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. Eurisy supports the project mainly through its communication and dissemination activities, with the aim to maximise the project’s outreach, raise awareness and increase stakeholders’ engagement and the engagement of potential stakeholders, to optimise the use of resources by information exchange, to stimulate interest and knowledge about the project outcomes, and to promote the training curricula and programs, both to the general public, to relevant stakeholders and final users. 

“SpaceSUITE will be critical for achieving the objectives of the European Commission on skills development in the space sector, and the project is extremely complementary to existing and upcoming initiatives in this area.”

– Maria Vittoria D’Inzeo, project officer at European Commission Directorate-General on Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS)

Maria Vittoria D’Inzeo

Read the full press release on the SPACE4GEO website, and subscribe to the project’s newletter.

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The agenda covered various topics – from the overview of major strategic prerogatives in the space domain of the upcoming Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU to the insights into the ESA space accelerators and ESA Scale up Programme. The participants also discussed the critical shortage of skilled workforce in Europe, that eurisy will actively address in 2024 thanks to the Erasmus+ project SpaceSUITE, the role  and activities of the newly established EU Space Support Office (former Copernicus Support Office), the current activities of standartisation related to space downstream segment and how this could support the procurement of spaceborne services. Members were also challenged to brainstorm how to better connect emerging and established space nations revamping the concept of Members’ Corner.  The meeting was an occasion for the Eurisy secretariat to present the yearly results of its activities and projects and give a flavour of new initiatives. The Agenda of the day with the link to download all the presentation is available at the end of the article!

The meeting kicked off with the opening address of Mr. Julien Beclard, BELSPO representative, who introduced the audience with the most recent developments in the European space sector and the priorities set by the future presidency of Belgium in the EU. Acknowledging the importance of space activities as a strategic asset, particularly in domains such as security, defense, climate change mitigation, and the empowerment of New Space actors, the Belgium presidency will aim to advance cybersecurity and secure connectivity and to promote the safe, sustainable, and secure use of space. In dealing with these challenges, including also responsible international cooperation, the commitment to nurturing the EU’s open strategic autonomy will run as a common thread. Mr. Beclard outlined that an increasingly congested orbital space raised the necessity of regulation and development of the EU space traffic management approach to contribute to security, sustainability and protection of space. As a result, the EU Council adopted on 8 December conclusions on space traffic management urging on the Commission, the European External Action Service and the European Defence Agency to work with member states to ensure that defence and security aspects are given due consideration, while stressing the civil nature of the EU space programmes.

Ms. Isabelle Duvaux-Béchon, ESA Senior Advisor from the Accelerator Core Team, presented the ESA Accelerators which is a new concept developed by the Agency to boost the use of space based solutions. With the focus on a user-driven approach, there is a need to build a virtuous circle starting from the needs of the users defining the offer and back. To bring this idea to a new level, this concept of accelerating the use of space has been introduced. Resolution adopted by the Ministers at the Space Summit on 6 November 2023 encourages the Space for Green Future Accelerator and supports Rapid and Resilient Crisis Response Accelerator, as well as Protect Accelerator shielding space assets from debris and space weather events. ESA is currently partnering up with relevant stakeholders to each of the three accelerators. Ms. Duvaux-Béchon mentioned the accelerators’ generic development plan for 2023-2026, with the beginning of full operations going beyond 2026.  She also touched upon the Civil Security from Space Programme adopted in November 2023 and being the first multidomain programme at ESA.

ESA at the last CM22 presented an overarching strategy to support space companies in their commercialisation endeavours in all the possible aspects. The ESA Scale up Programme was illustrated by Dr. Gianluigi Baldesi, Head of Ventures and Financing Office. He gave an overview of European public investments into space estimated at 14 billion euros (3% growth) in 2022 and 1 billion euros (66% growth) of private investments in European space ventures the same year. With the ScaleUp Innovate ESA is supporting the pre-commercialisation and R&D programmes for aerospace companies, while ScaleUp Invest is supporting the development of ventures in new space markets, enabling aerospace companies with a vision to scale up their operations to become the next big European player on the global space market.

Evolution of the Copernicus Support office into the EU Space Support Office was addressed by Mr. Stéphan Ourevitch who before delving into the novelties highlighted the numbers of users of Copernicus Data Store mounting to 200 000 persons in June 2023, passing beyond the 250 000 marker in September and in November. Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem was reported to be a new data access platform launched in January 2023, easy in use and navigation to retrieve data from Sentinel without any particular expert knowledge. Talking about the Copernicus Expansion mission, Mr. Ourevitch outlined that the re-entry of the United Kingdome in Copernicus has played a role in reinforcing the funding of the Programme and its prospects.  He also highlighted that a political agreement on UK participation in Horizon Europe was reached in September 2023 which was an important milestone of the year.  Another achievement was the launch of the first four Copernicus thematic Hubs during the EU Space Week in Sevilla with the aim to improve the user experience and streamline access to key information for different stakeholders, policymakers and users by leveraging the open data and information available from different Copernicus core services and providing thematic one-stop-shops. The areas of interest of the HUBs lanched are health, coastal zones, the Arctic, and energy. In addition to this, Copernicus is expanding geographically, with its Data Centers being launched in Panama, the Philippines and Chilly, thus broadening the range of users across the globe. Explaining the transition from Copernicus Support Office to the EU Space Programme Support Office, Mr. Ourevitch emphasized that the change came from the fact that, following EU regulations, all the components of the EU Space Programme are now under one roof with the Commission trying to promote synergies and mutualise some resources. Since 1 September 2023 the new EU Space Programme Office has been addressing the questions coming from users, citizens and media regarding the IRIS 2, GOVSATCOM, Cassini, Space TManagement, etc.

Mr. Miguel Oriz, Deputy Head of GEOLOC Lab, ISO-TC20-SC14-WG8 convenor at Gustave Eiffel University elaborated on the downstream standartisation services. He enumerated several reasons  why the downstream standartisation is needed as follows:  federation of experts, operators and industries in one domain; development of common international downstream standards to promote the downstream market, enhancement of interoperability and promotion of fair comparison of performances. Ms. Stefka Domuzova, EO Consultant from Climate-KIC elaborated on the PROTECT project – a Horizon Europe project operational for 1,5 year now with the goal to raise awareness and build capacity for the use of pre-commercial procurement in the field of climate services and Earth observation. Pre-commercial procurement is being regarded as one of the many tools that have been emerging over the past years that support the co-creation and co-development of solutions.

Being procurement of EO enabled services one of the biggest challenges currently experienced by public administration the capacity these kinds of projects are building is essential to support a wider uptake of the solutions and services for a multifaced objectives.

Ms. Anna Purkhauser, Senior Consultant at Space.tec partners and project manager at Stars*EU project tackled the issue of the shortage of skills in downstream space value chain in Europe. It was concluded that the space industry does not receive enough qualified applications from graduates, and those applicants who are selected still need training on site. Among the key gaps identified by the research conducted by Stars*EU were fragmentation of skills and education ecosystem, absence of an established accreditation framework, difficulty to attract new talent and limited focus on space for kids, limited activities aimed at fresh graduates and young professionals.

The meeting was concluded by Eurisy President Dominique Tilmans who called upon the participants to discover more about Switch to Space initiative which came about in 2018 as an answer to the lack of young graduates in the space sector. The Switch to Space is seen as a national event that will collect young graduates and students, research centers and space experts under one roof in Brussels. Ms. Tilmans with the support of eurisy has the ambition to internationalise this unique event and to hold similar events in other countries across Europe.

The Members’ Day has also been the stage to present major results from the projects currently populating eurisy’s initiatives. Ms Annalisa Donati emphasised a preliminary overview of the aggregated results of the needs analysis performed in conjunction of the national workshops co-organised with EUSPA on the topic od Disaster Risk Management. To support a deeper awareness of the benefits of satellite solutipons for climate resilience and adaptation a roadmap related to the activities of the project Copernicus Connection was illustrated, the project aims at sharing knowledge and experience among European regions and at promoting the operational uses of Copernicus data and services by local and regional authorities, with a geographic focus on France, Germany, and Switzerland.

2023 marked the end of two major eurisy project e-shape (the flagship EC project Moving away from a data-centric approach to a user-driven era) and GIS4Schools, two others have been kicked off. To delve into the possibilities offered by EO for the monitoring and protection of cultural heritage eurisy joined the consortium led by ICCS for THETIDA.

To address the need to train the trainers, equipping teachers with a set of GEO related skills eurisy also joined the GEO-Academy.

Much more is part of the activities of the association including the members’ corner, the online platform to discuss national activities of our members, our use cases developed to ensure an easy understanding of the benefits of satellite solutions for sector of our society not related to space, we invite all of you to follow our social media to discover what space can offer to all of you!

AGENDA

10:00 – 10:15 Welcome and introduction, Ms Dominique Tilmans, Eurisy President
10:15 – 10:30 BELSPO representative opening address. Overview of major strategic priorities of
the Belgian presidency in the space domain
10:30 – 11:00 Overview of the Eurisy activities during the past year, Ms Annalisa Donati, Eurisy
Secretary General, introduction of new team members
11:00 – 11:30 Isabelle Duvaux-Béchon, ESA Senior Advisor – Accelerator Core Team, Interactive discussion: Outcomes of the European Space Summit. Insights into the ESA Accelerators.
11:45 – 12:15 Dr. Gianluigi Baldesi, ESA Head of Ventures and Financing Office, ESA Scale up Programme: how to boost commercialisation of European space solutions.
12:15 – 12:45 Stéphane Ourevitch, the newly established EU Support Office role and activities to boost users uptake

14:30 – 15:15 Interactive discussion on standardization and PROTECT, the case for pre-commercial procurement
Miguel Oriz, Deputy head of GEOLOC Lab, ISO-TC20-SC14-WG8 convenor, Gustave Eiffel University and Stefka Domuzova, EO Consultant, Climate-KICSkills

15:15 – 16: 00 Ms Anna Purkhauser, Senior Consultant at Space.tec partners, STARS*EU shortage of GEO skills in Europe 
Switch to Space Dominique Tilmans, Eurisy president

Spatial Data for Biodiversity 

“The idea for this hackathon came about through our project on mapping multiple stressors on land and sea (MOLAS) where we were dealing with many data sets representing stress factors for biodiverstity in different ecosystems in the Netherlands”, says Jenny Lazebnik, Researcher at Wageningen Environment Research and one of the organisers of the event. “Data about stressors can often come from on-site or satellite data for example changes in land use, fragmentation, tourism, water levels, temperature and particulate concentrations. These can be paired with species observations to better help us understand how many stressors simultaneously impact biodiversity”.

The Hackathon was intended to use as many available spatial datasets as possible to understand the impact of cumulative stressors in three different case study areas – the North Sea, the Wadden Sea and the Veluwe. In some of these areas the main pressures detected were nitrogen deposition, fragmentation, pollution, as well as tourism.  

“Our goal was to see how professionals can use these data from observation and citizen science in order to share some insights into the risks for biodiversity. The challenge of the Hackathon was to combine three different pillars – map, data and user interface – in one final product”, explains Kim Regnery, one of the Hackathon participants. 

Representatives from Deltares, Wageningen Marine, the Netherlands Space Office (NSO) took the floor to illustrate innovative solutions addressing the data needs for biodiversity. “A lot of satellite data is available as open data through the Copernicus programme, we provide insights into where this data can be found. We also demonstrated how the Satellite data portal of the Netherlands can be used and made this data available”,  explains Coco Antonissen, Programme Manager Space Applications at NSO. “One of the goals of NSO is to stimulate the use of satellite data, and we believe that a Hackathon like this really boosts its use”. For NSO, such events help stimulate the use of satellite data for important societal challenges, including biodiversity.

The teams were invited to participate in team building activities: drafting the social contract which would rule their work in the following days. Ice-breaking games were also used to encourage participants to talk regardless the team they were in. A sense of community rose from this exercise, despite the ongoing spirit of competition.

The afternoon was punctuated by work sessions and breaks, snacks and meals that were built into the programme of Akoesticum, a beautiful venue that also provided the participants with their own rooms to sleep. Although it was a short night, the teams were treated with an early breakfast on the final day.

On the second day of the Hackathon, the teams presented their solutions to the jury and the participants during a pitching session. The teams offered different solutions designed to facilitate decision-making processes on monitoring and preserving biodiversity with the help of spatial data and AI. These presented pitches and the teams themselves were very diverse:

1. The Fallowship: Stressors for biodiversity

Fallow, an English synonym for Veluwe region in the Netherland, was taken as a basis for the team name. This team developed a tool to visualise the factors that impact on biodiversity in the Veluwe case study area. The tool provides a visualisation of relationship between biodiversity (species density) and stressors (climate, management, land use…) with an underlying data-driven relationship model. “This information can be used by policymakers and ecologists to make the effect of stressors visible”, pitched Chiel Bakkeren, the spokesperson of the team.

2. HKV NIOS – Team ShellVision

How do you detect mussel beds in the North Sea? The team from engineering firm HKV trained an AI model to detect mussel beds on aerial photographs, which would simplify data collection in the future. The team addressed the challenge of how to map shellfish more efficiently, quantify hydrodynamic stressors and predict sea level rises.  

“Our goal was to make an optimal use of the data, by combining an AI model and a physical model to see the effects of the abiotic stressors on the mussels’ beds in the Wadden Sea. With our solution, we can get the location of the mussels’ beds which economise time for on-site explorations”. 

The team identified 2 stressors: exposure time and waves sizes. The effects of waves, storms and air exposure during low tide were recognised as particularly important factors. Animation produced by ShellVision demonstrated how sea level rise will have a negative impact. This team also developed a way to model the impact of waves and the directions from which most waves come.  

3. Komorebi – XR-based Digital Twin Systems for Biodiversity Enhancement

This team’s name means: “the light flowing through the trees”, developed a product that can visualise changes in the ecosystems with a virtual reality (VR) set and produced a scenario analysis service. The international Komorebi team sees opportunities to develop an extended reality “digital twin” based on everything that is known about an ecosystem. The aim is to model different ecosystems and thus visualise everything an ecosystem provides in terms of services. One can also use such a digital likeness of an ecosystem to test whether interventions will have a positive effect in the real world. In his presentation, Carlota Buznego spoke enthusiastically about the opportunities VR offers to make area development transparent. What does an increase in nitrogen, a decrease in biodiversity look like? With this model, one can generate pictures of different outcomes based on projected stress effects or on proposed interventions on an ecosystem or a landscape.

4. Habitat Hackers – Wadden Sea

The Habitat Hackers team elaborated predictive biodiversity maps based on deep-learning algorithm, made available to everyone through a dedicated website. Their solution demonstrates how AI can help with understanding dynamic areas such as the Wadden Sea. For example, it helps answering the question of what the effects of ferry moving on the route to Ameland would be. The impact of this change can be visualised by the model.  

“We are using sentinel data, but also data from the field, gathered by researchers who make measurements and combine all this in one dataset to answer different questions. The end product that we are making is the website that has a tool embedded in it, based on an AI model that generates biodiversity maps depending on the user’s enquiry”.  

5. The Pack – Multiple biodiversity stressors in the Veluwe

Land use, climate change and nitrogen emissions impact biodiversity in the Veluwe. How do these three problems affect different target species? The team combined data on different species and their preferences with a deep-learning algorithm that goes to work with the input and creates a map of where to expect these target species under the preset variables.  

By the time jury retired to deliberate, participants were invited to take part in an artistic and interactive performance based on the sounds of nature and biodiversity, and the disruption caused by stressors. This was an excellent way for the teams to relax after stressful hours, while still connect with biodiversity, just from another point of view.  

For the awarding ceremony, StartHub organised and sponsored a Public Award, allowing participants to vote for their favourite solution. The results of the ceremony were as follows:  

• Public Award was granted to ShellVision, who presented a solution developed to preserve oysters and seashells in the Waddensea.  

• 2nd Prize went to Komorebi, with their solution to visualise changes in the ecosystems and provide for a scenario analysis service in the Veluwe.  

• 1st Prize was granted to the Habitat Hackers team who produced predictive biodiversity maps based on deep-learning algorithm for the Waddensea. 

In the aftermath of the Hackathon, both the organizers and the participants noted that it was a perfect opportunity for networking, connecting people in an innovative environment with a spirit of healthy competition. Many of them took inspiration to organize and participate in similar events in the future, perceiving a hackathon as an incubator for new ideas.  

About the organisers 

The Hackathon was a result of collaboration between several partners. Wageningen University and Research, with its mission to realize high quality and sustainable green living environment; StartHub Wageningen, an incubator and educator for students, PhD and recent graduates of Wageningen University and Research; Deltares, an independent knowledge institute, working on innovative solutions in the fields of water and subsurface; and the Netherlands Space Office, the space agency of the government of Netherlands. The organization of the event was supported by Eurisy.

Dive into the atmosphere of innovation yourself by watching the video from the Hackathon:

GEO-Academy represents an ambitious vision for teacher’s professional development in STEAM education for sustainability development. Drawing together expertise from some of Europe’s leading pedagogical institutions and geospatial research institutes, GEO-Academy will develop both substantive and supportive resources to help teachers incorporate innovative technologies within their lessons. Using an evidence-based approach in constant coordination with teachers throughout the project, GEO-Academy hopes to empower over 2,000 pre- and in-service teachers at primary and secondary level with the knowledge, skills, and resources needed to incorporate Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) Earth Observation (EO), Remote Sensing, and Geographic Storytelling within sustainability education in schools.

Eurisy is excited to participate in this project, for which we will be contributing to all 6 work packages, including leading the work package related to communication and dissemination activities. As well, Eurisy will be responsible for overseeing the establishment of the GEOBSERVE platform, a central hub for the e-learning resources, activities, and events produced and hosted by project. During the kick off meeting, Eurisy took the opportunity to get to know partners and establish plans for the next stages going forward with the project.

For more information on GEO-Academy, visit the project website here.

The GEO-Academy Consortium outside the Ellinogermaniki Agogi school in Athens, Greece.

GEO-Academy is a Teachers’ Academy project funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. REF: ERASMUS-EDU-2022-PEX-TEACH-ACA under GA No. 101104693.

The European Year of Skills is a European Commission initiative established to spark the discussion and bring on the spotlight the role played by skills in modern digital societies. The Initiative aims to help people getting the right tools to develop the right skills for quality jobs and to support companies to address skills shortages in the EU. Throughout this year, multiple skills development opportunities and activities across Europe will be organised to improve the recognition of qualifications across borders, to bring organisations and people together setting how EU initiatives and funding possibilities can enable the skills development. In this context, Large-scale Skills Partnerships (LSP) represent the concrete implementation of the Pact for Skills for Europe.  The Pact for Skills aims to support public and private organisations with upskilling and reskilling to support their green and digital transitions.

Among the many sectoral LSPs established this year, it is possible to count also the Space4GEO LSP, officially launched by the EU Commission on 25 April 2023. It aims to empower workers with the skills needed to access the space downstream and geo-information sector and to achieve the goals set for the main EU’s policies, namely the European Green Deal, the European Digital Strategy, the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Space Strategy for Europe and the recent Space Strategy for Security and Defence. The roundtable held in Paris was the occasion to introduce the goals of the LSP and discuss on the challenges related to the upskilling and reskilling of future and current workforce in the space sector. In this occasion, Milva Carbonaro- CEO of GISIG Association and SPACE4GEO Coordinator- retraced the path that led from EO4GEO project to the Space4GEO LSP.

The EO4GEO project (2018-2022) was an Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance promoted in the framework of the Blueprint for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills (introduced by the Skills Agenda for Europe 2016) aiming to bridge the skills gap between the supply and demand of education and training in the space geoinformation sector, promoting the uptake and integration of space/geospatial data and services in a broad range of domains. Leveraging on its results and in order to ensure the sustainability of the project’s results beyond the funding period, the partners committed to continue implementing the Sectors Skills Strategy, establishing the EO4GEO Alliance. The Alliance intends to maintain, enhance and implement the EO4GEO project results, while engaging its members in new initiatives and projects to achieve the Strategic Objectives of the EO4GEO Sector Skills Strategy. The Alliance soon evolved in the new LSP on Space Data, Services and Applications-Space4GEO. This new LSP is complementary with the existing LSP on Aerospace and Defence and with those LSPs representing the other vertical sectors, which could benefit from the provision of space-related data and services maximising their impacts when coupled with ICT and other tech sectors.

Figure 1. The Strategic Objectives of the Sector Skills Strategy for space geoinformation

The core objectives of the Sector Skills Strategy expand the focus to include the broad space downstream ecosystem beyond EO and geo-information including PNT, satellite communications, and certain soft skills needed to implement future policies. The expectation is to attract new talents to apply for jobs in a steadily growing sector.

Currently, the Space4GEO LSP around 50 members from 14 countries among public administrations, Higher Education institutions, Vocational education and training (VET) providers, commercial companies, research centres and sectoral associations. It is open to all key stakeholders in this sector and beyond.

Figure 2. Members of the SPACE4GEO Large Scale Partnership

The LSP aims at understanding the evolving needs of the sector, setting up a permanent observatory of skills needs and trying to anticipate future trends according to societal, economic and technological changes/challenges. The objective is to develop harmonised educational curricula to support users and establish a one-stop shop portal to guide students and teachers in their skilling, reskilling, and upskilling efforts. The LPS also aspires at developing skills in the business sector and value chain of other domains. It responds to the needs of attracting talents and raise awareness about the opportunities provided by the space sector.

LSP’s participating stakeholders commit to ensure continuous exchange and cooperation, establish and deliver a shared understanding of the volume of skills needed and capacity requirement desirable to achieve the high-level vision of a successful space downstream and geoinformation sector.

Today, also public authorities are struggling in finding talents to cover open job positions, especially concerning specific roles related to STEAM like IT experts, imagery analysts, to mention few. The aging factor of European society is rapidly transforming the current growing demand in an actual urgence soon. This becomes clear when it comes to the space sector where, according to the “Space industry workforce” report from Eurospace, the average age of the people employed- especially in the upstream- is 50 years old. It means that there will be a generation change over the next 10-15 years. In this respect, the need of upskilling and reskilling of personnel becomes crucial to cover the future demands.

During the launch event, a relevant point of discussion consisted in understanding how the strategy on skills development can be implemented. The panel participants- Nicolas Heitz (Exotrail), Jean Daniel Testé (Aerospace Lab), Danny Vandenbroucke (KU Leuven) and Annalisa Donati (Eurisy)- represented the multiple voices of space stakeholders’ part of the LSP. They exchanged on the industrial perspective and skills availability. What emerged is that business-academia relations are functional to support students accessing the working environment for the first time as well as young professionals to allow them for upskilling. It is important to highlight that the gap between the needs of the job space market and the existing expertise is something real, recognised at national level and stressed in national space strategies. Eurisy, founding member of the Space4GEO Alliance and a European association of European space agencies, aims at supporting and compiling the training courses that can be then brought back to the agencies and used by national actors. The KU Leuven, founding partner of the Space4GEO Alliance and LSP, stresses that there is a need to change the teaching methodology introducing innovative techniques- gamification, problem- and case-based learning- to stimulate curiosity and generate awareness around STEAM subjects starting from secondary high schools.

Citizens’ science has been mentioned as a potentially relevant element to co-design upskilling and reskilling strategies, especially for the teachers themselves. Already through Space4GEO, partners will have the opportunity to exchange experiences, access to educational resources and design a common strategy to support upskilling and reskilling.

The kick-off event of the Space4GEO LSP was the occasion to discuss about the importance of building skills since a very young age-starting from primary and secondary school- leveraging on the inspirational power of space to attract new generation and stimulate their curiosity to purse their academic path in the many different areas necessary for a healthy space sector.  In this process also parents should be involved as citizens to provide them the right tools to generate awareness about the space and its potential, through dedicated classes or courses to show its multidisciplinary aspect and the relevance of space to address many big challenges including climate change.

The Space4GEO LSP will focus on the space downstream sector, knowing that space-derived applications cannot exist without qualified personnel in the upstream sector.

The conference was opened by Peter Švec, State Secretary from the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, followed by a keynote address from Rodrigo da Costa, the EUSPA executive director, who presented to the audience the overarching EU Space Programme including the latest developments related to IRIS2. The conference was structured around three panel discussions where major international experts brought their experience and work to exchange over three main questions. The first panel revolved around question on how to build new space ecosystems, scale them up, and bridge them with well-established mature space powers.

The second session focused on spin-ins, private investors, and other non-traditional stakeholders driving modern space sector. The European Space Agency through the voice of Geraldine Naja, ESA Director for Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness illustrated the vision of the Agency and the many opportunities offered to European companies to connect and engage with different stakeholders to favour cross-fertilisation, boost innovation and stimulate growth. 

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The third session took a detailed look at the new technological areas and markets shaping today’s and future space economy. The discussion included interventions from the key players of the European space industry, such as Airbus and Thales Alenia Space, and also provided the audience with some scientific insights from the European Space Policy Institute and the International Astronautical Federation.

Eurisy was represented at the conference by its Secretary General, who participated to the panel Emerging Space Domains: the new technological areas and markets shaping today’s (and future‘s) space economy.

As reported by the organisers of the conference, the three key messages were formulated during the closing session as follows:

• The motivation to enter the space sector has shifted over decades from the space race to a variety of pragmatic drivers linked to such areas as innovation, education, economy, environment, society, or security. 
• The development of ecosystems as well as policy in many emerging space countries has significantly advanced over the past 5 years, showing their strong potential and ambition for the sector. 

• Europe needs to work further on fostering deeper collaboration between its well-established and emerging space ecosystems as it can provide a significant boost in terms of capabilities, talent, and investment in the sector. 

Between the main sessions, the participants had a chance to learn about the most recent achievements of the Slovak space companies, the Slovak space startup incubator Spaceport_SK, or Poland’s initiative to bring the IAC to the CEE region in the near future.  

Apart from panel discussions, the conference served as a platform for two side-events – Emerging Space European Industry Summit (ESEIS) and Emerging Space Education.

ESEIS was organised in partnership with ASD Eurospace and held in a closed-door format. As a result of this collaboration initiative, the participants agreed to turn ESEIS into a regular dialogue that would foster new connections between the well-established and emerging ecosystems of Europe. For more information about the outcomes, please consult the full version of the report.

The focus of the last day of the conference was placed on the demonstration of cases where space and creative sectors are interlinked, creating applications for various domains of activity like training, education and construction.
 

For more information about this conference, please visit the links below:

The official report of the conference: Emerging Space 2023 – report | SARIO, Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency 

The full program is available here. 

Following the release in 2020 of the policy brief “Fostering the use of satellite Remote Sensing to support Plant Health surveillance activities”, Eurisy and ESA, with the scientific advice of Euphresco, realised a video showcasing possible uses of EO data to better monitor plant health.

The video focuses on Xylella fastidiosa, a dangerous bacterium that caused the uprooting of 1,150 olive trees in the Plain of Monumental Olives in Apulia (Italy) in 2021, and that has become a major phytosanitary emergency for the European Union.

Xylella fastidiosa is a quarantine pest, that can cause important economic losses and rapidly spread across borders thanks to activities such as trade and tourism.

World distribution of Xylella fastidiosa. © EPPO 2023.

For example, since it was first officially detected in Europe near Gallipoli in 2013, Xylella fastidiosa has spread throughout the Apulia region, causing over a billion euros of damage to the regional agriculture and industry.  If its full spread is not contained, this bacterium could cost billions to the European Union in the coming years.

What can we do to stop it? As the old saying goes ‘prevention, is better than curing’.  Indeed, it is more effective and less costly to prevent the introduction of a pest in an area, or to eradicate it early on, rather than trying to contain it once it’s settled.

By allowing the surveillance of large areas or areas that are difficult to reach, satellites could be a precious tool to support the official inspection activities of the national plant protection organisations.

How? Satellites have sensors that can identify plant species affected by pests and help mapping and monitoring them.

As an example, satellites allow us to visualise the spatial and temporal evolution of the Olive Quick Decline caused by Xylella fastidiosa in olive groves in the South of Apulia.

Moreover, if we understand the location and abundance of plant species that can be potential hosts for quarantine pests, we can target inspections even when symptoms are not visible to the naked eye, and take informed measures to avoid the spread of pests to areas where susceptible hosts are present. Finally, satellites can even count plants hosting pests.

All in all, satellites can be seen as the scalpel of a surgeon, because they allow for precise interventions, making monitoring faster, more effective and cheaper.

Joint research activities between phytosanitary and space experts can lead to the development of more and better applications to protect our agriculture, ecosystems and economies.

Remember that next time you see a satellite in the sky!

You can find here the policy brief “Fostering the use of satellite Remote Sensing to support Plant Health surveillance activities” produced by Eurisy and Euphresco on the occasion of the United Nations International Year of Plant Health in 2020.

To go further:

The effective role of remote sensing in detecting pests and supporting plant health surveillance, on the website of the International Plant protection Convention, posted on 4 November 2021: www.ippc.int/en/news/the-effective-role-of-remote-sensing-in-detecting-pests-and-supporting-plant-health-surveillance/

Plant health, on the European Space Agency’s website: www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Sentinel-2/Plant_health

Euphresco’s website: www.euphresco.net

The session was chaired and organised with the support of Stefano Ferretti from ESA and Jolanda Patruno from the RHEA Group. The audience nurtured an intense discussion on the capacity of satellite images to serve as a means to deliver educational, political and social messages, while influencing arts and our relationship with the environment.

The CASSINI Hackathons and Mentoring, initiated by the European Union and its space programme, is a series of six hackathons that tackle global challenges using European space technologies. Now in its third edition, this hackathon provides access to European space data, information and signals from Copernicus, Galileo and EGNOS, plus other valuable tools to help participants take on one of the three pressing challenges as described below. The top ideas will be awarded at both local and EU levels, and the overall winners will enter a six-month mentoring programme that includes 100 hours of customised expert mentoring.

Here’s what to expect: If you are a rising innovator in Europe, you are invited to participate in the CASSINI Hackathon at one of the ten locations. Each hackathon location features its own unique set of experts, prizes, and additional special features. Once you select a location, it’s time for registration, team formation and ideation! Your team will choose to solve one of the three challenges, all related to the theme of European tourism:

1. Creating sustainable destinations: Develop innovative ideas or design new products or services that reduce the carbon footprint of tourism travel. For this challenge, participants are encouraged to explore the areas of carbon footprint measurement, alternative destinations or modes of transport, online travel agents and other intermediaries, disruptive travel concepts, and understanding travel patterns between cities or countries.
2. Experiencing lesser-known cities and cultures: Develop innovative ideas or design new products or services to offer travellers a unique and sustainable way to experience local destinations, while supporting local businesses and communities. For this challenge, participants are encouraged to explore the areas of crowd management and slow tourism, personal recommendations and itineraries, social recognition and social media, state-of-the-art virtual travel experiences, and supporting local businesses and communities.
3. Exploring nature with care: Develop innovative ideas or design new products or services to offer tourists a unique and sustainable opportunity to explore our nature. For this challenge, participants are encouraged to explore the areas of conservation of local nature and biodiversity, social recognition, and social media, supporting local businesses and communities, the generation of (new) routes and points of interest, and tourist information about the environmental state of areas.

Remember, no previous space experience is required! This is your chance to engage with the sector, even if it’s for the first time. The application process couldn’t be easier: Simply choose a challenge and decide how you’ll leverage EU space technologies to reshape European tourism.

With its mission to bridge space and society, safeguarding natural and cultural heritage on our planet from space has become one of the flagship thematic areas of Eurisy. Through a range of activities and events, the association highlights the potential of satellite technology to monitor and preserve natural and cultural heritage. Be sure to have a look at our related-activities section on the top right-hand side of this page, it might help with your ideation!

Register here: hackathons.cassini.eu

Working with users allows Eurisy to have a wide picture of the existing bottlenecks in the uptake of satellite-based solutions, such as the lack of knowledge and skilled personnel. In this sense, Eurisy has always played a role in supporting international and regional initiatives that aim at fostering the development of the GI and EO skills.

Eurisy recently joined as an associated partner the EO4GEO project.

EO4GEO is an Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance gathering 26 partners from 13 EU countries, most of which are part of the Copernicus Academy Network. The project started in January 2018 and will end in December 2021. It aims at bridging the skills gap between the supply and demand of education and training in space and geospatial sectors, boosting the take-up and integration of space and geospatial data and services in a wide range of application domains.

In the frame of this partnership, Eurisy aims at contributing to the acquisition of EO and GI skills for professionals and to stimulate the curiosity of the younger generation, also relying on the involvement of Eurisy in the Erasmus+ GIS4Schools Project. Find out more about GIS4Schools here.

Eurisy is pleased to be part of such a broad European network. Know more about our role as EO4GEO associated partner, and how we support the development of the EO/GI sector in this interview.