Conference Proceedings: Strategy Report of CEOS

The WGEdu adopted a multi-pronged strategy in conduct of its business and arriving at its report:
- A detailed survey of EO educational institutions of the world - mainly from contacts and web-sites
- Conducted an international workshop to focus on EO Education and Training.
- Administered a questionnaire to CEOS space agencies for assessing their existing and future programmes of EO Education/Training/Professional Development
- Interaction with UN agencies (specifically the UN Regional Centres) to understand their role in capacity building
- A meeting of the WG to assess and take-stock of the strategy and its report. The WG Members were in regular e-mail interactions during the year to conduct the affairs.
Towards addressing the EO education and training needs and sharing of experiences of various institutions, CEOS WGEdu organized a Workshop on "EO Education and Training" during August 9-10, 2000. ISRO, through its Indian Institute for Remote Sensing, Dehradun, hosted the workshop. The Workshop was organised under the auspicious of CEOS, ISRO, and CSSTE-AP with institutions like International Institute for Aero Space Survey and Earth Sciences (ITC) and Space Technology Applications and Research Program (STAR) under Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) as Co-sponsors. The Workshop had specific presentations from key agencies on issues related to EO Education and Training. The Report of the Workshop is placed at Annexure-III.

The 1^st meeting of the CEOS WGEdu was held on August 11, 2000, so as to focus on the report to CEOS on EO education activities. The WG considered the report of the Workshop. Realising that many space agencies have made considerable efforts in EO education, training and technology transfer - both at national and international level and also that large amount of training materials and teaching aids have been developed by various space agencies, CEOS WGEdu decided to conduct a comprehensive survey of what space agencies have already done/would like to do for EO Education and Training. It was felt that the survey will enable the CEOS WGEdu to make an assessment of what efforts CEOS can do for EO Education. The survey would also useful to recommend a collective effort of CEOS based on the feedback from CEOS space agencies. WGEdu considered a questionnaire draft and the same was finalized after comments and suggestions from WGEdu Members. The Questionnaire was formally sent to CEOS agencies in end-August, 2000. The Questionnaire is placed at Annexure-IV.

WGEdu had interaction with WGCV at the 16^th WGCV Meeting in Bangalore but could not initiate a similar interaction with WGISS/WG-DMS (though with WGISS information exchange has happened). This has been a small "gap" in its year of activities and it recognizes the importance of establishing links with other CEOS WGs.