Launch of the new H2020 project e-shape for strengthening the benefits for Europe of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) – establishing ‘EuroGEOSS’

e-shape (EuroGEOSS Showcases: Applications Powered by Europe), a new project coordinated by ARMINES and funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme was successfully launched in Cannes, France on 9-10 May 2019.

e-shape is an unprecedented initiative that brings together decades of public investment in earth observation and in cloud capabilities into services to the citizens, the industry, the decision-makers and the researchers. e-shape will promote the development and uptake of 27 cloud-based pilot applications, addressing the Sustainable Development Goals, The Paris Agreement and the Sendaï Framework. The pilots will build on GEOSS and on the Copernicus data pool and computational infrastructure.

The e-shape pilots will provide concrete, actionable services regarding food security and sustainable agriculture, health surveillance (pollutants), renewable energy, ecosystem monitoring, water resources management, disasters resilience and climate monitoring.

The first general assembly meeting gathered more than 100 delegates of the 54 consortium members from 17 European countries, Ethiopia, Egypt and Israel.

Erwin Goor, the e-shape Project Officer from EASME, stated that ” e-shape can significantly increase the collaboration between European EO companies: sharing knowledge, experiences and data; building on each other’s strengths.”

e-shape emerged from the Global Earth Observation (GEO) Initiative, which initiated regional clusters : AmeriGEOSS (Americas), AfriGEOSS (Africa) and EuroGEOSS (Europe), nesting e-shape. e-shape is the EU contribution to Global Earth Observation (GEO) under the EuroGEOSS initiative.

Read the full Press Release here.