By Eleni Loulli, Research Assistant in ERATOSTHENES Excellence Research Centre
Through the ‘ERATOSTHENES: Excellence Research Centre for Earth Surveillance and Space-Based Monitoring of the Environment’ with the acronym: ‘EXCELSIOR’, Horizon 2020 Widespread Teaming Phase 2 project (www.excelsior2020.eu), a new, autonomous and self-sustained Centre of Excellence entitled as ‘ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (ECoE)’ (www.eratosthenes.org.cy) has been created, as a result of upgrading the existing Remote Sensing and Geo-Environment Lab, operating within the Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, Faculty of Engineering and Technology of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) (www.cut.ac.cy) since 2007.
The ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (ECoE) will provide the highest quality of EO services on National, Regional, European and International level. The ECoE focuses on conducting basic and applied research, and enabling innovation in the areas of remote sensing and space-based monitoring of the environment. There are distinct needs and opportunities that motivate the establishment of an Earth Observation Centre of Excellence in Cyprus, which are primarily related to the geostrategic location of Cyprus that allows us to examine complex scientific problems and address user needs in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and Northern Africa (EMMENA), as well as South-East Europe.
An important objective of the ECoE is to become a fully functional Digital Innovation Hub (DIH) and a Research Excellence Centre for EO in the EMMENA region. The DIH will create an ecosystem which combines state-of-the-art sensing and data management/processing technologies, cutting - edge research opportunities, targeted education services and promotion of entrepreneurship. In order to be dynamic and innovative, the DIH will be based on two major infrastructures, which are a Satellite Ground Receiving Station and a Ground-based atmospheric remote sensing station, as well as additional infrastructure.
The ECoE as a Digital Innovation Hub adopts a two-axis model. In line with the ECoE Vision, the horizontal axis consists of three Thematic Clusters (3 Departments in the ECoE organisational structure) for sustained excellence in research of the ECoE, namely: Environment and Climate (atmosphere, agriculture, water, land), Resilient Societies (disasters risk reduction, cultural heritage, marine safety and security, energy) and Big Earth Data Management (information extraction, visual exploration and visualization, crowdsourcing and data fusion, Geo-informatics). The vertical axis consists of four Functional Areas: Infrastructure; Research; Education & Entrepreneurship. The ECoE will focus on research excellence in five application areas, which include Climate Change Monitoring, Water Resource Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Access to Energy and Big EO Data Analytics.
Through the above described, the ECoE will contribute in increasing the participation of the private sector in the development of EO applications, in promoting the creation of spinoff companies and in promoting entrepreneurship culture in EO businesses in Cyprus. The ECoE will boost the regional cooperation of research entities with industry and SMEs, focusing on knowledge intensive sectors to facilitate innovation that will lead to new products and applications in EO. Additionally, it aims to elevate Cyprus within the European space sector by providing EO and geo-information services, which are growing significantly faster than other technical domains and are supported by European strategies and space programmes, such as Copernicus.
The Consortium of the EXCELSIOR project consists of the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), the German Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and the Department of Electronic Communications (DEC) from the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy of the Cyprus Government.
The project is actively supported by more than 95 organizations, including Ministries, Municipalities, National-level organizations and Networks (e.g., the Cyprus Scientific and Technical Chamber, 6 Ministries from the Cyprus Government and 19 Governmental Department from Cyprus, International organizations (e.g. GEO, ESA, NASA, ISPRS, NEREUS, ACTRIS, EARLINET, EARSel, COPERNICUS Support Office, MedRIN-NASA Network etc.), Universities (Tel-Aviv University, Aristotle University, National Technical University of Athens, Ben-Gurion University, CNR-Italy etc.) and Research Centres, research and innovation institutions and companies (e.g. CYTA, CYRIC, Gravity, Limassol Chamber of Commerce & Industry, etc.).
