2024 was an exciting year for all involved in the EOAFRICA R&D Facility. Phase 1 ended successfully with the 10th F2F course being held in Senegal jointly with Laboratoire de télédétection appliquée, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar in Dakar. On the exact date of our closing session, March 31, the Project Manager of the Facility Dr Zoltan Vekerdy reached the retirement age. ESA thanked Zoltan for all his contributions in their programs focusing on Capacity Development in Africa such as TIGER, TIGERBridge, GlobWetland Africa and finally the Phase 1 of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility.
At the end of April, Phase 2 of the Facility, to be implemented by the same consortium with ITC – University of Twente at the forefront successfully kicked-off. Same as in Phase 1, and spanning another three-year period, the Facility’s core activities will center on capacity building & research. Capacity-building activities already delivered in the past months include two online courses, two webinars, and one face-to-face course (in collaboration with WaterNet and the National University of Lesotho). On the research front, a new call for proposals (R3) for African-European research tandems was published.
In September the whole Facility team was brought together to participate in the first edition of the EO 4 Africa Symposium held at the ESA-ESRIN premises in Frascati, (Italy). The symposium featured diverse sessions with presentations and discussion panels showcasing EO-based research and capacity-building initiatives conducted in Africa. The Facility played an active role in supporting the organization and contributing to its content. On the final day, we hosted a side-event where the findings of the second research call (R2) were presented. We were delighted to see some of the African PIs exchanging their insights with ESA, the Consortium and our Advisory Board.
The response to the new Research Call was overwhelming: out of the 63 applications, 10 proposals from African & European research tandems were selected for funding. The selection was carried out with the support of ESA and the African Union delegates. At the beginning of December we announced the awarded projects which kicked-off on December 04 and will run for a period of 15 months. We wish all the best to our new EO AFRICA researchers during the execution of their research.
Finally, during this Phase 2 and for the first time, we launched a call for the African universities to develop EO-based curricula. As a result, 5 African universities were selected and invited to the premises of ITC-University of Twente in Enschede (NL) for a 5-days workshop from Dec 9-13. During this event, the African educators worked with the support of ITC’s experienced staff on the scope and set-up of the future training material which will be also available at the Facility’s Space Academy repository.
In 2025 the Facility will remain active as always, working alongside the African Union and the EO AFRICA community to further strengthen R&D capacity in Earth Observation (EO) for Water and Food Security. In January, three new Training Modules (Marine & Coastal EO applications, Atmosphere and PolInsar) will be launched and an upgraded MOOC on Drought Monitoring and Assessment will also be introduced.
Looking forward to the new year and wishing you happy end of the year festivities and a happy and prosperous 2025!
