EO AFRICA R&D Facility - User need survey

In 2020, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the EO AFRICA (African Framework for Research, Innovation, Communities and Applications) Initiative to build an African-European research and development (R&D) partnership to facilitate the sustainable adoption of Earth Observation and related space technology in Africa. The initiative is driven by African research challenges and user needs and follows a long-term vision (>10 years) for Africa's emergent digital era.

 

The EO AFRICA R&D Facility is the backbone of the Initiative, with the overarching goal of fostering an African-European R&D collaboration to enable an active research community and creative innovation processes for the continuous development of EO capabilities in Africa.

Our consortium implements the EO AFRICA R&D Facility. One of the principal objectives is to identify and respond to EO research challenges specific to the African environment in the application fields of water scarcity and food security.

The present questionnaire aims at collecting information from a broad segment of the EO scientific arena and the stakeholders of the satellite-based data collection and processing technology.

Based on the outcomes of this survey, we shall implement the Facility by:

- Issuing and supporting research calls for European-African collaborative research projects to facilitate an African – European exchange in research and knowhow.

- Establishing a digital Innovation Laboratory in the cloud for EO application development

    * to foster an open-source EO development community and
    * to build partnership programmes with African innovation hubs
- Setting up an English-French bi-lingual EO AFRICA Space Academy (in cooperation with African knowledge centres) to offer EO training courses

- Developing a Digital Space Campus for Africa offering online EO learning/training as part of the EO AFRICA Space Academy
 

By answering the following survey, you can shape the EO AFRICA R&D Facility to the special African needs and potentials. We appreciate your contribution.

The survey is anonymous! Nevertheless, you may provide some personal information on the last page if you want to be part of the EO AFRICA community. As a member, you will get the possibility to be involved in our actions and training events.

Filling the survey will take about 20 minutes.

Thank you for your contribution!