Geo-Cradle

Geo-Cradle Geo-Cradle is a EU project on Integrating North African, Middle East and Balkan Earth Observation capacities in GEOSS. Africa and M.

Geo-Cradle: Coordinating and integRating state-of-the-art Earth Observation Activities in the regions of North Africa, Middle East, and Balkans and Developing Links with GEO related initiatives towards GEOSS. GEO-CRADLE brings together key players representing the whole (Balkans, N. East) region and the complete EO value chain with the overarching objective of establishing a multi-regional coordin

ation network that will (i) support the effective integration of existing EO capacities (space/air-borne/in-situ monitoring networks, modelling and data exploitation skills, and past project experience), (ii) provide the interface for the engagement of the complete ecosystem of EO stakeholders (scientists, service/data providers, end-users, governmental orgs, and decision makers), (iii) promote the concrete uptake of EO services and data in response to regional needs, relevant to the thematic priorities of the Call (adaptation to climate change, improved food security, access to raw materials and energy), and (iv) contribute to the improved implementation of and participation in GEO, GEOSS, and Copernicus in the region. In this context, GEO-CRADLE lays out an action plan that starts by inventorying the regional EO capacities and user needs, which in turn leads to a gap analysis, the definition of region specific (G)EO Maturity Indicators and common priority needs. Through showcasing pilots, it demonstrates how the priorities can be tackled by the GEO-CRADLE Network, and provides the roadmap for the future implementation of GEOSS and Copernicus in the region, building on the GEO-CRADLE Regional Data Hub, which abides by the GEOSS Data Sharing Principles. To maximise the impact of GEO-CRADLE activities, well-defined Communication, Dissemination and Stakeholder Engagement strategies are proposed. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be used for the quantified assessment of the impact, identifying potential enabling or constraining factors, while pursuing realistic but also ambitious exploitation scenarios. For efficient project coordination, the project management is assisted by a regional coordination structure, and active liaison with EC, GEO and UN initiatives. The GEO-CRADLE project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 690133.

Alexia Tsouni, NOA/BEYOND Research Associate, participated in the 24th CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites) ...
03/10/2025

Alexia Tsouni, NOA/BEYOND Research Associate, participated in the 24th CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites) Working Group Disasters Meeting on 30 September - 2 October 2025, in her capacity as coordinator of the Flood Pilot Balkans. On October 1st, she updated the participants about the Flood Diachronic Mapping Service in the transboundary Evros river basin, a fully automated Sentinel-1 based service developed by the FloodHUB team of NOA/BEYOND. She also presented the interesting outcomes of the Regional Workshop on Copernicus tools for the flooding of Evros river, which was co-organised by NOA/BEYOND and the PRAXI Network on 15th May 2025 in Alexandroupolis, Greece, in the framework of the FPCUP programme (Caroline Herschel Framework Partnership Agreement on Copernicus User Uptake).

Alexia Tsouni highlighted, on the one hand, the engagement of key national stakeholders from the Municipality of Alexandroupoli, the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia - Thrace, the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, as well as the civil society (civil protection volunteer associations). On the other hand, she emphasized the cooperation with colleagues from Bulgaria (Prof. Hhristo Nikolov, Space Research and Technology Institute Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) and Turkey (Can Bayraktar, TÜBİTAK UZAY Space Technologies Research Institute, Senior Expert Researcher), as well as CEOS (Prof. Uriburu Quirno, Marcelo, CONAE, the National Commission on Space Activities, Argentina).

Beyond EO Centre NOA
The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS)
Copernicus EU

Haris Kontoes, GRSS GEO Principal, participated in the 32nd GEO Programme Board Meeting on 29-30 September 2025.First, h...
02/10/2025

Haris Kontoes, GRSS GEO Principal, participated in the 32nd GEO Programme Board Meeting on 29-30 September 2025.

First, he informed the Board about the interesting outcomes of the Technology, Industry and Education (TIE) session that he co-organised with Prof. Megan Lewis in IGARSS 2025, entitled “Advances and applications in Earth Observation for SDG. Accelerating Earth Intelligence in the context of GEO” on 6 August 2025 in Brisbane, Australia. This event brought together GRSS and GEO experts from industry, academia, and user communities, and discussed key synergies at regional and global level to address challenges in capacity building and development of solutions for accelerating applications in the global scale. Haris Kontoes introduced GEO and Regional GEOs, Megan Lewis focused on the Australian perspectives in GEO, and Singh Sachindra presented the Digital Earth Pacific. Irena Hajnsek presented the Earth Observations for Sustainable Development Goals (EO4SDG) GEO Enabling Mechanism, and the role of GRSS Remote Sensing Environment, Analysis and Climate Technologies (REACT) Technical Committee (TC) in supporting it. Yifang Ban and Claudio Persello presented the Artificial Intelligence for Earth Observation (AI4EO) GEO Enabling Mechanism, and the synergies with GRSS Image Analysis and Data Fusion (IADF) Technical Committee (TC). Alexia Tsouni highlighted the GRSS contribution in Education and Capacity Building for GEO through the GEO-CRADLE GEO Enabling Mechanism, and Carlos Lopez Martinez focused on the GRSS Education portfolio in GEO, fostering AI4EO literacy and education for qualifying scientists in using EO.

Then, Haris Kontoes highlighted, in his capacity as EuroGEO Action Groups Coordinator, the upcoming EuroGEO Workshop which will take place on 13-15 October 2025 in The Hague, Netherlands. He emphasized the parallel sessions “European Contributions to GEO Focus Areas” on Day 1, and the parallel sessions “EuroGEO Action Group Recommendations for the EO Downstream Sector” on Day 2. He also underlined the parallel session “Regional engagement” on Day 1, co-organised by NOA/BEYOND and EC DG INTPA, with the participation of DGI Action, GEO Secretariat, and the GEO Enabling Mechanism GEO-CRADLE, a EuroGEO contribution to GEO, as well as the parallel session “Communication at the Heart of EuroGEO: Shaping a Connected and Collaborative EO Ecosystem” on Day 2, organised by NOA/BEYOND.



Beyond EO Centre NOA

Address

National Observatory Of Athens, Lofos Nymfon, Thiseio
Athens
11810

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Geo-Cradle posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category