ESA and Future Earth Partner to Fund Earth Observation Projects

The call for proposals for earth observation activities to be carried out in 2024, open for submissions until 20^th October 2023, is an opportunity to know more about the ESA-Future Earth collaboration

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Future Earth have partnered to facilitate the development and uptake of Earth observation data by Future Earth’s research networks.

The ESA-Future Earth joint program funding supports links by bringing Future Earth scientists to meetings organised and supported by ESA, to promote the potential of Earth observation data to new communities. It also increases ESA’s involvement in Future Earth conferences and events, supporting with sponsorship, keynote speakers, expert scientist participation and joint sessions. There is some limited travel support available to support attendance at these meetings for researchers connected to ESA projects or active members of Future Earth networks.

Essential Climate Variable

The partnership includes seed funding to stimulate new collaborations around the climate datasets provided under ESA’s Climate Change Initiative. Under this initiative, ESA has developed a suite of 23 Essential Climate Variable (ECV) data products in response to the UNFCCC’s need for systematic observations of the climate system. The products merge data from multiple satellites and sensors to create long time-series of climate data, which are as stable and consistent as possible and suitable for a range of climate research applications.

ECV projects include land cover, high resolution land cover, land surface temperature, soilmoisture, fire, biomass, lakes, permafrost, snow, glaciers, ice sheets (Antarctica and Greenland), sea ice, sea level, sea state, sea surface salinity, ocean colour, sea surface temperature, greenhouse gases, water vapour, ozone, aerosol, and cloud.

Open Access Data

All data products have fully characterised uncertainties and are validated using independent, traceable, in-situ measurement and are freely available from the CCI Open Data Portal.

ESA’s climate data can be explored on an interactive website ‘Climate from Space’ from a mobile, tablet device or desktop computer. With 3D globes as well as map views, users can watch decades of global climate change unfold in seconds, pinch and zoom into a region, and compare individual climate variables, side-by-side. The site features a series of self-guided ‘climate stories’ that explain how and why the climate is changing, and its impact on daily life now.

Call for proposals

Future Earth jointly with the European Space Agency are delighted to provide this seed funding to support Global Research Networks collaborative activities working with satellite data, to attract and equip new users, improve engagement with stakeholders and convene the community to shape the Earth observation research agenda. This is an open call to the Global Research Networks (GRNs) of the Future Earth community for proposals for a range of EO activities taking place in 2024.

Three or four awards, up to €20,000 will be given. Awardees can request use of ESA’s space on the JASMIN supercomputer for data analysis (via Virtual Machine) during the project; JASMIN sits alongside the CEDA archive which hosts over 18 PB of environmental data which can be used (and awardees can also upload their own data for analysis).

Applications must be from members of a Future Earth GRN, in a topic aligning with the research priorities of the network. If you are not part of a GRN you must actively join it and seek support for the proposal formally with its Scientific Steering Committee via its International Project Office. Scope of proposalsProposals should justify and cost for the collaborative activity. Example activities:

A workshop and coordinated synthesis report or journal special issue;
Training events or working group study/writing weeks towards a publication;
Support for user outreach and engagement to deepen the impact of Earth observation research at planned
events, for example at policy meetings or other relevant conferences;
Pilot studies to explore the integration of earth ibservation into your sustainability research. This should include deep collaboration with the Future Earth networks and engagement with stakeholders in shaping the work towards information for decision makers;
Other creative research activities involving Earth observation in science for transformations to sustainability.

All proposals must be submitted by Friday 20^th October 2023.