New EO-related higher education / life-long learning initiatives in the Balkans Boris Antic BioSense Center - University of Novi Sad BIG-SKY-EARTH MC and all WG meetings Belgrade, March 30 th, 2015

Deliverable of the FP7 project EOPower

Capacity building Economic empowerment

Overview of initiatives 3. International related to Balkan 2. Bilateral and regional 1. National 4. EOPower trainings

Short comparison with developed countries USA UK – moving from high school to elementary school Most developed EU countries migrated from MSc-only programmes to the BSc level In the Balkans still restricted to the PhD level Challenge of access to training materials from past and ongoing FP7,H2020 and ERASMUS+ projects

University level curricula – mostly on PhD level (common for all Balkan countries) Private company’s training courses for professionals Very slow progress in the past 5 years due to crisis Strong private sector in remote sensing – SMEs closely related to universities (spin offs, science parks, etc.) Advanced Studies and Research Center – Trainings supported by ESA Teachers trained to use tools developed by ESA and ASRC, such as LeoWorks Some national initiatives Serbia Greece Romania

University of Novi Sad PhD curricula in communications pattern recognition detection and estimation coding theory image processing computer vision

Bilateral and Multilateral initiatives Joint MSc Curricula CroatiaMontenegroSerbia Usually on PhD or MSc level Regional Platform for Benchmarking and Cooperation in Higher Education and Research (founded by ministries of all Western-Balkan countries + Slovenia) UNS-UNIST Joint Master programme in Remote Sensing Language barrier challenge (South Slavic languages)

International initiatives Life-long leraning NASA Balkans ESA NATO EEA

ESA Trainings Trainings for High Schools Master programmes Trainings for EU professionals Cooperation with BRIC countries and developing regions

NASA Regional Training Programs NASA Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 …SCERIN South Central and East European Regional Information Network Annual Capacity Buildings Workshops of July, 2015, Brasov, Romania Focus on: Remote sensing in forest management and administration Monitoring of protected areas’ Assessment of forest disturbance

Marketing Toolkits and creating business opportunities for earth observation Bringing GEOSS Services Into Practice EOPower trainings

Conclusions Small area – quite diverse situation and approaches Struggling economies –rely on external funds Mostly restricted to PhD level Access to training materials of past and ongoing FP7, H2020 and ERASMUS+ projects

Boris Antic BioSense Center University of Novi Sad Dr Zorana Djindjica Novi Sad Serbia Questions? More Information?