A consortium of thirteen organisations and institutes has been granted an award of 997.541 Euro for a project on Earth Observation for Economic Empowerment (EOPOWER).
The purpose of the EOPOWER project is to create conditions for sustainable economic development through the increased use of Earth observation products and services for environmental applications. This purpose serves the higher goal of effective use of Earth observation for decision making and management of economic and sustainable development processes.
This will be achieved through the following activities:
- Road show activities to promote the increased use of Earth observation products and services for environmental applications, including capacity building;
- Portfolio of potential Earth observation applications for economic development and environmental management;
- Enhancement of the resource facility on capacity building in the GEO web portal;
- Establishment of local focal points (nodes) that actively promote and provide capacity building on the use of Earth observation for environmental applications effectively and at low-cost;
- Explore the establishment of a high-level forum of stakeholders (resource providers, international organizations) that have an interest in Earth observation for economic development and environmental applications;
- Establishment of a central feedback node that digests and shares information on incubators, innovation, successes, experiences, visibility and provides brokerage and advice on resource mobilization.
Within the project, the Department of Natural Resources of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation - University of Twente is leading the work package on capacity building.
This work package facilitates capacity building on an individual level as well as on the level of society with a clear focus on (but not limited to) the regions covered in the project. It tries to fill the knowledge gap between the “inside” Earth observation community, mostly oriented towards science, and the “outside” group of potential end-users that are mostly interested in practical and cost-effective solutions. Capacity building is required because the added value of Earth observation products and services in environmental applications is not directly apparent, and products have had limited application in some regions, including less developed countries.
The work package on capacity building matches perfectly with the mission of the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation and the consortium can fully benefit from results obtained in previous projects like the GEO Network for Capacity Building (GEONETCAB) project.