News

Turning policy into practical opportunities for people and businesses is one of the key challenges facing the Earth Observation (EO) sector. ROOT’s first deliverable, D2.1 – EO Policy Analysis Report, explores this challenge across Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and Greece.

 

The report analyses the European and national policy landscape surrounding EO, education, skills, innovation and market uptake. It finds that EO is already strongly recognised in major European policy frameworks, including the European Green Deal, the Digital Decade, the EU Space Programme, Copernicus and Horizon Europe.

 

However, an important gap remains between policy ambition and implementation. Across the countries analysed, EO-related skills are increasingly recognised as a strategic priority, but training opportunities and workforce development measures are often fragmented or not sufficiently connected to labour market needs.

 

The report also highlights differences between national contexts. The Netherlands benefits from a mature EO ecosystem but faces a disconnect between space and skills policies. Italy has strong links between its space, green and skills agendas, while implementation varies across regions. Portugal shows strong strategic alignment but continues to face implementation gaps, and Greece combines significant policy ambition with a need for further skills development, reskilling and workforce retention.

 

A central message emerging from the analysis is that the challenge is not a lack of policy, but the need to better connect policy, funding and delivery. Strengthening this connection could help turn existing priorities into concrete opportunities for training, employment, entrepreneurship and innovation.

 

The report therefore points to opportunities to make better use of existing instruments, including smart specialisation strategies, recovery plans, advisory systems, Living Labs and regional human-capital partnerships. It also underlines the value of bringing EO and skills policies closer together to ensure that developments in the sector are matched by the workforce capabilities needed to support them.

 

The findings of this report will provide an important evidence base for ROOT’s next activities, helping the project develop career guidance approaches and practical solutions that connect people with the skills and opportunities emerging in the downstream EO sector.

D2.1 – EO Policy Analysis Report is now available here.