In an effort to identify the digital Earth Observation (EO) services most needed by European researchers from commercial service providers, the Open Clouds for Research Environments project (OCRE) has launched its requirements gathering activities.

The following surveys have been published targetting both users and suppliers:

• Digital Earth Observation Services Survey (for researcher-users)
• Digital Earth Observation Services Survey (for suppliers)

The responses to these surveys will be used as input and the basis for the tender requirements. The tender is expected to be published on October 2019 with a preliminary version scheduled to be released on July 2019. Additionally, some preliminary results are expected to be revealed in a planned webinar on June 2019. 

High engagement

Aside from this online campaign, several face-to-face requirements gathering workshops are also being organised. The 2nd OCRE requirements workshop, which focused on Earth Observation user needs, was held at the EGU General Assembly in Vienna were OCRE's Earth Observation team were live on site and collected requirements from researchers that use Earth Observation services. 

This will be followed by the 3rd OCRE requirements workshop to be held at the ESA Living Planet Symposium in Milan on 14 May 2019. Finally, the 4th requirements workshop will be held within the EARSC General Assembly where the outcomes of the Earth Observation requirements gathering activities will be unveiled and presented to suppliers and potential responders to the tender for their input. 

Requirements gathering scope

OCRE currently gathers requirements in two tracks: requirements for commodity cloud services and for digital Earth Observation services.

For digital Earth Observation services, possible solutions could include interactive data analytics and provision of specific Earth Observation data.

Help the EOSC source the best commercial cloud and digital Earth Observation services! Contribute to the 5-minute survey now!