The BroadWay project - procuring innovation to enable a Pan-European Interoperable Broadband Mobile System for PPDR - has just created an animation video describing the project and its objectives. Don't miss it!
A short version is also available here
The White Paper, Drafted by Marie-Christine Bonnamour (PSCE Secretary General) and David Lund (PSCE President) provides an explanation of how to identify new potentials for standardisation, and presents standardisation potentials, both generally and for three specific domains. The process to identify standardisation potentials is explained. This process has been followed during DRIVER+, leading to the initiation of three CEN Workshop Agreements.
Although it has been a taboo at the European level up to now, the time has come to break this taboo and to recognise that space is an enabler of security and defence, with a defence dimension for Galileo and a security element for Copernicus, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said at the 12th Space Policy Conference in Brussels on 22 January.
In his address at the Conference, the Commissioner stressed that the security and defence element of the space programmes would be strengthened with the progressive launch of two new initiatives – a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system to monitor space debris, and a Governmental Satellite Communication (GovSatCom) initiative to provide Member States with reliable and secure satellite communication to support police, border protection and civil defence.
These programmes will be partly under the responsibility of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) as its mandate expands with the creation of the new European Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA). Speaking at the conference, GSA Chief Operating Officer Pascal Claudel noted that, while some of the elements in the EUSPA mandate had yet to be finalised, the GSA was already preparing to take it up and, in particular, has started preparatory activities for GovSatCom.
The Advanced Crisis Management Conference started today, February 19, and it will go on until tomorrow. The event is taking place in Brussels, in a massive gathering of users and practitioners, researchers and industry, discussing the challenges and opportunities within the crisis management industry.
Felix Bloch from DG European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office - ECHO opened the Conference and emphasized the willingness from the European Commission to support the sustainability of results from projects like DRIVER+.
Matthew Jones from Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research gave an opening keynote with the latest science on how human-driven climate change enhances the likelihood of wildfires and hinders suppression efforts, even in regions not traditionally prone to them.
Next up was Patrick Meier, PhD from WeRobotics on “decolonising” humanitarian technology through an inclusive approach that involves and empowers local expertise.
Finally, Marcel van Berlo from TNO, presented the project overview followed by the the DRIVER+ Consortium, who explained the key outputs to the audience (Trial Guidance Methodology, Test-bed, Training Module, Portfolio of Solutions, Centres of Expertise and CMINE). Attendees took part in a tour of the Exhibition space where they exchanged individually with the partners on DRIVER+ products.
Although it has been a taboo at the European level up to now, the time has come to break this taboo and to recognise that space is an enabler of security and defence, with a defence dimension for Galileo and a security element for Copernicus, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said at the 12th Space Policy Conference in Brussels on 22 January.