Development of commercial activities and services through the use of GEOSS and Copernicus data

Actions should address only one of the following sub-topics:

a) Coordination of European innovators in the domain of Earth observation (Coordination and Support Action): Actions should foster the development and implementation of a collaborative and integrated European research and innovation strategy for mass market applications based on space and non-space EO. The action will support an industry-led stakeholder research and innovation forum in the domain of EO in close coordination with GEO –its European component EuroGEOSS[[http://ec.europa.eu/research/eurogeoss]] and Copernicus, driving for innovation, knowledge transfer and European competitiveness.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of EUR 1 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

b) Designing Earth observation services and products of the future, building on GEOSS and Copernicus assets (Innovation Action): Actions should deliver solutions addressing citizens' needs and contributing to the development of new markets of products and services through integrating EO data and information, e.g. from GEOSS and Copernicus, with other data sources. These products and services should incorporate assimilation techniques and interoperability best practices, automation, systemization and integrated web-based services, and be brought – at least – into pre-operational service provision, going beyond the demonstration phase. Activities are expected to focus on Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) 5 to 7 and to be developed in close coordination with EuroGEOSS.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU from between EUR 2 million and EUR 3 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Both GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) and its key European contributor, Copernicus, offer a tremendous innovation opportunity for the EU in the domain of Earth Observation (EO) as these initiatives enable long term access to a broad range of EO datasets, opening new avenues for the delivery of innovative environmental products and services. These data sources provide new opportunities for business sectors in Europe to deliver information and products that are vital inputs to help policy makers, industry and citizens to adapt to changes occurring at different paces and affecting the Earth systems. The challenge faced today is to move from stand-alone observation data supply activities to more downstream integrated information services addressing citizens' needs directly within the context of their day-to-day lives.

However, those opportunities for the development of a new market of EO services and products cannot be fully exploited without a stronger involvement of commercial sector actors in both the GEO and Copernicus initiatives.

The project results are expected to contribute to:

• effective engagement of the European commercial sector within EuroGEOSS;
• new commercial products and services using GEOSS and Copernicus data and services;
• capacity building among current and potential developers of commercial products;
• demonstrated capability and reliability of novel EO products and services through the whole value chain;
• mobilising the most dynamic actors of the European commercial sector, developing new EO-derived mass markets and increasing cross-domain exploitation of EO data.