RO-CEO action plan relies on three pillars:

In the first pillar “Landscape”, we intend to identify, invite and include in our community all relevant actors in the field of EO in Romania, from the knowledge creators to hardware and software developers, and end-users. This will be realized through: a) direct interaction with institutions already active and known in our community (e.g. ESA and ROSA contractors); b) development and operation of an EO portal, linked to ERRIS, where new comers can register and promote their infrastructure and expertise; c) dedicated questionnaires and on-line seminars (e.g. WebEx sessions). A SWOT analysis of the existing capacities will also be performed, based on the information collected through questionnaires and portal.

The second pillar “Coordination” refers to the organization of structures and procedures in view of setting-up the Romanian Cluster for Earth Observation. For this, we will invite organizations to express their interest towards this association, and we will prepare together the cluster documents. A number of seminars and workshops will be necessary to make the community glue together, and come up with a commonly accepted language and rules. During this process, we will also discuss possible collaborations, and build up consortia to apply to ESA calls. An important objective would be to involve key players such as ROSA and ANCSI, and, at a larger scale, ESA and relevant ground-based infrastructures in Europe, at least as observers or advisers.

The third pillar “Vision” includes the Foresight exercise which could reveal the paths to be taken in order to increase the presence of Romanian organizations in ESA contracts and activities. It is to be quantified which scenarios are more beneficial for Romanian economy, and what are the practical means to: a) mobilize existing expertise; b) build new capacities to address either a wider area of applications, or more specialized, narrow but top-level applications. The result of the study will set the ground for planning future actions of the cluster, and initiate a roadmap for joint RDI activities of the members.