6e SCO France meeting: the rails are laid

Published on 07/02/2022

For its first committee of the year, SCO France has come up with a remarkably positive report. The approach and the mechanisms implemented are unanimously approved and the webcams are full of smiles!

[fr]

As the driving force behind the international initiative, the SCO France has designed and implemented an exemplary operation and governance. © Getty Images

The Interagency Committee (CIO) brings together the 22 member institutions of SCO France. It meets twice a year for a half-yearly review and a perspective on the next six months.

On Friday 28 January 2022, the CIO proceeded in this way, starting by welcoming a very fresh piece of information: the signing, the day before, of a framework agreement between CNES and the French Development Agency AFD to support SCO projects.

AFD partners with SCO France

AFD's mission is to support international cooperation in the field of space, climate change and sustainable development. This was achieved on Thursday 27 January 2022 with the signing of a framework partnership agreement with CNES. This agreement ratifies the participation of AFD experts in the Interagency Committee and the labelling committee of the SCO France as well as in the SCO International bodies.

With this partnership with AFD, whose activities are particularly complementary to those of IRD, the SCO will be able to give greater ambition to its cooperation projects abroad, with an even more integrated approach upstream.

On Thursday 7 January 2022, Philippe Baptiste, President of CNES (left) and Rémy Rioux, Chief Executive Officer of AFD, signed a framework agreement through which AFD commits to supporting projects with the SCO label. © Eric Thauvin for AFD

Projects point

43 projects have been labelled since 2020, including 36 by the SCO France. The first results are taking shape, illustrating the SCO's promise to operationalise decision support tools in two years or less.

Overview of actions for the second half of 2021

SCO France

Launch of the call for projects 2022
2 publications: the "Valuation Guide", the result of a dedicated working group of IOC members, and the "SCO Portfolio".
2 quarterly meetings: the one in October 2021 was devoted to remote epidemiological monitoring and the one in January 2022 to European data in SCO projects.
The holding of the SCO France Congress at the end of 2021, culminating in a commitment by ADEME to fund SCO projects.

SCO International

Participation in the IUCN World Conservation Congress in September 2021;
7° International Steering Committee on the sidelines of COP26, with a commitment to sign the International Charter;
Participation in COP26: a conference and a round table co-organised with GEO (Group on Earth Observations);
Holding a webinar to support and accelerate the implementation of a SCO Morocco;
Accession of 3 new members represented by the space agencies of Norway, Slovakia and Saudi Arabia.

A look at the first half of 2022

Results of the Call for Projects 2022 in March

22 applications were received. 6 projects were accepted in the first instance, 10 are currently being examined by the Labelling Committee.

The current labelling process is very well organised, with the participation of European experts such as ESA, Eumetsat and ECMWF. The SCO France hopes to encourage the international community to replicate this process, using the methods designed and tested by the Labelling Committee.

Signature of the International Charter in June 2022

The final version has been co-authored by the members of the SCO for several months and is now undergoing final proofreading. A first signing session will be organised in June, for the three years of the SCO.

After this first semester, a new call for projects will be launched in September 2022.