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FP7 calls for proposals


On this page:
Geo-information provisions
Service Level Agreement)
Access to Earth observation data
Strengthening space foundations
Further guidance

Taking on endless possibilities, € 114 million for space research

Information regarding the third call for proposals under the Space theme of the Seventh Framework Programme

The third call for proposals pdf – 363 KB [363 KB] under the Seventh Framework Programme’s space theme was published on 30 July 2009. The deadline for entries is 8 December 2009. Among other issues, this call addresses the services included in the General Monitoring for Environment and Security programme. Also, the call includes a significant financial envelope in support of the area of Strengthening Space Foundations.

Geo-information provisions

In this call, proposals addressing the “Space-based applications at the service of European Society” area should focus on building on the existing achievements of GMES, in particular the geo-information service provision projects, taking full benefit of the products made available by these.

Aimed at facilitating knowledge sharing between GMES services and downstream GMES projects, the pages below provide information on the geo-information expected to be available from each of the five GMES service domains.

Atmosphere
Emergency Response
Land
Marine
Security

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Some project partners may be linked by means of a Service Level Agreement (SLA). You may find more information about the SLA, including a template for such an agreement, here msw8 – 48 KB [48 KB]

Access to Earth observation data

Project proposers may also consult information on specifications needed from downstream services access to Earth observation data in the document below and its annexes:

Downstream services access to Earth observation data pdf – 15 KB [15 KB]
Annex 1: Guidelines for compiling the service requirements template pdf – 51 KB [51 KB]
Annex 2: Service requirements template msw8 – 104 KB [104 KB]
Annex 3: Current definition of primary products pdf – 13 KB [13 KB]

Strengthening space foundations

The third call for proposals also addresses projects to strengthen the foundations of space science and technology. The support will be given in the following action areas:

* research activities related to space science and exploration
* new concepts in space transportation and space technologies including critical components. Please consult the document European non-dependence on critical space technologies: EC-ESA-EDA list of urgent actions for 2009, EC-ESA-EDA Joint Task Force here pdf – 325 KB [325 KB]
* research into reducing the vulnerability of space-based systems and services. Please consult the document Space situational awareness – Consolidated activity plan for SSA, GSTP and FP7 here pdf – 62 KB [62 KB]

Further guidance

Please consult a PowerPoint presentation by the European Commission to the National Contact Points for Space (NCP) on the content and context of this call here pdf – 7 MB [7 MB]

Also, for advice on how to write a good proposal from project evaluators, success stories from project coordinators, and insights into the current state of play in space research, please consult the web-screening of the “Research Connection 2009” space session, which took place in Prague on 7 May 2009 here

SOURCE

Notice of call for expressions of interest concerning technical assistance in evaluating, monitoring and validating GMES projects and services.

Deadline: 11 May 2012

GMES gradually moves towards operations. This materialises through the launch an increasing number of projects by DG Enterprise and Industry on this theme. The concerned projects will provide, using earth observation data processed at different stages, value-added services and products in the all GMES areas. The purpose of this call is to establish a reserve list of experts whose role is to assist the Commission Services in the evaluation and monitoring of projects in the frame of the GMES initiative, and/or the assessment/validation of products/services offered by those projects. The list of experts will be valid for 3 years from the date of publication of this notice. Any interested candidate may submit an application at any time up to 3 months before the end of its period of validity.

Downloads

Call for expression of interest PDF (63 Kb) English (en) (EN)

Application form PDF (15 Kb) English (en) (EN)

Contact: ENTR-H3-GMES-Experts@ec.europa.eu

SOURCE

As part of its Earth Observation Envelope Programme, the European Space Agency (ESA) announces an opportunity for scientists from the Earth Observation communities in ESA Member States and Canada to make proposals for missions to be evaluated as a potential Earth Explorer Opportunity Mission.

These missions are intended to be used to conduct research in the field of Earth Observation and/or to demonstrate the potential of new innovative Earth Observation techniques of relevance to both the scientific and the applications communities.

The Earth Observation Envelope Programme is a rolling programme designed to underpin European efforts in Earth observation from space. The Earth Explorer element of the programme consists of a series of space missions addressing critical Earth science issues. In the past, six missions have been selected for implementation; namely, three Earth Explorer Core Missions, GOCE (Gravity and Ocean Circulation Explorer), ADM-Aeolus (Doppler Wind Lidar), EarthCARE (Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer); and three Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions, CryoSat (Polar Ice Monitoring), SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) and Swarm (Earth’s Magnetic Field and Environment Explorer). In addition, as a result of the evaluation of responses to the call for Earth Explorer Core Mission ideas in 2005, and the recent down-selection in 2009, the following three Earth Explorer Core mission candidates are currently entering studies at Phase-A level: BIOMASS, CoReH2O and PREMIER.

The motivation behind this Call is the Agency’s wish to involve the scientific community as far as possible in determining the content of the Earth Observation Envelope Programme. The Agency wants to achieve a clear appreciation of the science community’s views on what missions will give the highest scientific return.

Taking into account the experience from previous calls and in line with the spirit of the programme, the Agency is soliciting mission proposals for implementation as the Earth Explorer-8 Opportunity mission with a ceiling industrial cost of 100 MEURO at 2009 economic conditions.

A response to the Call may be made by European or Canadian scientists or teams of scientists, where proposing teams also may include scientists from non-ESA Member States.

The results of the evaluation of proposals will be presented to the Programme Board for Earth Observation (PB-EO) in November 2010.

Overall schedule

Release of the Call for Proposals: 2 October 2009
Deadline for receipt of Letter of Intent: 1 December 2009
Deadline for receipt of full Proposals: 1 June 2010
Announcement of evaluation results: 25 November 2010

SOURCE

ESA

As reported by Euractiv, the European Environment Agency (EEA) wants the current climate change debate to focus on water efficiency at least as heavily as it does on energy efficiency and the energy performance of buildings.

GMES will contribute to water monitoring and management for example through the provision of data related to the amount of groung water, precipitation and surface water.

More information at EURACTIV

SOURCE GMES.INFO

New pages have been created on this website which describe in more details the GMES services currently developped in the field of marine monitoring, emergency response, atmosphere monitoring and security.

A page addressing the land domain will also be available soon.

In particular, the “marine” and “atmosphere” pages provide access to pre-operational GMES services:

  • The marine page gives access to the services developped by the MyOcean project. These services are made available to users through an interactive catalogue.
  • The atmosphere page gives access to a wide range of services developped through the PROMOTE, GEMS and from now MACC. These services address greenhouse gases monitoring, aerosols monitoring, UV monitoring, etc.

Source

The European Commission has a set of measures to help finance innovative and growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This includes making finance systems more SME friendly, facilitating finance of start-ups, innovation and growth as well as measures to generate more risk capital investments.

Through the EU financial instruments of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme a sizeable sum of money has been made available to help SMEs across the EU to access loans and equity to grow and develop their business. These EU financial instruments are operated by the European Investment Fund in cooperation with national, regional and local financial institutions, which comprise the interface with the customer groups.

There are also other EU programmes with measures specially designed for SMEs: Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development, Jeremie programme and Eurostars project (more)

Source

September 28, 2009, Cambridge, United Kingdom – The United Nations Environment Programme‘s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) today announced that they have invited Safe Software into their Proteus Partnership, a collaboration of progressive corporate business leaders and the UNEP-WCMC.

The goal of Proteus is to provide industry decision makers with access to the best possible data on location and distribution of biodiversity to support risk management and safeguard the Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystems.

The UNEP-WCMC helps decision-makers to protect conservation areas and therefore ensure that future generations can enjoy the benefits of biodiversity. To accomplish this, the Centre provides critical information to aid biodiversity assessments and policy support for decision making by compiling data from governments and other sectors around the world and making it globally available.

The challenge in achieving this objective is that data is created and stored in a wide variety of formats, models and coordinate systems by providers from all over the world. To overcome these barriers, the UNEP-WCMC turned to Safe Software’s leading spatial ETL platform FME. When Safe Software learned of this situation in 2007, they donated FME to the Centre to help their critical global initiative. The Centre is now able to translate, transform and integrate source datasets as required, to make necessary information accessible and as current and accurate as possible.

“Safe Software has proven to be a valuable partner for the Centre in helping us meet our global mandate,” says Mônica Barcellos Harris, Head of Programme – Business, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at UNEP-WCMC. “Their solution makes it possible for us to compile and deliver the data stakeholders need to make better informed decisions that safeguard biodiversity on our planet for future generations.”

Previously, bringing biodiversity information together from all over the world was challenging, requiring manual comparisons of existing maps with new data, which required assumptions that could risk data integrity. Today using FME, the UNEP-WCMC is able to provide this information directly to the decision makers in much less time and with greater accuracy. Additionally, FME has enabled the integration of data from areas of the globe which the Centre previously could not translate, ensuring that the World Database of Protected Areas (WDPA), the only global dataset of protected areas, delivers the world-wide data needed to power conservation efforts.

“We’re honoured to be invited into the Proteus Partnership,” says Don Murray, President of Safe Software. “At Safe, we fully support the vital work that the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre is doing to help our world. Being able to assist critical initiatives like theirs is what makes our daily work so rewarding.”
Moving forward, Safe Software will continue to support the UNEP-WCMC by providing training and sharing their data conversion knowledge to enable further, more efficient data access for biodiversity conservation.

About Safe Software and FME

Safe Software powers the flow of spatial data with its software platform, FME. The recognized standard in spatial ETL (extract, transform and load), FME is the only complete solution for data conversion. It delivers the most extensive format support for data translation and integration, and provides unlimited flexibility in data model transformation and distribution.

FME is used by thousands of customers worldwide in a variety of industries including government, utilities, and petroleum. Its powerful data access technology also makes FME the choice of leading GIS, CAD, and database vendors for integration into their own solutions. Designed for true data interoperability, FME unleashes spatial data so people can use it where, when, and how they want to. For more information, visit www.safe.com.

About UNEP-WCMC

The UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre is is the biodiversity assessment and biodiversity policy support arm of the United Nations Environment Programme, the world’s foremost intergovernmental environmental organization. The Centre has been in operation for over 25 years, providing objective, scientifically rigorous products and services to help decision makers recognize the value of biodiversity and apply this knowledge to all that they do. The Centre’s core business is locating data about biodiversity and its conservation, interpreting and analysing that data to provide assessments and policy analysis, and making the results available to both national and international decision makers and businesses.

Source

(SEP) The Network Drafting Team has finalised the next version of their proposal for the Download service.

Implementing Rules and the accompanying Technical Guidelines.? The Draft Legislation for the Download Network Service is currently being prepared by the European Commission for submission to the INSPIRE Committee. The Draft Implementing Rules, the Technical Guidelines and the comments resolution document are now publicly available.

Read More

Election of new chairs and vice-chairs in environment and security related committees

The European Parliament is the only directly-elected body of the European Union. The 736 Members of the European Parliament are there to represent you, the citizen. They are elected once every five years by voters right across the 27 Member States of the European Union on behalf of its 492 million citizens.

Election of new chairs and vice-chairs in environment and security related committees. On 16 July twelve European Parliament’s committees elected their new chairs and vice-chairs.

These include the “Environment, Public Health and Food Safety” committee (responsible for climate change) and the “Industry, Research and Energy” committee (responsible for space policy), as well as other committees relevant to GMES applications (Agriculture, Fisheries, Security and defence).

The name of chairs and vice-chairs are available at

European Parliament

Further info

Members of Parliament, MEP´s