The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology stated today that "the Government of the Azores wants to keep the Region open to innovation and new networks as well as to technological and scientific platforms," stressing the important scientific meetings in the field of space technology that have been held in the archipelago.

Fausto Brito e Abreu spoke at the workshop "Land and Maritime planning and management using Sentinel date - Small Oceanic Islands as a Model." The initiative is promoted by NEREUS, a network that brings together European regions that use space technology. It was attended by nearly one hundred participants from six countries.
 
The Regional Secretary recalled that the Regional Government has participated in themed working groups of this network, highlighting the "active involvement" in the strategic guidelines that are being established in the field of space technology and the development of the role played by regions at European level.

 "As a peripheral and maritime region, we consider that scientific and multilateral technology cooperation between regions is fundamental," said Brito e Abreu. According to him, today's meeting can mobilise the implementation of projects at local, regional and interregional that are based on the use of Sentinel data under the Copernicus programme. The latter has already more than two thousand registered users.

 Sentinel is a project carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA), operated with two satellites that provide data to Copernicus. Developed by the European Commission, the programme covers areas such as the atmosphere, climate change, emergency management and safety, environmental protection, management of urban areas, regional and local planning, agriculture, tourism, fisheries, health and maritime transport, among others.

Brito e Abreu stated that the "Government of the Azores intends to maintain the support for scientific exchanges" in the fields of environmental monitoring and climatology, volcanology, seismology and prevention of natural disasters and in other areas "that will benefit from the Copernicus program and the free access to data that is now provided."

In his speech, the government official also recalled Regional Government's policy to focus on the implementation of technological infrastructures, particularly in stations dedicated to space and Earth observation, climatology and detection of nuclear tests.

In this context, the Regional Secretary pointed out the existence of the ARM station (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) and Infrasound station IS42 on Graciosa as well as three stations on Santa Maria: satellite tracking station of the European Space Agency (ESA), the Galileo Sensor Station (GSS) and the Atlantic Network of radio telescope Geodynamic and Space Stations (RAEGE).
 
Brito e Abreu considered that these infrastructures are of "utmost importance" to include scientists and the Region in highlighting "the economic potential as well as the creation of skilled employment and new business opportunities" that these projects bring to the archipelago.

"One of the Regional Government's goals is to ensure that the Azores take advantage of their strategic location in the middle of the Atlantic to develop space technology," the government official said, adding that the Azores want to "share knowledge and increasingly collaborate with other European regions."

 Brito e Abreu also emphasised the importance of the Copernicus programme and the Sentinel data in European regions as well as the importance that the open access policy to data will have in the " development of the management and planning of terrestrial and marine territory" for regions in general and for specific cases, such as oceanic islands. It allows the monitoring, tracking and studying of oceans, vegetation, coastal areas, atmosphere and climate as well as climate and environmental change.

This meeting is the first of three workshops organised by ESA/NEREUS on the subject. The second will be held in Milan, Italy, on October 20 and the third in Munich, Germany, on November 12.

The final report of this workshop will be presented in Brussels.