Would your research benefit from taking a good look at our planet? Explore Earth Observation funding opportunities with OCRE

Is the OCRE Earth Observation Services Funding for Research Call the boost your research needs? Dedicated to the European research community, OCRE seeks to provide researchers with an easy access to Earth Observation, commercial cloud and digital services – once user requirements are identified (following the aggregation of demand from the research market in Europe), OCRE will manage the adoption funds and procure the required services from selected suppliers (OCRE will act as customer) on behalf of the successful applicants. A legal and technical mechanism (The OCRE Business Management Platform) will be created to integrate a range of these commercial services into the EOSC hub for the benefit of researchers.

Taking into consideration the main interests of the e-shape community we will focus on the Earth Observation dedicated funding available, call closing on 30 November 2020 (subsequent calls are expected to follow in 2021 – see below timeline):

Earth Observation (platform) services based on Copernicus data
Consulting services in support of using these EO services:
On-boarding, assisting with solution architecting, etc
Commercial infra-structure cloud services in support of using these EO services
As available from the OCRE IaaS+ framework agreements per 01.01.2021

Targeted users submitting research projects that would benefit from consuming Earth Observations services	Funding
Individual researchers	€0.975M
Individual institutes (OCRE would fund the required services as supplied by providers following OCRE procurements)	€1.5M
National/multi-national research agencies (OCRE would support by co-funding – 50% – their needs for Earth Observations services)	€2.25M

Targeted Users and Available Funding Resources

Eligibility Criteria – Applicants Should:

Be a part of the European research community
Use earth observation data from the Copernicus programme in their research
Support the FAIR data principles and intend to share their research data with peers
Clearly demonstrate how the use of commercial Earth Observation Services can provide agility in terms of research activities; improve research or enable new research outcomes
Provide significant relevance within their research discipline
Are not currently using these tools extensively
Hope to continue usage of Earth Observation Services in their research
Can begin to use Earth Observation Services in early 2021

Call	Launch	Submission deadline	Award
1^st EO call – launch webinar	15 October	30 November	January 2021
2^nd EO call	15 February	5 April	June 2021
3^rd EO call (and last)	1 July	16 August	September 2021

Timeline of Earth Observation Dedicated Calls

European research produces the greatest amount of relevant data globally and the European Commission wants to harness this data for the betterment of European innovation. As such, OCRE aims to demonstrate the positive impact that cloud and digital services have on research outcomes in terms of agility; scalability; efficiency; data sharing through the use of advanced analytics; machine learning; AI; and collaboration tools. Through its Earth Observation services adoption calls OCRE aims to:

Stimulate the use of specialised Earth Observation services aiding the use of Earth Observation data in research, in particular, usage of the data generated by the Copernicus programme
Demonstrate that the use of such services can have a tangible positive impact on research execution and/or outcomes (showcases)
Contribute to the development of the nascent market of Earth Observation service suppliers

Through the proposed, OCRE could be the potential funding opportunity awaited by some of the e-shape community members. To apply to the 1^st Earth Observation call, closing on 30 November 2020, find out more through the funding call guide, watch the project launch webinar and the dedicated call webinar and sign up for call updates.