BRAGMA Bridging Actions for GMES & Africa

Newsletter no.3 | March 2013

The BRAGMA project, coordinated by IICT is a Coordination and Support Action to GMES and Africa, supported by the European Commission. Copernicus, formerly GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), is the European Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation: http://www.copernicus.eu

Upcoming GMES & Africa Workshops

The next GMES & Africa Thematic Workshops to take place will be the Water Resources Management Workshop in Nigeria on the 14-15 May 2013 and the Natural Resources Management Workshop in Egypt on the 25-26 June 2013. Both these workshops will be co-funded by the European Commission’s DG DEVCO through the JAES Support Mechanism and by the BRAGMA partner to host the event – the Nigerian National Space Research & Development Agency (NASRDA) and the Egyptian National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS). A Validation Workshop is also projected for 2013 in South Africa, where the results of the three thematic workshops and the Action Plan’s cross-cutting issues will be discussed. The objective of the workshop is to achieve tangible results from which to draw recommendations and to propose an implementation plan for the future of GMES & Africa.

All updated information regarding the upcoming workshops are being disseminated on both these platforms, including the relevant draft chapters of the GMES & Africa Action Plan, workshop agendas, background documents, logistical information, etc. There will also be important online discussions regarding the relevant draft chapter of the Action Plan prior to the thematic workshop.

Online plarforms

The third Work Package that makes up the BRAGMA FP7 Project is entitled Joint Cooperation Platform and aims to build up a network of GMES & Africa stake-holders that is aligned with the govern-ance of the initiative. Apart from build-ing a solid network of contact points, this work package also aims to analyse synergies between projects, initiatives and partnerships, and establish working groups for GMES & Africa’s thematic ar-eas and cross-cutting issues.

BRAGMA’s online e-collaboration platform is an important step towards this objective, and by signing up you are becoming part of the GMES & Africa network.

The BRAGMA e-collaboration tool and the Capacity4Dev online platforms can be accessed via:http://bragma.mixxt.eu/ http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/africa-eu-part.gmes/

Synergies between Projects

One of BRAGMA’s main objectives is to analyse synergies between projects, initiatives, and partnerships. In view of this important objective, our upcoming newsletters will have a section dedicated to these projects, with the objective of finding synergies between these and contributing to coherence within the GMES & Africa strategy.

In this issue, we outline a number of projects that are linked with the GMES & Africa initiative. We welcome any additions to this list which you feel might be pertinent.

Newsletter no.3 | March 2013

The GMES & Africa Strategy in a Nutshell

Aims to utilise the full potential of space systems for sustainable development Aims to reinforce Africa’s capacity and ownership to benefit from Space-based Earth Observation technology and applications. Focusses on nine thematic areas (natural resources, marine and coastal areas, water management, climate change, natural disasters, food security, infrastructure, conflicts and political crises, and health) and five cross cutting issues (Policy and Institutional, Infrastructure, Capacity Building, Financial, Monitoring and Evaluation) that make up the strategy’s focus. A long term partnership between Africa and Europe

FP7 projects which were launched to pave the way for the implementation of the GMES & Africa initiative GARNET-E: GMES for Africa –

Regional Network for Information Exchange and Training in Emergencies (2010/2012)

EAMNet: Europe-Africa Marine Earth Observation Network (2010/2013)

SAGA-EO: Support Action to GMES & Africa on Earth Observation (2010/2012)

MALAREO: EO in Malaria Vector Control and Management (2011/2013)

REDDiness: Support Earth Observation-driven forest and carbon monitoring in Central Africa for REDD (2011/2013)

REDDAF: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Africa (2011/2014)

WATPLAN: Spatial Earth Observation Monitoring for Planning and Water Allocation in the International Incomati Basin (2011/2013)

EDF-funded Projects

PUMA: Preparation for Use of MSG (Meteosat Second Generation satellites) in Africa (2001/2005)

AMESD: African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development (2007/2013)

MESA: Monitoring of Environment and Security in Africa (2013/2018)

ESA-funded Projects

TIGER: The European Space Agency Looking after Water in Africa initiative (2001/2015)

Other GMES & Africa-related Projects

DevCoCast: GEONETCast for and by Developing Countries (2008) (FP7)

ISAC: Information Service on Agricultural Change (2011/2013) (FP7)

Newsletter no.3 | Marchh 2013

AfricaGIS / GSDI Conference, 4-8 November 2013

BRAGMA will participate in the joint AfricaGIS/GSDI Conference and will host a half-day workshop.AfricaGIS is the largest regular GIS conference in Africa with participants from the whole continent. The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association promotes international cooperation and collaboration in support of spatial data infrastructure developments that will allow nations to better address social, economic, and environmental issues.

This joint conference offers numerous opportunities for oral presentations and refereed and non-refereed publication outlets. This call supports two primary forms of publication:(1) a conference proceedings with abstracts for all accepted submissions with refereed and non-refereed full papers for some of the submissions, and (2) a pre-conference published book containing fully refereed articles. The tentative title is Spatial Enablement in Support of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction: Research, Development and Education Perspectives. The book will be published as an open access book in various eReader formats.

Other GMES & Africa-related Projects

The REDD Fast Logging Assessment & Monitoring Environment (REDD-FLAME) project will design, prototype and demonstrate a system capable of monitoring tropical and sub-tropical forests using high-resolution radar (and optical) imagery acquired by Earth Observation satellites.

GMFS: Global Monitoring for Food and Security (2003) (ESA-funded)

AGRICAB: Developing increased Earth Observation capacity for better agriculture and forestry management in Africa (2011/2015) (FP7)

ENDELEO: aims at providing natural resources managers and any other stakeholders with the necessary tools to help resource managers to better understand and monitor their environment and its dynamics over time (financed by the Government of Belgium through its STEREOII Research Programme)

If you would like to add any other projects to this list which are related to the GMES & Africa process, drop us a line at secretariat@bragma.eu

Experts for Horizon 2020 Advisory Groups

The European Commission is widening its search for experts from all fields to participate in shaping the agenda of Horizon 2020, the European Union’s future funding programme for research and innovation.

Expertise is called for within several areas, some of them relevant for GMES & Africa:Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies within the following areas: Information and communication Technologies (ICT) and Space, among others.Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-economy

Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materialshttp://ec.europa.eu/research/horizon2020/index_en.cfm?pg=h2020-experts

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Newsletter no.3 | March 2013

BRAGMA-GMES Africa presentation at CAAST-Net Stakeholders meeting on Research Infrastructures

CAAST-Net is a five-year joint Africa-Europe platform dedicated to advancing bi-regional cooperation in science and technology. The project is funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development

(FP7)

On December 3-4 2012 the third CAAST-Net stakeholders’ conference on Africa-Europe Science and Technology (S&T) cooperation took place.

The conference was organised in collaboration with PAERIP(Promoting African – EuropeanResearch Infrastructure Partnerships) project and provided a forum for 100 experts and stakeholders from Europe and Africa to exchange opinions and offered the opportunity for mutual learning on the role of research infrastructures (RI) in S&Tcooperation partnerships between both regions, specifically within the context of addressing societal challenges shared by Africa and

Relevant Events - 2013

7ª International Conference on Sustainable Water Resources Management21 May 2013, New Forest, UK

The conference will bring together different stakeholders to discuss the most recent developments associated with the management of surface and sub-surface water resources.

h t t p : / / w w w . w e s s e x . a c . u k / 1 3 -c o n f e r e n c e s / w a t e r - r e s o u r c e s -management-2013.html

35th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment 22-26 April, Beijing, China

Earth Observation and Global Environmental Change - 50 Years of Remote Sensing: Progress and Prospects

http://www.isrse35.org/

BRAGMA future Events

Water Management Workshop - technical consultation forum - which will take place in Abuja, Nigeria, 14-15 May 2013 Natural Resources Workshop - technical consultation forum – which will take place in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, 25-26 June 2013 Validation Workshop – which will take place in South Africa, October 2013.

Links:http://www.bragma.euhttp://bragma.mixxt.eu/ http://capacity4dev.ec.europa.eu/africa-eu-part.gmes/

AfricaGIS 2013 and GSDI World Conference (GSDI 14)4-8 November, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Spatial Enablement in Support of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction.

http://www.gsdi.org/gsdi14

Europe.

During this meeting Dr. Eric Mwangi did a presentation on BRAGMA – GMES Africa “The research infrastructure”

The themes ranged from Africa-EU partnership and cooperation in themes as: Basic Science for sustainable developmentDetection, identification and monitoring of infectious diseases of plants, humans and animal in AfricaEnvironmental research