I am sure ;-) that most people reading this will be aware of the economic analyses which we have done regarding the benefits being derived by the use of Copernicus Sentinel data? The 3 case reports and a video can be found on our web-site (http://earsc.org/library/).

ESA now wish to extend this work to cover more cases and have issued an open tender for this to be carried out to which we are responding.

It is a large piece of work for EARSC to take on but with the backing of our members and various partners working with us, we believe that we can put together a convincing and outstanding proposal. This is highly unusual for the Association that we should be leading a bid in an open competition! I have a strict rule not to compete with members for work; we are here to support companies not to compete with them in any way.

My views on this are reflected in my last blog concerning our MAEOS study into the Marketplace. I do not consider that EARSC will set up an organisation which will compete with the industry; companies themselves will have to decide if they wish to work together towards what I see as a greater goal. We shall see what arises.

Our regular biennial industry survey is another example where it could be considered that we compete with market survey companies such as Euroconsult. It is not the case and Euroconsult also recognise that they are forward looking in their market studies whereas we are looking back at the recent past. These two approaches are quite complementary and Euroconsult and EARSC have shared results on several occasions to help each other. (Note, to be absolutely clear, we never ever share raw data or anything which breaks the confidence between EARSC and the companies which provide data for our survey. Neither do we receive anything confidential from Euroconsult).

So, are we not competing when it comes to the ESA tender looking at the Economic Benefits of Copernicus?

No, the original idea for this bottom-up approach came from EARSC and I am glad that ESA were willing to test it out. The methodology has been found to be being sound and ESA wish to take it further hence it is unsurprising that we should wish to continue the work which we have initiated. I consider that for both the industry survey and these economic studies, it is a fully legitimate role for EARSC to take on behalf of the industry. Both provide valuable data which helps us to promote the industry towards policy makers and (potential) users. Now we just need to make sure our proposal is a winning one!