Eight GMES and Africa Experts trained on Services Design at JRC-EC

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC-EC), trained eight experts drawn from four GMES and Africa consortia that are implementing the Marine and Coastal Areas Services of the GMES and Africa Programme.

The on job training focused on GMES and Africa Marine Services Design. It was held from 1st to 12th October 2018 in Ispra, Italy. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI), University of Ghana (UoG), National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space Sciences (NARSS) are the four consortia of African Institutions that are implementing the Marine and Coastal Areas Services of the GMES and Africa.

Two experts from each of the four GMES and Africa Marine and coastal consortia, a thematic expert and an IT (system administrator) specialist attended the training on understanding the functionalities of the software eStation 2.0. The on job training, focused more on practical sessions, was led by experts from JRC. It enabled the participants to exploit the eStation 2.0 for implementing the operational monitoring services they are mandated to deploy under GMES&Africa Programme.

The on job training followed the schema:

• Review and familiarization of the functioning of the eStation 2.0 and update participants on the latest functionalities (2.1.2)
• Identification of which EO data sets and products needed to be added to the system based on their relevance to their monitoring activities 
• Finally, implementing the acquisition, processing and visualization of the identified data sets and products on the eStation, in order to establish protocols of analysis for the GMES&Africa monitoring services. 

During the workshop, a number of adaptive developments were made to the eStation to serve the needs of GMES & Africa Marine stakeholders particularly for the utilization of Sentinel 3 data. There was also adequate time to precise the implementation plan for further actions identified and finally to agree on the planning for technical visits to the regional implementation centres in the course of 2019.

This on-the-job-training is the pioneer capacity building effort by the JRC to the GMES & Africa Programme. The trainees were Faheem Sima and Lufuno Vhengani Maxwell (CSIR); Elham Mahmoud Ali Mohamed and Mohamed Ramadan Abdallah Zakzouk (NARSS); Vimal Ramchandur and Prathav Askoolum (MOI) and Bennet Atsu Kwame Foli and Kwame Adu Agyekum (UoG).


One of the trainees said that “My overall impression of the course is that it was very good. I have learned a lot from these two weeks. The instructors tried to fit in all aspects of the eStation in this short time provided. I am really grateful that I was part of this workshop”.

The on job training workshop was organized by the JRC-EC, Directorate for Sustainable Resources, Knowledge for Sustainable Development and Food Security Unit. Two more trainings will be organized in 2019 for land, natural resources and water implementing consortia of the GMES and Africa.

JRC-EC is one of the European Partners who are providing technical assistance to the GMES and Africa Programme.