Final Report Summary - GFG² (GNSS for Global Environmental Earth Observation (GEEO) and GEOSS)
Executive Summary:
Gfgsquared has been a three-year coordination action, which started in January 2011 and has lasted until December 2013. The project was funded by the 7th Framework Program of the European Commission under the Environment theme (2010). Its mission was to better assess the value of GNSS for Global Environmental Earth Observation (GEEO) and GEOSS.
Under the framework of the GEOSS 10-year implementation plan (initiative from the Group on Earth Observation, GEO) the European Union has compromised to ensure the full interaction and engagement of relevant science and technology communities into GEOSS implementation to guarantee that state of the art Earth Science knowledge is continuously applied into GEOSS development and operation. Working to this aim, the EU acknowledged the need to better assess the scientific value of GNSS beyond their classical positioning services, for the achievement of the GEOSS goals in the nine GEOSS Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs): disasters, health, energy, climate, water, weather, ecosystems, agriculture and biodiversity.
This three-year long initiative has successfully addressed the following goals:
• To consolidate a community of experts with interest to exploit GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS. The consortium has dedicated a great effort to the construction of a GFG2 community by means of the web portal, LinkedIn group and Twitter account. A European GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS map was prepared, where past and ongoing GNSS activities for GEEOS were included from EC, GMES, GSA projects.
• To explore novel applications derived from GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS while enhancing research-industry collaboration to implement these applications. The Gfg2 consortium prepared a workshop for the identification of needs (see D2.1). A different workshop was prepared to identify novel applications (see D2.2). Another important task to achieve this goal was the socio-economic impact workshop. GFG2 sponsored a TEDxBarcelona event so that people from the GNSS field and Earth Observation attended the event.
• To identify the research and technological challenges and define the strategic vision, roadmap and policy for GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS available or under development (EU and non-EU). Two Roadmap Workshops were prepared, one in Sweden and one in UK. In the first one the Gfg2 experts for each SBA discussed the barriers and enablers that they foresaw for successfully integrating GNSS into GEO tasks. The second workshop began a process of laying out practical options for grand challenges that will benefit GEOSS.
• To assess the value (in this context) of the European GNSS independent constellation (EGNOS-GALILEO). The consortium prepared D3.4 which gave an overview of the economic, technological and political background to the development of an independent European Global Positioning System. It also looked at how the improvements to the GNSS would benefit each SBA. D3.5 was published later, updating the progress on deploying the constellation, and providing examples on the potential within each SBA for Galileo to strengthen local, regional and global monitoring systems.
• To promote the public understanding of GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS research and use within the GEO community, providing support to GEO tasks. GFG2 has been disseminated in different events such as Summer Schools and socio-economic events. The GFG2 community that has been built supposes a great place to create new contacts. This has also been achieved by means of the two Summer Schools that have been prepared by the consortium, gathering around 70 young researchers in total.
Project Context and Objectives:
The concrete objectives of this co-ordination action are explained below.
O1: To consolidate a community of experts with interest to exploit GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS
Success in this objective will result in: clear identification of ongoing GNSS activities for GEEO and GEOSS (ESA, EC, nationally, locally funded initiatives or private contracts); putting in place a framework which will enable a strong, tightly knit community (industry and research) to emerge from the host of multidisciplinary GEOSS societal benefit areas; aggregation and enlargement of the community addressing GEOSS applications (research, industry), integrated through a robust sense of identity; creation of a popular web portal as a worldwide reference for GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS; to establish channels of information flow and knowledge transfer between community members, to expand the base of research in GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS from complementary and converging fields; achievement of international cooperation between GNSS, GEEO and GEOSS experts, as made evident by the creation of join proposals and publications which make reference to this action.
O2: To explore novel applications derived from GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS while enhancing research-industry collaboration to implement these applications
Success in this objective will result in: complementing activities defined under O1 by identifying novel applications from GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS; identification of novel scientific applications in addition to positioning ones; the identification of potential barriers, if any, and push the use of this novel application by the EO community; the establishment of research-industry links to help steer GNSS research for GEEO and GEOSS.
O3: To identify the research challenge and define the strategic research vision, direction, roadmap and policy for GNSS (available or underdevelopment, European and non European) for GEEO and GEOSS
Success in this objective will result in: the identification of a common research challenge of GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS; the identification of perspectives for the technological development relevant to the needs of sub-activity 6.4.1 and GEOSS societal benefit areas, providing strategic support to GEO tasks.
O4: To assess the value of a European GNSS independent constellation (EGNOS-GALILEO) in the support to GEEO and GEOSS
Success in this objective will result in: the identification of advantages from such a constellation to address GEEO and GEOSS societal benefit areas needs. Precisely, a detailed assessment of advantages from a high accuracy constellation will be done.
O5: To promote the public understanding of GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS research and use within the GEO community, providing support to GEO tasks.
Success in this objective will result in: enhancement of public and GEO community understanding of scientific GNSS achievements for GEEO and GEOSS (dissemination of industry and research work); the provision of a GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS central information point, where ongoing initiatives (from research or industry) are widely disseminated, and updated, highlighting their advantages and complementarities with other EO activities, and GEO tasks; the training of GEEO and GEOSS experts of GNSS capabilities to address their needs; to help GEEO and GEOSS scientists explore new research horizons, which include the use of GNSS data; to ensure that training is seen as a form of knowledge transfer which directly influences industrial competitiveness (new high-tech training is essential for European business excellence).
WP1
• In the first period the Gfg2 web portal, the LinkedIn group and the Twitter account were launched and continuously updated with the latest information. Moreover, a map was developed to identify the main industry and research players on GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS. That review includes an extensive Appendix with GNSS developers and users, in more than 500 pages.
• In the second period the focus was on maintaining and improving the contacts with the community. The Gfg2 web portal and the LinkedIn and Twitter groups were continuously updated with the latest information. Moreover, a tab was developed to identify key industry players in Europe whose technology (GNSS) has, or may have, an impact in GEEO and GEOSS, as well as those whose major market area is Global Environmental EO, and could benefit from the inclusion of GNSS technology in their services.
WP2
• In the first period the major efforts were aimed at the key task of WP 2.2 the identification of novel GNSS applications for GEEO and GEOSS. The results of the work on this key task are documented in two high quality reports, which are also deliverables D2.1 and D2.2 of the WP2 (GEEO and GEOSS needs (D2.1); Novel GNSS applications for GEEO and GEOSS (D2.2)).
Part of this key task was in addition to the work on the two reports also two very productive workshops with GNSS experts and additional experts for each of the nine SBAs, which were hold at Oslo (Norway) and at one the research centers with numerous applications of GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS, the German Research Center for Geosciences, GFZ at Potsdam, Germany.
• In the second period the focus was on dissemination of the results, which were identified in the two reports at several conferences and the organization and contributions to the second summer school at GFZ.
WP3
• In the first period the efforts were aimed at building the Roadmap team to ensure that all SBAs were represented, and ensuring that there was a suitable methodology for the work of the team to produce the two Roadmaps for publication in the second period. The experts selected to be a part of the Roadmap team included fifteen members external to the consortium, as well as drawing upon the skills and expertise of the consortium. In order to define the ways in which GNSS is used, a three-part taxonomy was developed to be used within the Roadmap and throughout the discussions of the project. According to this taxonomy the different needs, of each SBA, along with the barriers and enablers to allowing GNSS to support those needs could be examined.
• In the second period the focus was on producing evidence of how Galileo will benefit each SBA. The reports Galileo for GEEO and GEOSS issue 1, and Galileo for GEEO and GEOSS issue 2, detailed the potential for an independent European GNSS to benefit each SBA.
The Roadmap team produced: Enablers to address GEEO and GEOSS needs with GNSS, this focussed on basic research problems and strategic areas of research. This was followed by the final Roadmap: GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS, identifying potential scenarios and grand challenges that could influence future European work programmes.
WP4
• In the first period the work was focused on the development of material for GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS dissemination as well as new web pages, resources and activities oriented towards the training and promotion on this knowledge field. We also created a section in the Gfg2 web page in order to make available all the training material online. The Gfg2 partners also participated in different GEO events. The first Summer School took place in Nottingham with big success in August 2012.
• In the second period we continued preparing dissemination materials (flyers, pens, notebooks, etc.) for GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS. More interviews with experts were collected and uploaded to our web portal. The “Book of Best Practices” was produced and 800 copies distributed among the partners for dissemination. The second Summer School took place in Potsdam with big success in July 2013.
Project Results:
WP 1 – Community. Work package Leader: CHALMERS and STARLAB
Work package objectives
The main objective of WP1 was to consolidate a community of experts to exploit GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS.
Progress achieved
The overall objectives of WP1 have been achieved. Comment that the participation of the partners in EC events during the time span of the project (1 January 2011 – 31 December 2013) is available in Template A2 (at the end of this document, page 27).
During the project three online tools were developed: the GFG2 website, the GFG2 LinkedIn group and the GFG2 twitter account.
GFG2 website
The GFG2 website (http://gfg2.eu/home) has been evolving throughout the duration of the project. Many sections have been added to support the necessities of the tasks of the project and of the consortium itself. These sections contain information about:
• GNSS for GEEO and Gfg2 for GEO information
• industry players
• both Summer Schools
• both Roadmap Workshops
• the Socio-economic event
• videos of the interviews performed in different events
• funding opportunities
• inter-project dissemination
In the Periodic Reports we offered some statistics offered by Google Analytics, which will also be analyzed in this Final Report. Figure 1 offers an overview of the visits during the duration of the whole project (specifically, during 2012 and 2013). In total, the GFG2 web portal received nearly 8,000 visits, with more than 4,000 unique visitors. If we analyze more carefully the plot at the top of Figure 1 (see attached PDF), we can clearly distinguish some peaks in the amount of visits which are directly related to GFG2 events and to dissemination activities performed in the LinkedIn and Twitter groups.
Moreover, it is also interesting to see where the visits come from. Figure 2 (see attached PDF) gives information on the top 10 countries, which amount to 60% of the total visits. United Kingdom and Spain are clearly the main source of visits, as both countries suppose more than 25% of the total visits. We believe that the reason why Spain is ahead in the table is due to the fact that the socio-economic TEDx event took place in Barcelona and also because the project coordinator and manager is from Spain. With a similar percentage we can find United Kingdom, where the First Summer School and Second Roadmap Workshop took place. Germany is third in the list, which again can be explained due to the fact that the second Summer School took place in Postdam.
GFG2 LinkedIn group
At the moment of writing this final report, 443 members had joined the GFG2 LinkedIn group since it was created in February 2011. As we showed in previous Periodic Reports, LinkedIn has different tools to analyze a group. Figure 3 (see attached PDF) contains some basic statistics of our LinkedIn community. The two plots on top offer the evolution in the number of members. It can be seen how the growth of the group has been quite constant since it was created. The bottom graph shows the amount of comments and discussions in the group. We can see how the group has been quite active, especially after February 2012 when we can see that the group made an effort to collaborate and that it affected the number of people that joined the group.
GFG2 Twitter account
At the moment of writing this Final Report, the GFG2 twitter account had 72 followers. Figure 4 presents some statistics on the activity in the Twitter account of the project. It can be seen how during the second half of the project the consortium did an effort to maintain the activity in the account. Finally, Figure 5 (see attached PDF) offers a visual representation of the cloud of hashtags used more often during these three years. The top five words have been: space, galileo, satellite, gfg2 and gps.
WP2–Innovation. Work package Leader: GFZ
Work package objectives
The main objectives of this working package are the exploration of GNSS needs and novel GNSS applications for Global Earth Observation (GEO) and for GEEO and GEOSS, while enhancing research-industry collaboration to implement these applications. The work in WP2 is subdivided in two sub-packages: 2.1 (Novel GNSS applications for GEEO and GEOSS) and 2.2 (Impact).
Progress achieved
Briefly summarized the work in WP2 can be regarded as very successful. The four deliverables of the WP were provided according to the schedule (D 2.1 Report GEEO and GEOSS needs; D 2.2 Report novel GNSS applications for GEEO and GEOSS; D 2.3 GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS socioeconomic impact workshop plan; D 2.4 Conclusions derived from the workshop event). For detailed information we refer to these deliverables. Despite of these deliverables the major success is the forming of an international community with focus to the main objectives of the GfG² project, which will exist far beyond the project duration and will influence the scientific and also commercial field in several ways (e.g. new science projects/missions with resulting science/industry cooperation for realization).
The report on ‘GEEO and GEOSS needs’ (D2.1) was the first report of its kind to be issued within Gfg2, and it was based on the outcome from the 1st Consultation Workshop of Gfg2, telephone interviews, and detailed answers to the questionnaire that had been send out to experts during a several-month period. The report identified needs within the GEEO and GEOSS communities, which – if fulfilled – would enhance the use of GNSS for research and applications in regard to the various SBAs. Some reoccurring examples of expressed user needs were a better reception inside buildings and in high latitudes, improved horizontal and vertical resolutions, increased sampling frequency, the use of additional frequencies for radio signals in order to improve stability and reception, as well as software enhancements.
The report on novel applications (D2.2) can be regarded as key deliverable of this work package. It is a high quality document, which was generated in result of a community building like process to bring together GNSS experts with experts from the nine social benefit areas. This process included the work on the D2.1 and the two very productive workshops, which brought together highly internationally acknowledged GNSS experts with the SBA experts and initiated a broad and interdisciplinary discussion of the experts which resulted in several new ideas for GNSS applications for GEEO and GEOSS. Despite of the direct results of the WP several international collaborations on specific GNSS applications for Global Earth Observation were initiated. Therefore already during the execution of the project several activities (e.g. new and successful international research proposals, e.g. the international proposal GEROS-ISS for a new mission for space based GNSS Earth Observation, Nov. 2011) with respect to the novel GNSS applications was initiated. It can be clearly stated that the project activities were extremely useful in contributing to create an international community of GNSS experts and also of experts from the areas of potential GNSS applications for Global Earth Observations. This will have a long-lasting and sustainable impact to the science but also science-industrial GNSS/GEO community, which was initiated in a pioneering way by the GfG² project.
Another objective in Workpackage 2 was to indentify key industry players in Europe whose technology has or may have an impact on GEEO and GEOSS. The increase in awareness of GNSS leads to an increase in the number of companies who are involved in the technology. Due to the extensive search finally a comprehensive list of about 150 companies is published on the GfG2 web page (http://www.gfg2.eu/industry-players). The list contains companies whose products are widely available in Europe. It is sorted by European and national organisations, Hardware manufacturers, software developers, and EO involved companies. Despite this large number of GNSS related companies with an increasing number of employees, no training activities related to the use of GNSS signals and applications could be identified as part of GEO. Based on a series of interviews and feedback forms from conferences and courses, the industry training needs were identified and provided on the GfG2 web portal (http://www.gfg2.eu/bibliotheque/gfg2-training-needs-analysis).
Beside the successful community building aspects, the work in WP 2 had a substantial influence, especially to the WP 4 Outreach. The content of the GfG² summer schools, realized at Nottingham and Potsdam reflected also the identified new and innovative GNSS applications for Global Earth Observation, which were included to the high quality programme of lectures. The summer schools are a nearly perfect instrument to attract new and young students and researchers, but also potential employees of the GNSS/GEO related industry to the field. Very remarkable is the fact, that the number of applicants for the second summer school (nearly exactly one year after the first summer school) was significantly higher as for the first summer school. This is an indication that the GfG² project increased significant international attention within this only one year.
Regarding Action 2.2 an important task performed was to identify key industry players in Europe whose technology (GNSS) has, or may have, an impact in GEEO and GEOSS; as well as those whose major market area is Global Environmental EO, and could benefit from the inclusion of GNSS technology in their services. The increase in awareness of GNSS is driving an increase in the number of companies who are involved in the technology. The focus of this section is on industry; although it should be recognised that universities and research institutions are leaders in driving forward the technology and creating spin-out companies, but they have not been included, unless they have made a significant contribution that is available beyond the research community.
The following activity types were selected:
1. European and national organisations responsible for the space industry, along with their affiliations, if any, to ESA and the GSA.
2. Hardware manufacturers of: satellites (including their involvement in European programmes) and components (including the type of products produced).
3. Software developers.
4. Companies who were involved with EO and which SBA(s) they were associated with.
More detailed information can be found in: http://www.gfg2.eu/industry-players.
Another important activity from A2.2 was to identify industry educational needs and support A4.2 to ensure Gfg2 training activities address these needs. The objective was to o promote the public understanding of GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS research and use within the GEO community, providing support to GEO tasks. To achieve this objective we needed to ensure that training is seen as a form of knowledge transfer, which directly influences industrial competitiveness. Training of new high-tech skills is essential for European business excellence.
Gfg2 strived to promote and foster GNSS know-how among the GEEO community and will impact the GEO activities through training activities and collaboration with GEO tasks. There was a need to train those GEEO experts not familiar with GNSS in the capabilities of this technology in order to exploit GEOSS societal benefits. A series of interviews and feedback forms from conferences and courses were analysed to identify the industry training needs. Training needs analysis was performed by ULEIC, UNOTT and CHALMERS to support the Gfg2 training activities.
Areas of GNSS training should focus on (1) the possibilities for Earth observation based on GNSS signals through timing/positioning and remote sensing, and (2) the limitations, in terms of accuracy and availability, of the technique. For those industries that already use GNSS technologies, training should not only improve the understanding of how these technologies work, but also highlight their limitations and vulnerabilities; help users monitor and check the accuracy and reliability; give an overview of next generation signals and applications. Training for those industries that do not use GNSS technologies should focus on raising awareness of the different applications available: what their benefits are, where and how they can be applied. A report is available at http://www.gfg2.eu/bibliotheque/gfg2-training-needs-analysis.
Finally, mention should be made of the Socio-Economic Impact Workshop, which took place on 16th November 2013 as it was planned for before M36 (December 2013). For the format of the Socio-Economic Impact Workshop, we decided to organize a TEDx event, more specifically a TEDxBarcelona event (http://www.tedxbarcelona.com/). TEDx is a platform to present interesting ideas and projects. We chose this kind of workshop as these events are widely known and they have their own platforms for dissemination, streaming, etc. The theme of the event was "Bottom Up" with a special focus on GNSS and EO. The Gfg2 consortium chose world-class speakers. A short biography of the Gfg2 related ones are shown in Deliverable D2.4. The contents of the presentations of the speakers that were GNSS and EO related can be also found in D2.4 and in the bottom of the Youtube videos.
We could not control how many people were following the event live, but as viewing figures can be monitored, we can say that three days after the event took place; more than one thousand people had already seen at least one piece of the event via streaming. There was an active participation in the event, which gathered 350 attendees from a list of more than 600 applicants. Videos from all the presentations are available online allowing us to achieve a greater impact. More than 8,000 people (streaming and post-production) have already seen these videos. Outside the event there were some networking moments. Before the event all the attendees had one hour of registration time in order to meet each other and exchange Business cards. Many people from industry attended the event and also people from academia. We believe that successful connections were made. We also believe that the Gfg2 dissemination made during the event was also fruitful and resulted in new followers in the Gfg2 LinkedIn group and Twitter community.
WP3–Strategy. Work package Leader: UNOTT
Work package objectives
The main objectives of WP3 are:
• to identify the research challenge and define the strategic research vision, direction, roadmap and policy for GNSS (available or underdevelopment, European and non European) for GEEO and GEOSS.
• to assess the value of a European GNSS independent constellation (EGNOS-GALILEO) in the support to GEEO and GEOSS.
Progress achieved
Following the identification of the team of experts in period 1, STARLAB coordinated the development of the first roadmap. Much of the work for this was done during the Roadmap Workshop at Chalmers University in October 2012. The Gfg2 experts for each SBA discussed the barriers and enablers, they foresaw for successfully integrating GNSS into GEO tasks.
The second Roadmap Workshop, held at the University of Leicester in April 2013, began a process of laying out practical options for grand challenges that will benefit GEOSS. Discussions about the emphasis of future research within the SBAs was brought together at the final progress meeting in November 2013, where collaborations between SBAs were identified and the partners were able to complete their recommendations.
At the start of this period the Deliverable D3.4 Galileo for GEEO and GEOSS issue 1 was published, which gave an overview of the economic, technological and political background to the development of an independent European Global Positioning System. It also looked at how the improvements to the GNSS would benefit each SBA. Issue 2 (Deliverable 3.5) was published in December 2013, which updated the progress on deploying the constellation, and provided examples identified by the activities of the project on the potential within each SBA for Galileo to strengthen local, regional and global monitoring systems.
WP 4 – Outreach. Work package Leader: STARLAB
Work package objectives
The objective of work package 4 “OUTREACH” is to assess the value of a European GNSS independent constellation (EGNOS-GALILEO) in support of GEEO and GEOSS. This WP focuses on the GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS promotion to: the general public, among the Gfg2 community (research/industry), and to the GEO community (tasks). This work package can be divided into two activities:
• Activity 4.1 (A4.1) addresses dissemination between the first two audiences mentioned above.
• Activity 4.2 (A4.2) seeks the promotion and use of GNSS data among the GEO community.
Progress achieved
The Gfg2 consortium has made a big dissemination effort throughout the duration of the project. In 2011 for the promotion of Gfg2 Research Media was contacted as this company offers research dissemination services. The Gfg2 project published an article in their annual magazine “International Innovation. Disseminating Science, research and technology”, which is sent to 30,000 key researchers. The consortium also received 250 printed copies of the brochure, which were available for events.
Many different posters, flyers, T-shirts, notebooks, pens and other materials were also prepared. Specific materials were prepared for the Summer Schools and the socio-economic event. Pictures of these promotional materials are available in both Periodic Reports.
Another important aspect of the dissemination performed was the groups in LinkedIn and Twitter, which offered a dynamic area with up to day news, events and funding opportunities.
Two Summer Schools have been prepared, one in Nottingham in 2012 and one in Postdam in 2013. These events included lectures, practical sessions and poster sessions. Nearly 70 students attended the Summer Schools. An important part of the experience was networking, and a Facebook group was created by those attending which is still in use, and shared by students from the second Summer School.
The Bibliotheque tab has been extended to contain several seminars and courses that cover different aspects of GNSS and GPS. Deliverable 4.8 briefly presents the training material collected and uploaded to the Gfg2 portal Summer Schools.
From each Summer School and each Roadmap Workshop we performed and published in YouTube different interviews with key experts covering the 9 GEO SBAs (see http://www.gfg2.eu/videos). We have collected 33 interviews. Students and researchers on GNSS will benefit from the direct information from professionals using GNSS technologies and applications. Through these interviews it is possible to see the impact of GNSS in the different SBAs in order to solve many different problems and to have an idea of the current research lines that remain open.
A book on best practices of Gfg2 has been prepared and it is available online in the Bibliotheque tab of our Gfg2 webpage (http://www.gfg2.eu/bibliotheque). In addition to being online, 800 paper copies were printed and distributed among partners for disseminating at scientific events.
One of the tasks of WP4 was to identify GEO tasks for collaboration. A tab in the Gfg2 portal (http://www.gfg2.eu/gfg24geotasks) has been continuously updated to collect GEO tasks and GEO communities. Moreover, deliverables 4.6 and 4.7 describe the approach followed and also define how Gfg2 can foster collaboration between the GEEO and GEO communities on the one hand and the GNSS community on the other.
Potential Impact:
GFG2 is a coordination action and its mission is to better assess the value of GNSS for the Global Environmental Earth Observation (GEEO) and for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
Thus, a key objective of GFG2 was to have a great impact on the research and industrial communities. As a means to measure the success on this task, we can give some impact results on the different events and tasks performed within the coordination action.
• General results for the web and the social media
- The Gfg2 web portal was visited by more than 4,500 unique visitors.
- The LinkedIn group is formed by 443 members from different backgrounds.
- The Gfg2 twitter account has 72 followers from different countries in Europe and also out of Europe.
• The first Gfg2 Summer School
The first Gfg2 Summer School was held at the University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus. 61 students and researchers from 25 different countries expressed an interest in attending the Summer School. 42 completed the application process to compete for 40 places on offer, the local organisers carried out an initial sort through of the applications. All candidates were of a high standard and it was felt that there was sufficient budget to offer a place to all who applied. Unfortunately, it was very difficult for non-European students to raise the additional funding to travel (the Project offered up to €350 support), and some students were unable to get travel visas in time. The final attendance was 28, with 17 male students and 11 female students. All the SBAs (except health) were covered by students who attended the School. An important part of the experience was networking, and a Facebook site was established by those attending which is still in use, and shared by students from the second Summer School. The speakers invited included highly respected European and US academics and researchers working on GNSS related projects. All speakers, support, staff and students were accommodated on site and mixed freely throughout the three day school.
• The second Gfg2 Summer School
Due to intense dissemination activity and distribution of flyers at several conferences before the summer school, 91 requests from 33 countries for participation in the second summer school were received. This high number of applicants can also be regarded as a result (impact) of the successful first summer school. Only 40 students could be selected from 13 countries, 37 were from European countries, and 3 (Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine) from non-European countries. The ratio male/female was nearly balanced. The students covered all SBA, most significant was disasters (9 students) and weather (8). Another important aspect was the bringing together of GNSS experts (speakers) in view of the use of GNSS for Global Earth Observation, very important for community building with impact to the science and society. These speakers (12) are internationally highly recognized experts in their field and attracted during the Summer School several students to the field of GNSS for Global Earth Observation. Consequently the second summer school can be regarded as big success in the sense of the GfG² project.
• Key players from industry
This research was published on the Gfg2 website as “Industry”. It brings together in one area, the expertise and contact details, of over 100 significant companies operating in Europe that are either:
- GNSS focused companies that are, or have the potential to supply technology for GEEO and GEOSS;
- or are working in the field of GEEO and GEOSS who would benefit from GNSS technology.
In addition, the national bodies overseeing the Space Industry for all EU countries, and members of the European Space Agency are listed.
• Galileo for GEEO and GEOSS
Two reports were published that described the potential impact that an independent European GNSS would have on GEEO and GEOSS. In conclusion, the benefits are not in having a stand-alone 30 satellite constellation, but by contributing to a 120+ GNSS constellation. Galileo/EGNOS will provide an improved positioning service through greater access to signals across a greater range of frequencies, additionally the higher power signals will give improved penetration of those signals.
• GFG2 for GEO
The two issues of ‘Gfg2 for GEO’ that were prepared by MET.NO during the Gfg2 project were meant to identify relevant GEO tasks that can make use of GNSS capabilities. In order to enhance accessibility they have been summarized on a publicly available webpage under Gfg2 (http://www.gfg2.eu/gfg24geotasks) and have been updated several times during the project. Within the framework of this effort all GEO task leaders and points of contact were contacted by e-mail or on conferences and made aware of the potential use of GNSS in their respective task or projects. Although not felt immediately, it appears very likely, that the use of GNSS will increase further in the near future, as more and more potential users are made aware of GNSS possibilities. Thereby, research and applications will improve in the SBAs and consequently be of further societal benefit.
• The Consultation Workshop
The Consultation Workshop organized by MET.NO in Oslo in October 2011 was the first workshop of Gfg2. It was attended by all Gfg2 partners, GNSS experts, and by external experts representing each of the 9 Societal Benefit Areas. During the preparation phase of the workshop numerous contacts with GEO experts as well as potential users of GNSS products were made. The workshop itself was a great success as it established the basis for continued contact with experts and for further collaboration during the project period but certainly also beyond. Some of the experts who were present at the Oslo workshop also attended later workshops and summer schools of Gfg2, helped in the definition of the roadmap towards increase use of GNSS products, and in reaching out to society. In order to increase the impact from the workshop, all presentations as well as the workshop summary were stored permanently and publicly on the Gfg2 website.
• The first Gfg2 Roadmap Workshop
The impact of the first roadmap workshop was that some new connections were made between the different communities. It was a preparatory work for the second roadmap workshop and the deliverables in WP3.
• The second Gfg2 Roadmap Workshop
The 2nd Roadmap Workshop, held in Leicester in April 2013, focused on practical cases of the opportunities of GNSS for GEEO and GEOSS in each Societal Benefit Area. Project partners and external experts outlined the Roadmap idea and structure.
• Socio-economic event
GFG2 successfully sponsored a TEDxBarcelona event, which gathered 350 attendees from a list of more than 600 applicants. At the moment of writing this report, the videos containing the different presentations of the event exceeded 6,000 visits. Many people from industry attended the event and also people from academia. We believe that successful connections were made and that the Gfg2 dissemination made during the event was also fruitful and resulted in new followers in the Gfg2 LinkedIn group and Twitter community.
• The “Book of Best Practices”
The “Book of Best Practices” was first published on the web pages of the project on August 31, 2013. Thereafter, it was printed in 800 copies in September 2013. It has been distributed, through the partners to the community. Today only a few copies are left. Discussions are ongoing internally within Chalmers about an internal additional financing of a new batch of printed copies in order to reach not only the professionals, but also the general public, including students. At the same time there have also been internal discussions at Chalmers to translate and distribute a Swedish version of the booklet to visitors and school children.
• Attendance to related events
Gfg2 partners promoted the project and GNSS uses for environmental observation in more than 36 GEO related events. More than 10 presentations and posters were produced. Flyers and brochures were distributed at European conferences and exhibitions. Nevertheless, as we have commented before, the participation of the partners in EC events during the time span of the project (1 January 2011 – 31 December 2013) is available in Template A2.
• Training materials
GNSS is promoted by the Gfg2 community not only by participating in GEO events, but also via a range of training options offered at the Gfg2 portal. The training needs analysis (see also progress achieved in WP2) contributed to the shaping of the Training material presented on-line on the Gfg2 portal. http://www.gfg2.eu/bibliotheque/modern-navigation. The Training material includes fundamentals of GNSS, current systems of GNSS, information about uses and applications, signal processing, error sources... In addition, UNOTT adapted their course questionnaire for students on the Professional Training Programme of the University of Nottingham under the framework of another FP 7 project (GENIUS).
Figure 6 (see attached PDF) presents a summary of the impact of the GFG2 coordination action.
List of Websites:
An important aspect of all projects and Coordination Actions is dissemination. Particularly for Gfg2 we have ensured that the work that we carried out was as widely communicated as possible among the Gfg2 research community. We created a LinkedIn group and a Twitter community in order to maintain our GNSS virtual community aware of all events and achievements made by Gfg2. Also mini-discussions were daily posted and many Gfg2 related conversations brought very interesting ideas.
Therefore, we have disseminated our activities and achievements through the means described in the following sections:
Project Logo
Our first task was to establish a project brand by designing a logo as seen in Figure 7 (see attached PDF). This logo, along with those of FP7 and the commission shall be included in all materials.
Poster and Brochure
In order to facilitate the dissemination of the project goals and objectives at public events such as Summer Schools, Roadmaps, workshops and conference events; we designed a poster of Gfg2 (see Figure 8 in the attached PDF) and a brochure. Theses were distributed through all project life (see Figure 9 in the attached PDF).
Gfg2 Webpage
A very important aspect of our dissemination plan was the project website. We set up the project web site at:
http://gfg2.eu/
The goals of the website were twofold:
• First of all it provides a collaboration tool for consortium members where we shared relevant literature and news.
• Secondly, it provided objectives, news on project achievements and events to the public. We built a tab for the Industry Players in Europe and many other tabs like the one with the video interviews to the experts and. We presented there our two summer schools (Summer School 2012 and 2013) and our two roadmaps 2012 and 2013. Also the socio-economic impact event (TEDxBarcelona) was published.
The web site received around 8,000 visits (4,500 unique) all over the second period of the project life.