CYBELE generates innovation and create value in the domain of agri-food, and its verticals in the sub-domains of PA and PLF in specific, as demonstrated by the real-life industrial cases to be supported, empowering capacity building within the industrial and research community. Since agriculture is a high volume business with low operational efficiency, CYBELE aspires at demonstrating how the convergence of HPC, Big Data, Cloud Computing and the IoT can revolutionize farming, reduce scarcity and increase food supply, bringing social, economic, and environmental benefits. CYBELE intends to safeguard that stakeholders have integrated, unmediated access to a vast amount of large scale datasets of diverse types from a variety of sources, and they are capable of generating value and extracting insights, by providing secure and unmediated access to large-scale HPC infrastructures supporting data discovery, processing, combination and visualization services, solving challenges modelled as mathematical algorithms requiring high computing power. CYBELE develops large scale HPC-enabled test beds and delivers a distributed big data management architecture and a data management strategy providing 1) integrated, unmediated access to large scale datasets of diverse types from a multitude of distributed data sources, 2) a data and service driven virtual HPC-enabled environment supporting the execution of multi-parametric agri-food related impact model experiments, optimizing the features of processing large scale datasets and 3) a bouquet of domain specific and generic services on top of the virtual research environment facilitating the elicitation of knowledge from big agri-food related data, addressing the issue of increasing responsiveness and empowering automation-assisted decision making, empowering the stakeholders to use resources in a more environmentally responsible manner, improve sourcing decisions, and implement circular-economy solutions in the food chain.

RITHMS project intends to boost the operational capacity of Police and Customs/Border Authorities in addressing the increasingly organised and poly-criminal nature of trafficking in cultural goods through research, technological innovation, outreach and training. Illicit trade in cultural heritage has progressed from a local phenomenon limited to the initiative of a few individuals to a highly remunerative source of income for criminal organisations and terrorist groups that have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the web and social media to further expand an already flourishing market. Against this background, RITHMS proposes an interdisciplinary approach made necessary by the transnational character of this crime and its links to other criminal networks. The project will define a replicable strategy to counter the challenges in addressing the illicit trafficking of stolen/looted cultural goods and to investigate the mechanisms underpinning it, including its connection with organised crime. RITHMS will foster cross-cutting research bringing together all the domains relevant to expand the understanding of this type of crime (art market, criminology, law studies, forensic science, etc.). Inputs from these disciplines will inform the theoretical framework underlying an interoperable AI-based Platform able to identify criminal organised networks and to provide investigators with valuable intelligence on the activities and evolution of such networks. The Platform will be leveraging the methods of Social Network Analysis (SNA), a methodology that gives a way to better understand human behaviour through people's relations and interactions. Including four Police authorities, two Border Agencies, one Police School, SMEs, and researchers from SSH and ICT, RITHMS Consortium is well positioned to offer solutions to counteract more effectively organisations involved in illicit activities against cultural heritage.

The overall objective of CopHub.AC is to create a knowledge and innovation hub with several nodes (secretariat, research briefs, knowledge landscape, outreach, sustainability) to focus and link ongoing R&D activities in Copernicus-relevant academic fields, and to sustain the innovation process from academia to businesses on the highest possible scientific and technical level, with a clear commitment to a full thematic and geographic coverage for a Europe-wide boost in space uptake. The CopHub.AC consortium led by PLUS / Z_GIS will provide the following objectives: i) foster the enlargement of the Copernicus Academy ecosystem through a well-orchestrated set of tools and structures; ii) reinforce the R&I capacities of Copernicus Academies and channel their outputs within an improved format of research briefs; iii) inform industry, educational networks, authorities and the citizen about Copernicus and its societal benefits. iv) promote capacity building of and connectivity with the Copernicus Relays Network; v) promote the long-term impact and sustainability of the Copernicus Academy network through the establishment of a secretariat, a monitoring process and a forward looking roadmap. A duration of 24 months is envisaged. During the second year, the EC will be provided with recommendations for the continuation of the activities under long-term funding.

The E-SHAPE proposal is driven by the need to develop operational EO services with and for the users and to create a conducive environment whereby the strengths of Europe are exploited towards addressing societal challenges, fostering entrepreneurship and supporting sustainable development. The proposal objectives are 1) to develop operational EO services with and for users active in key societal sectors; 2) to demonstrate the benefits of the EO pilots through the coordinated downstream exploitation of EO data and the utilization of existing EO resources; 3) to promote the uptake of pilots at national and international scale, across vertical markets (private and public) and amongst key user communities; 4) to enable the long-term sustainability of the numerous pilots, their penetration in public and private markets and support their upscaling; 5) to increase uptake by raising awareness on the solutions developed through tailored and well-targeted communication, dissemination and outreach activities. The proposal aims at setting-up and promoting a sustainable organization dedicated to users’ uptake of European EO resources, building on Copernicus and GEOSS through the development of co-design pilots (i.e. application-oriented products, services or solutions) built on a user-centric approach and delivering economic, social and policy value to European citizens. It has also the ambition through the development of 27 pilots organized in 7 showcases to deliver information that will also contribute to the three GEO engagements (SDGs, Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework).

The Horizon Europe EvoLand (Evolution of the Copernicus Land Service portfolio) proposal aims at developing innovative methods, algorithms and candidate Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) prototypes monitoring the status and changes of land use/land cover and various land surface characteristics at high spatial and temporal resolution. Specifically, EvoLand will address eleven next-generation CLMS product candidates by integrating innovative approaches in data fusion, Machine Learning, continuous monitoring and biomass mapping, as well as through integration of novel EO and in-situ data. EvoLand will analyse policy, data and infrastructure requirements for the prototype services by interacting with the relevant Entrusted Entities as well as the main Copernicus Land stakeholders and users. These requirements will steer all methodological developments. Algorithms will be developed, tested and implemented in an efficient, modular and scalable way on open-source infrastructure on various representative test sites, located both within and outside Europe. In a subsequent demonstration phase, the candidate services will be prototypically implemented over larger regions, focusing on key thematic domains such as agriculture, forest, water, urban and general land cover. Finally, all candidate services will be regularly analysed in view of their innovation and policy support potential, technical excellence, and operational readiness, and a strategy to transferring these services to operations will be proposed. The ambition of EvoLand is thus to support the Entrusted Entities by dedicated research, providing tangible proof of the evolution potential of the CLMS in terms of improved information content, quality and timeliness, and enable well-informed and facts-based decision-making on the future of the CLMS.