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In Ireland, they would like to establish a Collaborative Ground Segment as part of the Copernicus programme. It seems to me that this is a useful step since access to the data is far from yet being assured. A national CGS acts as a focus for all the actors and whilst there is the enthusiasm in Ireland, they still search for the next step to take this forward into a national strategy since there is no level of political support. There is a strong academic interest but this maybe goes along with the fact that the Irish participation to ESA comes under the Ministry of EducationJobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Hence a CGS could help rally the various interests and provide a lever for growth on the back of Copernicus.

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