After having selected 14 new FabSpaces (here) in various countries worldwide at the end of 2017, the FabSpace 2.0 project today officially inaugurated the first joint activity of the fourteen new FabSpaces during the FabSpace 2.0 Workshop on Sharing Practices to Spread the FabSpace Spirit.

UJI (GEOTEC Research group) was the only Spanish representative that forms part of this network. Last January 31^st, Sergi Trilles, GEOTEC member,  attended the workshop held in Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer Management of Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland.

During the workshop, three key words are used as the main focus: Innovation, Simulation, and Earth Observation (EO). FabSpace 2.0 project aimed to stimulate (open) innovation in Earth Observation (among universities, civil society, corporates and public authorities) to make our planet a better place to live in by connecting EO (experts/data/SW) to other communities. This goal can be reached by providing trainings (technical, entrepreneurship, Bootcamps, etc.), workshops, innovation events, open days, infrastructure, communication, etc.

This workshop also placed a specific aim on sharing practices regarding operational and local awareness strategy. In this respect, the FabSpace 2.0 consortium stands ready to assist in the development of a comprehensive growth strategy for the new FabSpaces. The new FabSpaces will help consolidate the FabSpace 2.0 project’s mission all over the world, disseminating the services and helping to address the needs of final users of Earth Observation and geodata-based applications.

The event was part of FabSpace 2.0 project progress meeting which held annually. Project Coordinator Josiane Mothe from University Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (UPS), said: “I was very happy to welcome the new FabSpaces representatives. I found them very motivated. I’m convinced that they will be very successful in spreading the FabSpace spirit. They have complementary domain applications than the founder FabSpaces, come from different countries for some of them. All this is a real opportunity for spreading the FabSpace concept.”

Upon officially inaugurated, each FabSpace could offer a “Space Science Shop” service, that collects the needs and the societal challenges of external stakeholders (Civil Society Organisations, Public Authorities and Companies), linked to application domains of EO and satellite navigation uses (i.e., Agriculture and Forestry; Energy; Environment and resource efficiency; Intelligent Transport Systems; Smart cities; Health and well-being). The scope is to provide independent participatory research support in response to concerns experienced by external stakeholders, offering a demand-driven and bottom-up approach to the FabSpace facility and screening questions provided by these stakeholders.

The founder FabSpaces and the new FabSpaces are part of the international FabSpace 2.0 network that will be launched at the beginning of 2019, and its legal status will be defined according to the results of the report on European and Non-European initiatives with which FabSpace 2.0 can create synergies. To this aim, existing initiatives, mainly in Europe, will be monitored and possible actions will be defined. Given the particular added value of Earth Observation data and Satellite Navigation services in countries with less ground infrastructures (i.e. developing countries) specific attention will also be given to the developing countries as much business markets are expected to grow. In the end, the network will be extended worldwide.

Figure 1. FabSpace 2.0 Workshop with the New FabSpaces

About FabSpace:

FabSpace 2.0 is the open-innovation network for geodata-driven innovation – by leveraging Space data in particular, in Universities 2.0.

Its Work programme topic addressed INSO-4-2015: Innovative schemes for open innovation and science 2.0 b) Academia- Business/Public/CSO knowledge co-creation Coordination and support action. The FabSpace 2.0 project aims at making universities open innovation centres for their region and improving their contribution to the socio-economic and environmental performance of societies.

To achieve these general objectives, the FabSpace 2.0 project offers to concentrate on one research area with high expected socio-economic impact: data-driven innovation, with a particular attention to Earth observation data.

In the six European regions covered by the consortium, partner universities work together with co-located Business Incubation Centres of the European Space Agency (ESA BICs). ESA BICs aim at inspiring entrepreneurs to turn space-connected business ideas into commercial companies, and provide technical expertise and business-development support.

This consortium, completed by TerraNIS – the French company that operates the European Group of Enterprises for a Network of Information Using Space (EUGENIUS) – and IDGEO – provisioning continuous trainings in Geomatics – and the European Business Network (EBN), will be a key success factor for the project.

 This project began on March 1^st 2016 and will last 3 years. It is under the lead of Univ. Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier (UPS). For more information, visit https://www.fabspace.eu.

This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Grant Agreement n°693210