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

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 S&T and Earth Observation/GEOSS Rational for GEO S&T Committee

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 Observation expressed by the S&T Community GEO S&T Committee current contribution

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 Specificity of the GEO S&T Committee

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 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) Possible avenues in the future for S&T

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) 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 SBAs 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 More holistic orientation for the tasks under the GEO S&T Committee

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 How to implement those strategic horizontal activities ?

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 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 Example of R&D activities of horizontal nature : EC CALL 2008

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. Example of advice that could be sought through GEO S&T Committee: Potential collaboration between GEOSS and GNSS

A new approach for S&T within the 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 Issues relating to the design of the WP

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 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 ????) Conclusions