ESA and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG-RTD) have signed an agreement to join forces to provide a coordinated response to the grand science challenges of the next decade.
With this agreement ESA and DG-RTD aim at establishing an effective alignment of selected scientific activities under Horizon Europe and FutureEO programmes in terms of goals, content, and planning to jointly advance Earth system science and its contribution to respond to the global challenges that society is facing in the onset of this century.
ESA’s FutureEO programme will contribute to this new initiative though dedicated scientific activities and opportunities for scientists. A new Science programme element, The Grand Science Challenges programme, will be launched in 2020 focusing on unlocking the full potential of the unique synergistic opportunities offered by the coming European EO infrastructure to expand our basic understanding of our planet, its processes and interactions with human activities.
Dedicated efforts will be also focused on enhancing the coordination across RTD and EOP projects and activities to ensure that the final result is bigger than the sum of the parts.