ALBERT

Description: The scope of the Science Plan is to describe the scientific background, applications, and activities of the Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) imaging spectroscopy mission. Primarily, this document addresses scientists and funding institutions, but it may also be of interest to environmental stakeholders and governmental agencies. It is designed to be a living document that will be updated throughout the entire mission lifetime. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the principles and current state of imaging spectroscopy. This is followed by an introduction to the EnMAP mission, including its objectives and impact on international programs as well as major environmental and societal challenges. Chapter 2 describes the EnMAP system together with data products and access, calibration/validation, and synergies with other missions. Chapter 3 gives an overview of the major fields of application such as vegetation and forests, geology and soils, coastal and inland waters, cryosphere, urban areas, atmosphere and hazards. Finally, Chapter 4 outlines the scientific exploitation strategy, which includes the strategy for community building and training, preparatory flight campaigns and software developments. A list of abbreviations is provided in the annex to this document and an extended glossary of terms and abbreviations is available on the EnMAP website.

Description: Knowledge and technology transfer (hereafter referred to as KTT) between academia and society has long been recognized as a key driver of innovation and economic development. Knowledge transfer (KT) is defined by Bloedon and Stokes, (1994) “as the process by which knowledge concerning the making or doing of useful things contained within one organized setting is brought into use within another organizational context”. Similarly, technology transfer (TT) can be defined as the movement of a specific technology from one place to another. Technology transfer (TT) between academia and industry is an important source of innovation and economic development. Successful TT depends strongly on effective communication between academic and external partners. This is best facilitated by an academic intermediary who can provide meaningful interactions. An academic intermediary can ensure expertise and knowledge are communicated using a common language and that goals and expectations are clear between partners. In the field of remote sensing intermediaries play a particularly essential role. The rapid expansion of the remote sensing sector over the last decade, including sensor technologies and the volume of freely available data has created a bottleneck between available data and technology and ready to use products outside of academia. Regional and municipal government agencies, small-medium enterprises (SMEs), and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who would greatly benefit from remote sensing data often lack expertise and capacity to produce or access high quality products and technologies. Additionally, large private sector companies with expertise in internal Research and Development (R&D) departments who operate on profit-driven strategies may limit investment in new untested RS solutions because of limited market size or monetarization risks. Academic institutions are well positioned to act as intermediaries and address this bottleneck through the implementation of robust KTT strategies to help meet regional, national, and international demand for high quality RS data and technology. Several initiatives have been made by Space Agencies, academic institutions or private companies covering broad range of KTT work but upon closer examination. All these initiatives focus on profit-based operation predominantly by licensing developments and products or the creation of spin-offs. The following aspects are not considered: 1. Missing benefit for scientists. Most current KTT frameworks are viewed as mutually exclusive or as direct competition for resources and reputation with scientific work. This results in lost opportunities for further operational development of innovative ideas being developed in research settings. 2. Undervaluation of the social impact of KTT. KTT is often seen as a profit-driven initiative only. In our opinion More weight and value should be put on the social, political, and environmental impact of KTT activities to broaden the reach and participation. 3. Combining open science with commercial use. KTT can and should focus on the simultaneous development of open-source community and commercial versions with advanced functionalities to maintain the principles of open science which are central to current good scientific practice. 4. KTT should not only be viewed as an exit strategy for scientists to leave academia. KTT should be embedded in institutional frameworks to encourage and inspire scientific developments from scientists pursuing academic careers. To address this bottleneck and establish a long-term innovation platform and thematic TT infrastructure, FERN.Lab, Remote Sensing for Sustainable Use of Resources Helmholtz Innovation Lab was founded at the Geodesy Department of the German Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in January 2020. FERN.Lab is funded by the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organization in Germany. The goal of FERN.Lab is to facilitate TT and deliver remote sensing products to commercial and non-commercial partners by acting as an expert intermediary platform. We will present two distinct approaches to improve this bottleneck from science market and society 1. The first is a “pull” approach to develop tailor-made technologies for and funded by external third parties. 2. The second is a “push” approach to promote existing departmental technologies with high market potential. The pull and push of technologies to external partners is accomplished by a combination of competencies and services. This includes business development, scientific development, software development, and public relations. All of them directly address institutional, financial and skills gap that can cause the TT process to fail. By implementing a robust TT framework for remote sensing products, the impact of research has the potential to be much broader and farther reaching. Additionally, these efforts can improve the acceptance of remote sensing outside of academia improving and modernizing methods used in diverse sectors which in turn can benefit not only individual partners but also politics, society, and the environment.