Remedy 1: Undergraduate, masters and doctoral training programs in Copernicus-relevant programs
Remedy 2: Instigate professional training, including formal qualification of competency in provision of Copernicus services
European and global space agencies are investing substantially in improved satellite based remote-sensing capabilities. At the same time, numerous national and trans-national networks are performing high-quality non-satellite measurements. To realise a return on investment on these observational assets requires a skilled workforce capable of understanding and exploiting these data to their full potential. Experience within the GAIA-CLIM project, which aims to develop a set of tools and approaches to highlight potential applications of non-satellite data to better characterise satellite observations, has highlighted the relatively limited pool of available expertise at the present time. This expertise deficit pertains to varying degrees to all aspects of the end-to-end chain from instrument experts through practitioners capable of delivering products to end-users. Without addressing the educational / training deficit highlighted, it will be impossible to fully realise the value of the substantive investments to date in the space and non-space observational segments. A range of training needs are envisaged from formal educational routes that train the next generation of instrument specialists, data analysts and product developers through to more informal training of those professionals delivering user services and advice. For example, training should be a mandatory service provided by the Environmental European Research Infrastructures.
While it is necessary to address technical and organisational gaps that reduce the availability, effectiveness, and quality of satellite characterisation data, such improvements need be exploited by a sufficient workforce capacity to develop and deliver products and services to the marketplace. There is a shortage of skilled personnel to enable activities from the development and deployment of high-quality non-satellite instrumentation, through its processing to its exploitation, in order to successfully provide high-quality data products merging satellite and non-satellite data. If Copernicus services are to realise their full potential, additional training through formal and informal routes is required to train the next generation of data providers, analysts, and users that can fully exploit the substantive investment in space-based and non-space based observational assets and tools and, hence, deliver the envisaged step-change in capabilities and services to the marketplace.