Alliance for Earth Observation) associations.
The main elements of the first consultation report indicate key industry issues including for instance issues associated with the available resources of companies to develop businesses and the level of public support to the EO sector; the lack of awareness of the capabilities of the EO service sector; the access to EO missions data (operational supply of EO data today and continuity of EO missions to meet customer expectations in the longer term).
The main logic behind industry representation appears to be the collective issue that the EO service sector is largely dependent upon public financing; this, rather than downstream sector specific (niche) issues appears a strong and collective driver for representation in the eyes of the respondees. The findings of this first consultation round will be provided to the respondees and made available publicly during the course of May 2006. Further consultation and study reports will be issued by the end of Q2 2006 as part of an Open Review Process which will culminate with an Industry Workshop in September 14.

The Industry role in GMES and GEOSS Workshop was held on March 21 in Paris. The presence of 80 industrial actors and organizations have been remarkable being able to exchange their views and make recommendations to clarify and optimise the position of Industry in those complex initiatives.

The GMES and GEOSS initiatives, in concert with other activities, are creating a paradigm change in geo-spatial and environmental information sharing and recognise that geo-spatial products and services are a key to both economic return and managing global issues. For example, the Geospatial Industry is regarded as one of the top priorities of the US administration High Growth Job Initiative. Earth Observation is an important component of the geospatial industry and consequently an integral part of a Knowledge-driven economy. Nonetheless, these important initiatives are complex. They comprise numerous actors and there is a need for innovative approaches in a wide variety of domains including: political, organisational, technical, economic and financial arrangements.
Since the 1998 Baveno Declaration, European Industry has shown a strong interest in GMES and has supported the steps of the elaboration of a European consensus. However the real present and future role of industry at large in GMES and GEOSS has been little discussed. The success of GMES and GEOSS hinges largely on a proper and efficient role of industry, so that industry must make an overall assessment of GMES/GEOSS opportunities in socio-economic and industrial terms as well as study an action plan which would allow industry to play a role in insuring the success of these initiatives.
To help achieve these objectives the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) recently convened a workshop where industrial actors were able to exchange views and make recommendations to help clarify and optimise the role of Industry. Recommendations are synthesised below.
1. EO industry in Europe is strategically important and has considerable capabilities and levels of excellence but yet is still vulnerable.
GMES is a key to leverage several decades of industry investment. A major achievement already is the evolving user engagement and market pull. Users are identifying the potential of GMES services for their daily work. Consolidation of this demand through GMES will strengthen industry’s capabilities for Europe and globally.
2. GMES is now the main way forward for the sector and it needs strong EU political leadership.
The GMES initiative is the most important step forward to bring Europe into a leading position globally in the field of geo-information. GMES is an opportunity to stabilise the overall value chain for more continuity, to involve national and regional levels along with the European level and to help unlock the intellectual capital contained, but not necessarily accessible, in the research domain. In this undertaking EU must establish coherent synergies with ESA.
3. Policy makers on a wide basis must be informed of the GMES socio-economic benefits, emphasising the high Value-for-Money potential.
Considering the effective demonstration of the technical feasibility of GMES and the on-going user integration, the next big challenge of GMES implementation must be the sustainable allocation of operational budgets, at EC as well as at Member States level. For this, to occur, information on what GMES is, the value for money it represents and in particular the socio-economic benefits, must be prepared and made widely available for policy makers and citizens alike without delay.
4. EU must secure the availability of operational budgets.
To secure continuation and development of the impressive demonstration of GMES and supporting EO industry capabilities to date, the availability and accessibility of operational GMES budgets must be realized through long term user commitments, thereby allowing industry to make suitable planning and investment – from project to services.
5. EU must be more pro-active to aggregate user demand and to foster focused investment.
One of the main aims of GMES is to set up information gathering infrastructures and services, which includes forecasting natural risks, management of resources, monitoring of international agreements amongst others. EU should gather the user needs enabling and fostering focused investment in GMES, and monitor the gradual evolution of users demand. In particular to foster the development of forecasting tools (such as assimilation, modelling and so on) building on GMES services and capabilities.
6. EU has to evolve in the way it procures services.
GMES represents a concerted attempt to produce better policy relevant information, bringing together data and information from a wide variety of sources and making it available to those who need it most. The simultaneous development of common procurement policies for such services across European members states will generate substantial order volumes and give industry a chance to grow.
7. GMES is user driven and EU and European Institutions at large must stimulate interest more widely amongst potential users to take a leading role and to participate in relevant financial schemes. New suitable economic model and financing schemes must be developed.
Joint stakeholders efforts are necessary, with a detailed action plan and visible benefits to all stakeholders.
8. GMES needs to be linked with existing standards and regulations programs such as INSPIRE and the like in Positioning and Telecommunications to foster the development of applications.
9. EU must tackle carefully the issue of public in-sourcing, preserving public out-sourcing to industry.
It is important to develop further GMES applications jointly with all stakeholders including industry. Industry already provides many GMES and GMES-supporting services and it will be important to avoid any unnecessary competition between public and private service providers for operational deliveries.
10. Foster GMES role on Export Competitiveness.
Identify in particular the services which will create positive effects leading to improved competitiveness of enterprises. Be strong in Europe to be strong worldwide. Explore commercial spin-offs.
In Summary
-The Role of Industry in GMES and GEOSS: Recommendations and Synthesis.
-GMES needs a Long Term Commitment from institutions and users to achieve self-sustainability.
-The expected results will be: stimulated economic growth, increased market size, a more structured offer, the creation of innovative services, industry structure consolidation, improvement of competitiveness and last but not least sustainable development. It will also bring more jobs and better decision capability for Europe, in line with the EU Growth Initiative and the Lisbon principles.
-The involvement of Industry as a partner is crucial at all steps of this undertaking.
WORKSHOP PRESENTATIONS at historical news search on EARSC website.

EARSC Board is glad to welcome four 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:
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 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 at EARSC http://www.earsc.org/web/template.php?page=jointous