Earth observation has a direct impact on societal ambitions to reduce the effects of climate change, monitor the achievement of the UN sustainable development goals, and for its use in disaster and emergency response. As a wide-ranging topic area, Earth observation is reliant upon ever increasing volumes of data for achieving the latest scientific discoveries. It is because of the societal impact, and large-scale data transit to universities and national institutions which makes this an interesting subject area for NRENs. Our community of Regional RENs have for many years steadily worked away to set up the policy frameworks which allow for the advancement of earth observation research and education through NRENs. Although NRENs focus on supporting national institutions, as a community we deal with the international aspects of researchers needs to provide better services, as research is often performed in the context of wider international directives. Such directives have an eventual impact on the types of services required by national entities. This session will explore the multi-national policy context which supports earth observation, and the complimentary RREN approach which we have employed.
