This new year has brought with it many changes to us all, and this wave of change even reached us at CMCC with the departure of the previous scientific coordinator and the assigning of a new one. The beginning of a new year also meant that a new phase of the project has started and many relevant scientific conferences will take place which will represent a great opportunity to further communicate the SDGs-EYES project
A new Scientific coordinator
After the departure of the previous scientific coordinator, CMCC was responsible for assigning a primary scientific coordinator who can steer the project to achieve its ambition and fulfil its objective. After extensive internal lookout, a choice was made and Manuela Balzarolo was selected. Manuela is a senior scientist with extensive experience in earth observation and ecosystem related processes, in addition to her strong background in managing and coordinating scientific projects. Under her supervision and guidance the project will undoubtedly achieve its foreseen success.
SDGs-EYES in Progress
As coordinator, CMCC is involved in all aspects of the project either as a leader or contributor. Starting from WP3 Indicators’ Development and Evaluation where a number of activities are taking place, i.e., further evaluating options for indicators’ workflows components, continuing offline tests on some indicators’ component formulations from literature and new ML based method, and further identifying the possible upgrade wrt EU and UN grading systems. Furthermore, other activities are also ongoing in WP5 Cross-domain Pilots, namely accessing data sources according to the selected areas of interest, defining requirements (data and tools), monitoring achievement, and continuing support activities toward pilot implementation. Moreover, progress has also been made in WP4 SDGs-EYES Copernicus Based Services with the successful submission of deliverable D4.4 Releases of SDGs-EYES Service 1, while support activities are still underway to back the development of the project’s platform and deployment.
The development phase of the project’s Pilots, where CMCC is involved, is also ongoing after the conclusion of the technical and user requirements collection phase. A workflow, a development plan, and data collection methods have already been put in place making the way to further develop each pilot.
New communication events
The scientific events’ agenda for 2024 is quite hefty which represents a golden opportunity to further communicate the SDGs-EYES project and highlight its potential. The first opportunity will be in a session that will be organised under EGU24 titled “Earth Observations for Assessing and Monitoring the UN Sustainable Development Goals” Jointly organised with SDGs-EYES partner EARSC. Additionally a number of abstracts about the SDGs-EYES were submitted in IGARSS24 and other related events.
In a general sense, the objective of delivering excellence remains the same regardless of the change in management, while all the activities of the project are undergoing as planned paving the way to the upcoming phases of the project, and lastly the consortium and CMCC are highly committed to further communicate SDGs-EYES and build communication channels with the scientific community.