Role: Lead organisation
ESA coordinates the Earth Observation Best Practices (EOBP) initiative for the road and rail sectors.
ESA also sponsored and guided the production of the three foundational reports:
D1.2 – Geoinformation Requirements
D2.1 – Current EO Capabilities
D2.2 – Gap Analysis
These organizations supplied satellite imagery, data analytics platforms, and Earth Observation services to assess the capabilities and limitations of EO in transport use cases:
Novaspace is a global leader in space consulting, born from the merger of Euroconsult and SpaceTec Partners. With 40+ years of experience, we support private and public clients worldwide in strategic decision-making across the space sector. As an independent firm, Novaspace combines expertise in management and technology consulting, market intelligence, and executive summits. We serve 1,200 clients in over 60 countries, with offices in Brussels, London, Montreal, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Toulouse, and Washington D.C. Novaspace leads the project, and analyses EO capabilities & gaps, as well as Best Practices for industry players to incorporate EO into their business processes
McKinsey (McK) is a global consulting firm that partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges. McKinsey works closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders - empowering organisations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact. McKinsey collaborates across a diverse ecosystem of partner organisations to drive shared value and innovation and will bring this network access to the team. McKinsey conducts the analysis of the target industry.
GMV is a leading European company active in a number of sectors, including Space, Defence and Security, Aeronautics and several others. Within the space sector, GMV provides space agencies, satellite operators and other worldwide clients in the sector with the highest echelon of hardware and software solutions, including in-depth know-how in the EO domain and Copernicus. GMV leads the demonstrator development and technical contributions to this activity.
Experts and practitioners from the transport industry contributed real-world knowledge, including:
Road and rail infrastructure agencies
Public transport authorities
Construction and engineering firms
Logistics operators
These partners identified key challenges (“pain points”) in infrastructure planning, operations, and maintenance, and helped define user needs for EO-based solutions.
A multidisciplinary team of analysts, EO specialists, and transport consultants contributed by:
Conducting interviews with stakeholders
Facilitating workshops (e.g., Workshop 1)
Mapping EO capabilities to industry needs
Identifying data and technology gaps
Their work culminated in the structured framework of EO best practices presented throughout this website.