IASON participation at the 5th GEOBIA, 21-24 May 2014 Thessaloniki, Greece

Following the international GEOBIA Conferences held in Salzburg, Austria in 2006, Calgary, Canada in 2008, Ghent, Belgium in 2010, and Rio De Janeiro, Brasil in 2012, the 5^th GEOBIA Conference of 2014 was held in Thessaloniki, Greece between 21 and 24 May.

 The 5^th GEOBIA Conference was organized by the Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in collaboration with the Balkan Environment Centre, the Laboratory of Remote Sensing and GIS, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Laboratory of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Laboratory of Forest Aerial Photography Remote Sensing, Democritus University of Thrace.

    

The international audience included scientists, professionals and users, of academic, industry, public sector and governmental background, coming from the fields of environment and mineral resource management, agriculture, forestry and urban development. Attendees enjoyed the opportunity to communicate new research results, share technical information, network with fellow experts, and build communities of common interests.

Extended illustrated abstracts of the presented studies will be included in conference proceedings and published on the 5th GEOBIA website geobia2014.web.auth.gr. Selected articles will be published in a special issue of Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing journal, published by the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Conference live streaming is available through the GEOBIA 2014 website, and archived videos of the keynotes speeches, opening and closure sessions. IASON project that launched the 4^th project meeting within the context of GEOBIA and Prof. Patias, coordinator of IASON project was a member of the Organizing and the Scientific Committee of the conference. More information for the event at: http://geobia2014.web.auth.gr/geobia14/

IASON present at EU-Eastern Partnership STI Policy Stakeholders’ Conference addressing Climate Change time in Yerevan, Armenia, 15-16 May 2014

At the invitation of the IncoNet EaP Scientific Coordinator (see http://www.inco-eap.net), the IASON project, represented by the Partner from Caucasus Region, GIS and RS Consulting Center “GeoGraphic”, Georgia, participated in the first of three planned IncoNet EaP Policy Stakeholders Conferences, organised by IncoNet EaP, held this time in Yerevan, Armenia, 15-16 May 2014, and hosted by the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. The focus of the first Conference was on the EU-EaP STI cooperation in addressing the Societal Challenge of Climate Change, an important pillar for the IASON project as well. [read more] The goal of the Conference was to formulate recommendations on the enhancement of the EU-EaP STI cooperation in addressing climate issues which could be integrated in the current and forthcoming agendas and funding instruments by the relevant STI actors involved in cooperation.

The Conference encompassed the overview of various international policies, initiatives and programmes targeting the region, such as UN-multilateral, EU-funded and bi-lateral projects, as well as a mix of national EaP programmes. The Conference provided an excellent opportunity of bringing together a good number of best practice examples of projects from the region with the aim to create synergies among them and exploit the potential for networking and future cooperation in H2020.

Over the course of the two days of the Policy Stakeholders Conference more than 30 presentations were made, including one by IASON. The conference updated and additional information (presentations, agenda, gallery) can be found at IncoNet EaP project webpage.

  

IASON participates in RECREATE workshop “Overcoming Fragmentation in Research & Innovation: a question for debate” April 23rd 2014 in Brussels, Belgium

IASON project and Dr Mark Noort of HCP International was invited at the sessions of the first RECREATE workshop on “Overcoming Fragmentation in Research & Innovation: a question for debate” was held in Brussels on April 23. RECREATE project, one of the sister projects of IASON, focuses on the future of European research and innovation policy in climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials. Important elements of the project are impact assessment and foresight activities for these topics. To achieve this more than 200 indicators are used in combination with a qualitative, case-based approach to impact assessment. This results in a scoreboard for the focal areas of RECREATE. To analyse trends a forward looking analysis that includes 14 policy briefs are carried out during the project lifetime of 5 years (which is exceptional by the standards of European research funding, underlining the importance the European Commission attaches to this initiative).

The discussion ranged from very overarching topics (the systemic effect of different measures, life cycle analysis) to very concrete detailed applications (recycling, energy efficiency, renewable energy).

In the round table discussion that followed the sessions, Avelino Gonzalez of the European Commission indicated that the Horizon2020 programme puts more emphasis to innovation. Impact assessment is therefore very important. With that in mind, a special paragraph is devoted to impact in each specific topic of the H2020 work plans. In addition, the impact of the dissemination and exploitation activities needs to be assessed. The RECREATE project is expected to answer the question on how impact is measured. As part of this process, each year a consultative workshop will be held like this one and in the process more information and results on indicators and trends will become available

More information on RECREATE workshop project can be found here.

IASON attends the pre-cluster meeting of the sister project SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN in Brussels, Belgium March 28, 2014

The SUSTAIN EU-ASEAN project has successfully held its second pre-cluster meeting in Brussels, Belgium. The project invited relevant EU funded research initiatives working in climate action, resource efficiency, and raw materials to identify their interests and needs for co-operation with similar research projects from Southeast Asia. IASON project was represented by Dr. Boris Antic of the University of Novisad.

The presentations and discussions in the meeting helped SUSTAIN to sharpen and refine its focus. Taking the feedback from the research projects into account, SUSTAIN will support two thematic clusters: one bringing together environment research focusing on cities and urban space; and one grouping projects investigating organic and non-organic resources and materials. Both areas, sustainable city development and resource use, are very hot topics for both ASEAN and the EU, Both regions will face dynamic and rapidly growing cityscapes in the coming decades. These future cities will depend heavily on a sustainable supply with water, food, energy, and other resources ensuring good life-quality. At the same time, it is imperative to manage ASEAN countries’ resource supplies to ensure sustainable use and exploitation.

The meeting in Brussels was the second of two pre-cluster meetings, the first one taking place in Bangkok, Thailand earlier this year. The next step will be a cluster and networking meeting for research projects from both regions held back-to-back with the ASEAN Science and Technology Week in August 2014 in Bogor, Indonesia. More information can be found here.