GEO-Google Earth Engine Programme provides $3 Million for Earth observations development

News / 6 November 2019

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is pleased to announce a new initiative to offer cost-free access to Google Earth Engine to increase the use of Earth Observations to address the world’s greatest challenges.

The GEO-Google Earth Engine (GEE) License Programme aims to support GEO Members and partners by helping operationalize their work, to help bridge the gap between science and application, in order to produce tangible products that engage with end users and decision makers.

Google will award up to 25 licenses for Google Earth Engine, accessible to any GEO Member State and Participating Organization, with a value of US$ 3 million over the next two years. Google will work with the GEO Secretariat and the Programme Board to develop a suitable process to allocate these licenses.

The GEO-GEE Programme will support organizations and initiatives that deliver significant impact using Earth observations and data science with respect to environmental and development goals, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as ocean conservation and biodiversity preservation.

The programme is carried out in cooperation with the GEO Secretariat, GEO Programme Board, Google and EO Data Science. Google will provide licenses to use GEE. EO Data Science will provide in-kind technical support and mentoring through an outreach programme to help eligible GEO Members and Participating Organizations obtain the results from GEE that they need.

The initiative is a result of the open call issued by GEO in September 2019 inviting proposals from companies that provide cloud-based geospatial processing platforms for the development of applications using Earth observations. The ongoing call encourages commercial cloud service vendors to provide data access and processing credits to the GEO community.

The application form for the GEO-GEE License Programme will be released later this month.

For more information contact: secretariat@geosec.org