The European Commission and the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) have signed an administrative arrangement to strengthen and stimulate cooperation in Earth observation activities.
The arrangement will facilitate the reciprocal exchange of satellite data and will encourage its use and application in addressing societal challenges of common interest, ranging from the long-term management of natural resources, monitoring of marine and coastal areas, water resource management, mitigating the impacts on climate, disaster risk reduction, food security, rural development, and public health.
Under this arrangement, PhilSA intends to set up a data hub to distribute Copernicus Sentinel data and information across the region, as well as to support pilot projects using Copernicus.
The arrangement will serve as a basis for the implementation of a Copernicus capacity-building program for the Philippines, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA).
“The agreement that we signed with the European Commission on data access supports the creation of value-added information and the development of new data products and downstream services from Copernicus Earth observation satellites,” Dr. Joel Joseph S. Marciano, Jr. PhilSA director general, said.
“The agreement also facilitates the establishment of the Copernicus Mirror Site in the country under the Copernicus Capacity Support Action Programme for the Philippines (CopPhil), targeting data on a national and regional scale.”
“The Copernicus cooperation is a landmark in PhilSA’s and the Philippines’ youthful space endeavor, and a watershed in long-standing Philippines and EU relations. We thank the EC and European Union in the Philippines and acknowledge our CopPhil partners, the Department of Science and Technology and the European Space Agency,” he added.
This cooperation arrangement is part of the Copernicus global outreach strategy which aims to promote the take-up of Copernicus data and its services in tackling societal challenges worldwide through cooperation arrangements with partner countries.
So far, the European Commission has signed similar arrangements with administrations in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Panama, India, the African Union, Serbia, and Ukraine.
