New Training Opportunity in three languages for African Practitioners!

 The WGA FPCUP launches a call for participation to November 2024 - May 2025 sessions

Context

Copernicus is the world leader in civil Earth observation from space, revolutionizing the remote sensing field. Its constellation of satellites offers a variety of measurements (optical, radar, altimetry) across different Earth compartments: land, ocean, rivers, lakes, and atmosphere.

As a long-term program, Copernicus provides secured, calibrated, validated, open, and free data and products. It is a powerful tool for near real-time monitoring of biogeophysical phenomena, supporting sustainable development in a world facing climate change, natural and man-made disasters, population growth, and anthropogenic pressures.

The GMES & Africa program and the Working Group Africa (WG Africa) are offering a self-training program dedicated to Copernicus for African practitioners and trainers willing to transfer skills to their communities. All training content will be available in three languages, English, French and Portuguese

GMES & Africa Program

The GMES & Africa program leverages satellite data and remote sensing technologies to tackle Africa's specific environmental and security challenges. It allows African countries to benefit from Copernicus, aiding in sustainable resource management, disaster response, climate change adaptation, and long-term development.

Launched in 2016, GMES & Africa enhances Europe-Africa cooperation in Earth observation, providing near real-time accurate data to African decision-makers. The program focuses on:

• Water and land management: Monitoring ecosystems, water resources, land degradation, and biodiversity.
• Marine and coastal management: Supporting sustainable use of coastal ecosystems, protecting against erosion and pollution.
• Disaster risk management: Anticipating and responding to natural disasters like floods, droughts, and storms.
• Climate change monitoring: Analyzing the impacts of climate change to guide adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Since 2017, GMES & Africa has trained approximately 10,000 experts, scholars, decision-makers, and practitioners, across the majority of the 55 African Union members states in applied Earth Observation.

Working Group Africa (WG Africa)

Under the FPCUP Caroline Herschel Program, funded by the European Commission to support Copernicus User Uptake, WG Africa is composed of European public entities and experts in remote sensing and Copernicus applications. The group includes members from various countries, all part of the Copernicus relays and academies network. Their expertise spans several thematic areas linked to sustainable development, and they maintain long-term relationships with African partners, focusing on capacity-building and co-development initiatives. 

Training Program (November 2024 - May 2025)

 

Month	Core Training (20 hours/month) (video available in EN, FR and PT)	Thematic Training Video language: see (XX) below
November 2024	QGIS	Natural Hazards (Flooding, drought and related food security – CIMA  Foundation (EN), Natural hazards -  CBK PAN (EN), Water resources & Drought – Deltares (EN))
December 2024	Copernicus Data & Services	Copernicus Data Space Platform - SomeWare (FR), C3S - ECMWF (EN)
January 2025	Remote Sensing	Agriculture/Forest monitoring / Land Use-Land Cover (Agriculture - CIRAD-UMR TETIS (FR), Forest Management - VisioTerra (FR), Land Cover - CBK PAN (EN))
February 2025	Python	Marine & Coastal activities (Marine pollution - AIR Centre (EN), Costal Monitoring - University of Lisbon (PT), Mangroves - University of Antananarivo (FR))
March 2025	SAR	Mineral resources - National Laboratory of Energy and Geology-Portugal (EN)
April 2025	Artificial Intelligence	Urban Monitoring -  University of Turku (EN)
May 2025	Web Mapping	Health (Mosquitoes abundance - National Observatory of Athens – BEYOND (EN))

 

Profile of ideal candidate

Experienced African practitioners wishing to take part in the training programme are invited to apply. They should have at least the following combined capacities:

Informatics:

• Navigate a tree structure, create and manage folder.
• Navigate on a local network, create network shortcuts.
• Basics of database management.

GIS and Remote sensing:

1. Know globally what a GIS is / what a remote sensing image is.
2. Previous experience in manipulating maps (for example QGIS).

Skills:

• Ability to share knowledge, communication abilities.
• Ability to read / speak / write: English.
• Written knowledge of English.
• Read technical English.
• Analytical abilities (analysis of a situation to find a technical solution, listening, analysis of a need, …).

Candidates are kindly requested to apply by filling the form available here. Do not forget to join your application letter.
As this training session is the first of its kind, the number of seats is limited to 20.

THE DEADLINE TO APPLY HAS BEEN MOVED TO 27 October 2024.

More Information

Copernicus, previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), is the European Programme aimed at establishing a European capacity for Earth Observation. The views expressed on this platform are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the European Commission. More information can be found here.

GMES & Africa is a joint initiative of the African Union Commission and the European Commission. Over the years, it has become a flagship program of the African Union for the use of Earth observation and now serves as the AUC Earth Observation Program supporting the vision of "The Africa We Want". Find out more here.

FPCUP Working Group Africa (WG Africa) aims to create a meaningful, concerted, and scalable effort to build Copernicus-related capacities among African expert communities and networks, enabling knowledge growth. More details are available here.

IDGEO (*) is a Centre for training and expertise in geographic information, where people are at the heart of everything we do. Its aim is to develop the skills of generations of geomatics specialists by offering them courses tailored to their needs, as well as those of companies and local authorities. Learn more about their work here.

Universidade de Lisboa (*) (ULisboa) is the largest and most prestigious university in Portugal and is one of Europe’s leading universities. ULisboa brings together various areas of knowledge and has a privileged position for facilitating the contemporary evolution of science, technology, arts and humanities. The quality of teaching, research, innovation and culture of ULisboa is attracting an ever-increasing amount of talent from around the world. ULisboa is committed to strengthening its capacity to act and to exercise influence in international strategic areas, especially through the development of further partnerships with Brazil, China and the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries. For more information, visit their website here.

The University of Turku (*) is an inspiring and international academic community of 25,000 students and staff in Southwest Finland. They build a sustainable future with multidisciplinary research, education, and collaboration. For more information, visit their website here.

(*) These 3 institutions have produced the core training.

Logos of the partners and affiliated entities of the WGA FPCUP