The engagement of a wide range of EO stakeholders representing academia, industry and governmental organisations and covering the complete EO value chain, is the cornerstone for the successful and sustainable uptake of EO activities. GEO-CRADLE pursues this with rigour, setting up a Regional Networking Platform that allows the interaction with and between external EO stakeholders, and organising a series of dedicated events in North Africa, Middle East and the Balkans.

The identification of and engagement with key EO actors (research institutes, companies, regional authorities, etc.) in the region has started with the launch of a dedicated survey and a number of selected interviews with end-users. This continues throughout the duration of the project. As an immediate result of these activities, GEO-CRADLE provides the opportunity to any willing organisation to showcase their capacities through the GEO-CRADLE portal. In the long-term, GEO-CRADLE supports the establishment of multi-regional EO ecosystem, whereby stakeholders can easily access relevant information, follow current developments and engage in the delivery of EO services.

In that context, we invite EO stakeholders from North Africa, Middle East and the Balkans to be actively engaged in the GEO-CRADLE activities:

• Universities, research institutes, companies and governmental departments are invited to fill in the survey on regional EO capacities and skills; and to share their data on the Regional Data Hub.
• End-users (from both public and private sectors) are invited to provide their needs and priorities with regards to the EO services that can improve their work. For more information contact Ms Alexandra Jercaianu.  
• Finally we invite all EO stakeholders to follow closely our outreach activities, keeping up-to-date with current collaboration and business opportunities in the region, networking events and EO-related news.

The effectiveness and impact of stakeholder engagement activities is further supported through a continuous interaction with high-level organisations such as GEO and Copernicus and through regular exchanges with other important relevant projects in the region. GEO-CRADLE has also set up an Advisory Board consisting of a number of experts with strong experience in EO activities in the three regions and providing subject-matter advice around key milestones of the project.