Position Paper

Eurisy’s Position Paper 2012 recommends that operational satellite solutions whose benefits are proven through end-users’ experience, and which help fulfil European policy obligations, should be referenced in European Directives and Regulations, as well as in European transversal funding schemes.

Eurisy’s Position Papers are published every two years. Their are based on Eurisy’s grassroots with user communities. Their objective is to provide decision-makers with feedback on facilitating factors and obstacles to the take-up of operational applications by professional end-users from various sectors.

There is currently a great opportunity for the diffusion of the use of satellite information and services. Potential users are keen to innovate and innovation is recognised as the key to economic recovery. Pioneering public and private organisations have already adopted satellite information and services. Rapid and sustainable measures are necessary to incentivise and support more end-users to follow suit. This will allow the formation of a well-developed core user pool with a critical size to trigger the emergence of a market for satellite services, and ensure Galileo and GMES services fully deliver the expected benefits to society.

This Paper argues that it is necessary to make efficient use of public investment in research and development by supporting the transition of the results into the final operational service/product.Recommended measures include ensuring a better transition between the 7th Framework Programmes and European Regional Policy Funds, by designing calls that take into consideration the R&D stage but also the operational use of the resulting services as an objective in itself. Such calls would make it compulsory to include end-users from the R&D stage, and a business case for these to use the resulting services.