SMEs AFRICA: a look back at the project's latest outreach activities in Senegal and South Africa

SMEs AFRICA is an initiative that aims to develop and promote access to Copernicus Earth observation data among end-users in four African countries (Gabon, Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa) to help them address climate change and sustainable development issues.

The Copernicus data awareness phase, launched in Gabon, intensifies in June with the project's presence in Senegal and South Africa.

Here is a look at these two initiatives.

On 1 and 2 June 2022, a workshop on the development of innovative digital solutions through the use of geospatial data was held in Dakar, organised in the framework of the European Commission's AU-EU D4D Hub programme, in order to collaboratively develop a roadmap for transforming geospatial data into a catalyst for digital innovation for the sustainable development of Senegal. CNES and Aerospace Valley also took part in this event implemented by Expertise France and Enabel, presenting an overview of spatial data, facilitating technical workshops on entrepreneurship and smart and sustainable agriculture as well as presenting innovative services for blue growth and sustainable cities. 3 companies from the SMEs AFRICA project, Murmuration, Diginove and Pixstart presented their solutions. Also, 5 other Aerospace Valley member companies took part in this workshop: I-SEA, Space Seed, MEOSS, Aguila Technologies and Weather Force.

SMEs AFRICA was also present at the Enlit Africa, the energy exhibition gathering Africa’s power, energy and water community from 7 to 10 June in Cape Town, South Africa. This was an opportunity for the project, represented by the company Diginove, to present how Copernicus data can be used in the energy sector. Indeed, space data play an important role to support local authorities or companies’ decision-making in their development strategy.
With space data, applications in the renewable energy sector in land or in the oceans are numerous.  It can include the definition of photovoltaics’ roadmap and solar cell planning, the deployment of in-land and off-shore winds, the technological development for space weather and power grid and the monitoring of hydroelectric power. Supported by a live demonstration of existing solutions, this conference on Copernicus data was well received by the audience.

The last three months of the SMEs AFRICA project will be dedicated to the finalisation of the B2B meetings for the 14 participating European SMEs as well as the organisation of a final awareness raising event with Ethiopian stakeholders.