332
Chapter 31
Role of users in the process: Users should be involved in the
specification of the ultimate outcome, the type and characteristics of the
desired products, and the evaluation of the adequacy of the generated
products to these requirements. On the other hand, true end users should
be indifferent to the actual source of data exploited (which instrument is
used) or to the processing (which algorithm is applied). The participants
also noted that true end users cannot be the sole or perhaps even the
main driver in a technological field so remote from their own
experience. Hence, the scientific and engineering communities must
strive to communicate the potential of new approaches and the feasibility
of deriving new or better information from existing or future sensors.
Pre-operational pilot and demonstration projects: The participants
recognized that there might be value in a diversified approach towards
the selection of such projects. Specifically, the projects selected for
funding should be identified by a panel wide enough to represent the
user and scientific community, industry, and the Commission. The latter,
for its part, should be encouraged to publish its specific requirements for
information to fulfill EU policies and mandates.
Technology transfers: Workshop participants were uneasy and divided
regarding the relations between the research world and the commercial
world. All recognized and agreed that research should ultimately lead to
applications in line with the requirements of the community of users.
Initiatives in this direction are currently emerging, for instance through
the activities of the Centre for Earth Observation. However, many
participants insisted the worth and long term benefits of the research
endeavor cannot be measured exclusively in financial terms. Public
support for exploratory research not driven by immediate applications
remains necessary. Indeed, past experience shows that many discoveries
that turned out to be critical did not and probably could not have been
obtained through a program of directed actions. In the world as we
know it today, information bestows power. As a result, serious ethical
issues and conflicts of interest arise when the open-ended world of
scientific research is made to operate within the rules of the competitive,
for-profit commercial world.
Chapter 31
Role of users in the process: Users should be involved in the
specification of the ultimate outcome, the type and characteristics of the
desired products, and the evaluation of the adequacy of the generated
products to these requirements. On the other hand, true end users should
be indifferent to the actual source of data exploited (which instrument is
used) or to the processing (which algorithm is applied). The participants
also noted that true end users cannot be the sole or perhaps even the
main driver in a technological field so remote from their own
experience. Hence, the scientific and engineering communities must
strive to communicate the potential of new approaches and the feasibility
of deriving new or better information from existing or future sensors.
Pre-operational pilot and demonstration projects: The participants
recognized that there might be value in a diversified approach towards
the selection of such projects. Specifically, the projects selected for
funding should be identified by a panel wide enough to represent the
user and scientific community, industry, and the Commission. The latter,
for its part, should be encouraged to publish its specific requirements for
information to fulfill EU policies and mandates.
Technology transfers: Workshop participants were uneasy and divided
regarding the relations between the research world and the commercial
world. All recognized and agreed that research should ultimately lead to
applications in line with the requirements of the community of users.
Initiatives in this direction are currently emerging, for instance through
the activities of the Centre for Earth Observation. However, many
participants insisted the worth and long term benefits of the research
endeavor cannot be measured exclusively in financial terms. Public
support for exploratory research not driven by immediate applications
remains necessary. Indeed, past experience shows that many discoveries
that turned out to be critical did not and probably could not have been
obtained through a program of directed actions. In the world as we
know it today, information bestows power. As a result, serious ethical
issues and conflicts of interest arise when the open-ended world of
scientific research is made to operate within the rules of the competitive,
for-profit commercial world.