Gilles OLLIER – Policy Officer « Earth Observation »

1. 4th Committee Co-Chairs Coordination (C4) MeetingGeneva, 17-18 June 2008Reflection on the role of the Science and Technology Committee Gilles OLLIER – Policy Officer« Earth Observation » EUROPEAN COMMISSIONResearch Directorate General - Environment - RTD.I Management of Natural Resources – RTD.I.4

2. S&T and Earth Observation/GEOSS Rational for GEO S&T Committee • Earth Observation is by nature S&T relevant: • It involves High-Tech infrastructures (satellites, in-situ observing and monitoring networks etc…) • It requires technology research for the evolution of those High-Tech observing systems • It is essential for the development of models describing the Earth System

3. GEO S&T Committee current contribution • Follow-up of 19 GEO tasks (cluster approach, task adaptation) • Providing advice on key GEO development (GEO portal, Data Sharing Principles, IGOS-P transition, WP design, etc..) • Promoting GEO within S&T Community: Role of S&T within GEO • Liaising with other committees (define needs of and contribution to S&T – prioritise) • Transmit to GEO the needs for and opinion about Global Earth Observationexpressed by the S&T Community

4. Specificity of the GEO S&T Committee • Official mandate: “The Science and Technology Committee will engage the scientific and technological communities in the development, implementation and use of a sustained GEOSS in order to ensure that GEO has access to sound scientific and technological advice”. • In practice: Tedious work overseeing 19 tasks equivalent to 19 international research programs (beyond remit to achieve this with the current structure) • Attendance: Ever changing participation of members, both in numbers and in disciplines as a result of the specific discussions on tasks which have not so much in common • Actual STC Core Membership:mixed of active researchers and officials involved in science policy with different objectives • GEO STC Committee target group: the Science Community which does not see in GEO neither any clear science program nor possible funding

5. Possible avenues in the future for S&T • GEO S&T membership: officialise it somewhat by confirming/ renewing the nominations through the GEO principals, participating organisations and EXCOM (maybe valid for all Committees) – owner of systems: ESA, WMO, etc… • GEO S&T tasks: in the next WP 2009-11 should be more holistic/generic/horizontal and limited in number compared to the actual tasks (to ensure structuring effect) • S&T objectives: promote a limited number of key S&T international activities of relevance to GEO (GEO S&T label) • S&T Chair: Essential to have in the chair key scientific personality recognised internationally by the Science Community (role of the peers in the S&T community)

6. More holistic orientation for the tasks under the GEO S&T Committee • Example of tasks/activities in doc. “Role of S&T within GEO” – Contribution of Science to GEO • Facilitate/advocate applications of Earth Observations building on scientific understanding (Liaising with UIC) • Encourage connecting S&T disciplines and addressing complex issues • Promote development of new models in order to provide forecasting capabilities beyond the exiting ones • Identify and encourage the development of new observation and measurement techniques • Support new data handling, processing and visualization process (Liaising with ADC)

7. More holistic orientation for the tasks under the GEO S&T Committee • Example of tasks/activities in doc. “Role of S&T within GEO” – Contribution of GEOSS to S&T • Help linking observations across societal benefit areas (science breakthrough depends on crossing over several SBA’s e.g. Water-Climate-Ecosystems) • Identify gaps in observations, research and development • Address the issue of providing long time series of observations • Develop a process for improved access and harmonized in-situ data • Bridge gaps between science and application

8. How to implement those strategic horizontal activities ? • Following more traditional approach in committees dealing with science policy issues and more in agreement with the GEO S&T terms of reference • Through workshops either organised by the strategic/horizontal tasks overseen by the S&T Committee or relying on existing forum and conferences • Breakthrough in S&T not presented first to GEO – hence need for specific workshops • By creating expert groups as foreseen in the terms of reference of the Committee (again through tasks) • Producing position papers on key issues (report from tasks, IGOS-P like) • Additional actions: Advisory role on specific issues

9. Example of R&D activities of horizontal nature : EC CALL 2008 • Research effort to comply with the requirements under the INSPIRE directive and under the tasks overseen by the GEO Architecture and Data Committee • Science necessary to better assess the impact of energy exploitation on the environment, in coordination with similar requirements under the Energy tasks of the 2007-09 Work Plan of GEO • Necessary research to better monitor and observe oxygen depletion in all the components of the Earth System • Research contributing to capacity building efforts towards the new countries of the EU in the domain of Earth Observation

10. Example of advice that could be sought through GEO S&T Committee: Potential collaboration between GEOSS and GNSS Environment monitoring: From GPS, EGNOS, GALILEO etc…navigation signals: • atmospheric profiles over wide areas • density, pressure, moisture content and wind patterns (weather forecasting and climate monitoring) • Ocean surveys with buoys floating on currents and tides. • tracking of recent glacier meltdown • prediction of the movement of the ice and flood water.

11. Issues relating to the design of the 2009-11 WP • A new approach for S&T within the 2009-11 WP would require dealing with more strategic GEO S&T tasks • The effort taking place in the existing 19 “thematic” tasks should be maintained through a regrouping of those tasks into maybe 3 or 4 major themes • The strategic/holistic tasks should probably be no more than 4 which would imply for the GEO S&T dealing with something like 8 tasks including the following Additional actions: • Promote GEO Within S&T Community (e.g. GEO S&T website) • Refer to GEO in Work Programmes of Organisations funding S&T

12. Conclusions • The work done by the S&T Committee until now was of great value to assess the need in terms of S&T within GEO and to launch initial S&T activities • An effort has to be made in the 2009-11 WP to make it a more strategic body to engage the S&T Community within GEO • It implies an effort for the redrafting/re-grouping of the on-going tasks and of the so-called strategic/holistic ones • For the later tasks (if agreed) it would be necessary to identify task leaders (should be initiated by co-chairs) • There is an urgent need for a clearer message given by GEO to the S&T Community (in Bejing on the occasion of the plenary and based on the GEO S&T document ????)