“Space, a driver for competitiveness and growth”
27-28 February 2014 - Bari, Italy
NEREUS (Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies) and its member region Apulia organized an international conference aimed at presenting how space uses and applications respond to a number of societal and economic challenges of the everyday life. Bringing together the demand and supply side of space services, the idea is to better understand regional needs and potential benefits of an increased uptake.
The event, mainly addressed to European regions, local authorities and their stakeholders, featured interventions by representatives of the European Commission, Space Agencies as well as representatives from the academic, research and industrial sectors to share knowledge, experiences and expertise. Thematic and best practice sessions as well as round table debates animated the 2-day event.
During the Session Space for Environment& Sustainable Energy, IREA-CNR (Massimo Antoninetti) presented the Earth observation technologies to support agro sector in Lombardy, highlighting experiences and prospective to be acquired during two research projects, respectively sponsored in the frame of a special agreement between CNR and Lombardy Region (Space4agri), and by EC in the frame of Framework Programme 7 (ERMES).
During the Session Space for Transport & Infrastructures, IREA-CNR (Francesco Soldovieri) gave a talk on the outcomes and the perspectives of the project “Integrated System for Transport Infrastructures surveillance and Monitoring by Electromagnetic Sensing” (ISTIMES). funded in the Joint Call ICT-Security, 2007. The project had three years duration with the end on June 2012” ISTIMES regarding the integration of EO and ground based sensing technologies for the monitoring and quick damage assessment of the critical transport infrastructures. The project has been flagged as a “success case”, as “success/case story”, “High visibility/media attractive project” and having a “Substantial R&D breakthrough character” by European Commission.
IREA-CNR actively participates in NEREUS. IREA-CNR is an associated member of NEREUS, and leaded its flagship FP7 project DORIS_Net to set up the European network of Copernicus-GMES Regional Contact Offices (RCOs) to raise awareness and strengthen regional involvement in Copernicus-GMES, Europe’s flagship programme for Global Monitoring of the Environment and Security.