Today, I am speaking with Chiara Solimini, Space Downstream Market Officer at EUSPA, the agency that manages the space programme of the European Union.

In this episode, we discuss what EUSPA is and its activities, the role of EUSPA in promoting the use of data from the Copernicus programme, the European Green Deal and how Copernicus enables its implementation, how EUSPA encourages research and entrepreneurship and more.

If you don't know much about EUSPA and want to learn more about how it can support your company or research project, then this episode is for you.

And now, I bring you, Chiara Solimini.

• EUSPA - Website
• EU Space for Green Transition - Report
• EU Space for Sustainable Development - Report

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01:06: Intro
02:09: Overview of EUSPA and its role in promoting the uptake of Copernicus data
10:40: What is the EU Green Deal and how Copernicus enables its implementation
15:53: EU Space for Sustainable Development
18:51: What is coming up for EU Space and how EUSPA supports research and entrepreneurship?
23:52: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Rhiannan Price, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at DevGlobal.

DevGlobal is a consultancy that works in the development sector on impact projects with the world’s leading non-profits, companies, philanthropies, multilateral agencies, and government agencies. 

Rhiannan has been working in Earth observation for a while, especially on the impact side of things. Prior to her role at DevGlobal, she led the Sustainable Development portfolio at Maxar, where she helped found their Open Data Program, among other initiatives. 

In this conversation, Rhiannan and I talk about the use of Earth observation in the development sector, the journey of imagery from space to impact on the ground, the challenges of using Earth observation data, its potential in creating impact and more.

• Rhiannan Price - LinkedIn
• DevGlobal - Website
• DevGlobal's project with the Gates Foundation

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Thanks to Development Seed for being one of the contributors to the podcast.

• Development Seed - Website

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01:45: Intro

06:31: DevGlobal - Overview

09:30: What is the development sector?

13:59: What is the use of EO in the development sector?

18:15: The journey from imagery to impact

24:48: What does Rhiannan wish was easier with EO?

28:26: What does the best-case scenario look like for the use of EO for impact?

37:54: The state of adoption of EO in development

42:30: SatSummit conference

47:52: The evolution of EO and what to look forward to

50:29: Pricing and licensing challenges in EO

54:58: Wrap-up

Today, I am speaking with Thijs van Leeuwen, Director of Product at Planet. Most of you should be aware of Planet, the company that operates the largest fleet of earth imaging satellites. A couple of years ago, Planet acquired VanderSat, a Dutch startup offering data products like soil moisture derived from various sources of satellite data.

Today, VanderSat's capabilities are integrated into Planet and the fruit of that collaboration is what Planet calls Planetary Variables (PVs), a set of products that are directly usable by end-users without the need to process satellite imagery. As an advocate of making EO mainstream, I have been quite excited about PVs ever since the announcement. So, I decided to have a chat with Thijs, who was the CEO of VanderSat before the acquisition, on the podcast. 

In this episode, we discuss VanderSat's journey, what are Planetary Variables, what data sources they use, the black-box problem, Planet's vision for Planetary Variables and more.

• Planet acquires VanderSat
• Planetary Variables

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01:17: Thijs' Intro and Overview of Planet

06:53: VanderSat: Founding journey

13:07: Acquisition by Planet

15:23: What are Planetary Variables (PVs)?

18:57: Examples of PVs and what data they use

22:44: Are PVs data-agnostic or do they use only Planet data?

23:59: How do PVs fit into Planet's vision and existing set of customers? 

29:11: How do you come up with a PV?

30:48: The black-box problem: What is the methodology to derive a PV?

35:26: The future of PVs after the acquisition of Sinergise

38:34: The state of EO and why EO is not mainstream yet

43:07: Wrap-up questions