Education & Training

SpaceSUITE - SPACE downstream Skills development and User uptake through Innovative Curricula in Training and Education

Year: 2024 - 2025

Client/funding: European Commission – Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliances

Role in the project: Senior Researcher

Description: SpaceSUITE is grounded on the SPACE4GEO Large-scale Skills Partnership on Space Data, Services and Applications under the European Pact for Skills and builds on the success and experience of the Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance EO4GEO. The main objective of SpaceSUITE is to empower a skilled workforce in the downstream space sector. The project aims to create tailored educational programs for various roles, from technicians to decision-makers, fostering advanced skills in the fields of Earth Observation and Geo-information, Position Navigation and Timing and Satellite Communication.

Activities performed:

• Design of a skills intelligence mechanism for the collection, analysis and use of data on skills needs and skills gaps
• Elaboration of skills strategy for the space downstream sectors

DIS4SME - Data Interoperability Skills for SMEs

Year: 2023 - 2024

Client/funding: European Commission – Digital Europe Programme

Role in the project: Senior Researcher

Description: DIS4SME is a European project aimed at delivering high-quality specialised training courses focused on location data interoperability in different areas. The aim of DIS4SME is to provide especially SMEs with the right skills required to orient their digital transformation strategies and plans around (location) data interoperability, as enabler of the key capacity areas addressed by the Digital Europe Programme. DIS4SME will develop and provide different types of training actions to SMEs, covering various topics related to location data interoperability. This training offer takes into consideration recent trends and developments, such as data spaces, high-value data, digital twins, etc.

Activities performed:

• Analysis of the offer of training on location data interoperability in Europe
• Investigation of training courses and materials on legal and organisational interoperability, including aspects such as licensing and open data
• Preparation of introductory training on location interoperability, covering relevant EU policies and initiatives

ODECO – Towards a sustainable Open Data ECOsystem

Year: 2021- 2025

Client/funding: European Commission – Horizon 2020

Role in the project: Senior Researcher and Supervisor

Description: ODECO is a Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network initiative, with aims to train the next generation of creative and innovative early stage open data researchers, in order to unlock their creative and innovative potential to address current and future challenges in the creation of user driven, circular and inclusive open data ecosystem. Bringing together different sectors (research, private sector, government, non-profit) and different perspectives (public administration, law, business, engineering), ODECO aims to address the central challenge of realizing a user driven, circular and inclusive open data ecosystem.

Activities performed:

• Definition of the scope, methodology and detailed workplan of the project
• Leader of the work on communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement
• Supervising research on value in the context of data ecosystems
• Design of training programme on open data ecosystems
• Design and provision of training sessions on curriculum design and on increasing the impact of research

SPIDER - Open Spatial Data Infrastructure Education Network

Year: 2020 - 2022

Client/funding: German Academic Exchange Service

Role in the project: Senior Expert

Description: The overall objective of SPIDER was to promote and strengthen active learning and teaching towards Open SDI. Sub-objectives of the project were: to explore, develop and implement the concept of Open SDI as a new paradigm to SDI education; to develop and promote active and multidisciplinary learning and teaching on Open SDI; to develop a general toolkit for implementing Open SDI in existing curricula in study programs of different disciplines and to drive the uptake of Open SDI teaching and learning resources by teachers and students via open online platforms.

Activities performed:

• Definition of project scope, methodology and work plan in the project proposal and project plan
• Mapping and analysis of education on SDI and related topics in Europe
• Design of methodology and guidelines for active teaching on SDI topics
• Development and implementation of several active teaching practices

ELISE Knowledge Transfer II : Digital Transformation and the future of SDI

Year: 2019 - 2021

Client/funding: European Commission – DG DIGIT & Joint Research Centre

Role in the project: Senior Expert

Description: The project ‘ELISE Knowledge Transfer: Digital Transformation and the Future of SDI’ aimed to consolidate and continue the work already done by the ELISE Action of the European ISA² Programme, on ‘European Location Interoperability Solutions for e-Government, in order to provide to public administrations the right tools to apprehend the role of geospatial in Digital Government Transformation and how this role will evolve in the future. New and updated knowledge on various relevant topics was developed through several rapid studies and two larger studies on the use of environmental data and cross-border data flows.

Activities performed:

• Data collection on the use of spatial data for environmental purposes through a survey among practitioners in Europe
• Longitudinal study on the evolution in accessing and using spatial data for environmental purposes
• Input to the study on the cross-border use of geospatial data

ELISE Knowledge Transfer: Location Interoperability for Digital Transformation

Year: 2019 - 2020

Client/funding: European Commission – DG DIGIT & Joint Research Centre

Role in the project: Senior Expert

Description: The aim of this project was to create a set of materials that support knowledge transfer and capacity building in the context of location interoperability and digital transformation. The project helped to better define the landscape between these two topics, particularly within the view of public administrations. A top-down approach based on existing evidence and a means to guide thinking was combined with a bottom-up approach that aimed to foster collaboration, build capacity and validate/update the resources involved. Among the resources developed and provided during the project were vocabularies related to digital skills in the context of location interoperability and digital transformation, a Geospatial Primer for Digital Transformation, a set of rapid studies on various topics within the scope of the project, a Location Interoperability workshop package, and an update of the EULF Blueprint and the related guidance document on Architectures and Standards for SDIs in Digital Government.

Activities performed:

• Contribution to the development of a vocabulary of geo-ICT skills
• Rapid studies on key topics related to location interoperability & digital transformation
• Review and revision of the European Union Location Framework (EULF) Blueprint

EO4GEO - Towards an innovative strategy for skills development and capacity building in the space and geo-information sector to support Copernicus user uptake

Year: 2018 - 2022

Client/funding: European Commission – Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance

Role in the project: Senior Researcher

Description: EO4GEO was an Erasmus+ Sector Skills Alliance involving 48 partners from 16 countries active in the education/training and space/geospatial sectors. EO4GEO aimed to bridge the skills gap between supply and demand of education and training in the sector by reinforcing the existing ecosystem and fostering the uptake and integration of EO and geospatial data and services in end-user applications. EO4GEO prepared a strategy and long term action plan, developed a Body of Knowledge (BoK) for GI & EO and a collaborative platform with associated tools, and designed a portfolio of VET curricula for several sub-sectors including smart cities, climate change and integrated applications.

Activities performed:

• Contributing to the preparation of EO/GI sector skills strategy
• Identification and analysis of policies and initiatives related to EO/GI skills & capacity building
• Analysis of skills need and mismatch in the EO/GI domain
• Review of key topics in SDI/EO research
• Elaboration of concepts in the Body of Knowledge related to the non-organisational aspects of SDI,

giCASES - Creating a University-Enterprise Alliance for a Spatially Enabled Society

Year: 2015 - 2016

Client/funding: European Commission – Erasmus+

Role in the project: Researcher

Description: The aim of giCASES was to enable and strengthen innovation in GI education and industry and to facilitate the collaborative creation, management and sharing of knowledge. The specific objectives of the project were to improve the quality and relevance of academic GI courses and to facilitate the growth of new knowledge-sharing processes and tools between enterprises and universities. These objectives were addressed by developing new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning within the Geographic Information (GI) sector, and facilitating the exchange, flow and co-creation of this knowledge.

Activities performed:

• Design and implementation of a survey on the needs of industry and academia with regard to the joint creation, management and sharing of knowledge
• Establishment of a catalogue of best practices on cooperation between industry and academia in GI education and training

GI-N2K – Geographic Information Need to Know

Year: 2013 - 2016

Client/funding: European Commission – LLP Erasmus

Role in the project: Researcher

Description: The GI-N2K project aimed to better align GI S&T curricula at the academic level and in vocational training offers, with the needs of the GI job market. The project analysed the current market demands and training offer in the GI S&T sector, developed a new version of the GI S&T Body of Knowledge and created a series of tool to maintain and use this Body of Knowledge. The GI-N2K project was implemented by an extensive network of 31 academic and non-academic partners from 25 different countries.

Activities performed:

• Analyis of the demand for and supply of GIS&T education and training in Europe
• Contribution to the development of a new version of the GIS&T Body of Knowledge, with a focus on the organisational and societal aspects of GIS&T

LINKVIT - Leveraging Inspire Knowledge into Vocational Innovative Training

Year: 2013 - 2015

Client/funding: European Commission – European Commission, LLP Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation

Role in the project: Senior Expert

Description: LINKVIT aimed to transfer knowledge, and to rationalize and organise vocational training in the field of INSPIRE, especially in view of supporting its implementation in Italy. The work consisted of 1) the analysis and organisation of existing training material including the definition of learning paths, 2) the adaptation of the existing content and supporting infrastructure, and 3) the organisation of training sessions and testing of the proposed approach.

Activities performed:

• Analysis of existing training initiatives and materials
• Design and delivery of training on ‘INSPIRE Data and service sharing’ and on ‘INSPIRE advanced’