Description:
The Directorate General for International Partnerships (DG-INTPA) plans to collaborate with ESA to implement the National Copernicus Capacity Support Action Programme for the Philippines called CopPhil. The programme will facilitate the cooperation between national organisations in the Philippines and ESA leveraging the European Copernicus Programme to strengthen the use of Earth Observation derived information for timely decision making and monitoring of policy implementation. In particular the partnership with ESA will address key objectives of the Philippine government to develop and utilize EO applications to enhance its hazard management and disaster mitigation strategy as well as to ascertain the nation’s resilience to climate change. The Philippine Space Act of 2018 serves as the country’s primary strategic roadmap for space development and has already lead to the foundation of the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) in 2020. The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) together with PhilSA will be the main national partners with who ESA will collaborate from raising awareness until the operational uptake of Copernicus data for three pilot applications including knowledge transfer as well as data infrastructure support.
This initiative will promote solutions to national and regional environmental and economic challenges via enhanced digital connectivity and EO data processing to boost Digital Transformation. The EU Delegation has identified Digital Transformation and enhanced Connectivity as an area where EU and ESA support could have a fundamental and transformational impact on growth potentials in the Philippines and in the ASEAN region. At LPS22 the different partners will exchange on the national EO requirements in the Philippines and how best this could be addressed by the planned CopPhil programme.

Agenda (scheduled Tuesday 24.05., 10:25-11:55)

oOpening: welcome & keynotes
-Maurice Borgeaud, Head of the Science, Applications & Climate Department – European Space Agency (ESA)
-Christoph Wagner, Head of Cooperation - Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines (remote)

o Moderated panel discussion: Moderator Benjamin Koetz, Head of Sustainable Initiatives Office, ESA
-Dr. Franz Asunta de Leon (TBC), Director Advanced Science and Technology Institute - Department of Science and Technology of the Philippines (DOST)
-Joel Marciano, Director General - Philippines Space Agency (PhilSA)
-Miguel EXPOSITO VERDEJO, Deputy Head of Unit Science, Technology, Innovation and Digitalisation - DG International Partnership (DG INTPA), European Commission
-Giovanni Serritella, Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines (remote)
-Paolo Manunata, Senior Infrastructure Specialist and ESA secondement – Asian Development Bank (ADB)

oOpen Questions & Answers