A review of the progress of the COBWEB citizen observatory for the web project. Delivered by Chris Higgins on 25 February 2016 in Dresden, Germany.

1. 6th COBWEB Consortium Meeting
25/26 Feb, 2016,
Technische Universität Dresden (TUD),
Germany.
Chris Higgins,
Project Coordinator.
chris.higgins@ed.ac.uk

2. UEDIN,
Plan for next 2 days and overall project status

3. Consortium meetings
Date Location
Nov 2012 Edinburgh
Apr 2013 Machynlleth
Nov 2013 Edinburgh
Nov 2014 Aberystwyth
May 2015 Chania
Feb 2016 Dresden
Sept 2016 Edinburgh

4. Agenda Morning Thurs 25th Feb

5. Afternoon Thurs 25th Feb

6. Morning Fri 26th Feb

7. Afternoon Fri 26th Feb

8. A wee reminder
COBWEB is an SME
Targeted Collaborative
project

9. Anyone recognise this text?
ENV.2012.6.5-1 (call text on
Expected Impact)
Empowerment of citizens and citizen's
associations, allowing them to contribute
to environmental governance processes in
the domains of transparency, knowledge
management, accountability and
responsiveness. The provision of models
for decisionmakers, facilitating
connections to governance and global
policy objectives.

10. IMHO
Consolidate what we have. Increase
TRL’s, integrate, fill the gaps, document,
package, open source, enable SME’s,
maximise impact
Set aside your own agendas; get outside
your comfort zones, talk, cooperate,
volunteer and help each other out, use the
same tools, communicate, share

11. Objectives for this meeting
• Prioritisation and planning
– German demonstrator
– Greek demonstrator
– Ongoing activity in Wales
• Status check
• Information sharing
• Start preparing a response to the 2nd review
• Identify issues that need further attention
• Engender greater collaboration
• A.O.C.B.

12. Objectives STC – publish to SWE4CS
Publishing
Data

13. Milestones #1
• Month 40 of 48:
– Only eight months left!
• Month 36: Milestone 4 (MS4):
– Field testing of first demonstrator completed
• Month 41: Milestone 5 (MS5):
– Greek and German demonstrators completed and
ready for testing in the field
• Month 46: Milestone 6 (MS6):
– Field testing of Greek and German demonstrators
completed

14. Milestones #2
2015 2016
35
S
36
O
37
N
38
D
39
J
40
F
41
M
42
A
43
M
44
J
45
J
46
A
47
S
48
O
MS4: Field
testing of first
demonstrator
completed
MS5: Greek and
German demonstrators
completed and ready
for testing in the field
MS6: Field
testing of Greek
and German
demonstrators
completed
Greek preparation Greek demonstrations
German preparation German demonstrations
Urdaibai BR / EAGLE?
General public Dyfi?
Ongoing activity Wales
Final
Consortium
meeting

15. Actions from previous meeting
1. ACTION: CH asked all those who are attending INSPIRE conference to please think about how
we use INSPIRE/ GEOSS resources, eg, code lists, registries within COBWEB
2. ACTION: CH to help DL make contact with OPAL and establish connection.
3. ACTION: Non-EU BR. Decision to be made at Project Board. GOH to respond to partners and
ask MOG to provide details about he proposed BR’s and supply any further details to Project
Board as required
4. ACTION: Sensor map to be broadened and integrated by UCD, to include the rest of the
consortium. CH suggested EM and CM may wish to visit PT and RG in Edinburgh
5. ACTION: LMB to organise a mid co-design meeting with all of the projects – approx. w/b 13 July
6. ACTION: End Aug/Sept 2015. Closing event for the Co-Design Projects. LMB to open discussion
on this on basecamp
7. ACTION: LMB convene meeting of co-design steering committee ASAP. Use of own handsets to
be on the agenda.
8. ACTION: BDL to check European Location Framework project contacts, about the possibility of
getting Greek data.
9. ACTION: EP to ask Greek Cadastre directly if we can cache their aerial imagery (this is the best
quality small scale data available).
10. ACTION: UPATRAS to write a scientific paper on the COBWEB and Natura 2000 related survey
in Greece
11. ACTION: FX to submit the Greek poster (9-12 Oct 2014) to basecamp as part of the
dissemination activities.
12. ACTION: FX to send through the newspapers and tweets to basecamp for dissemination.
13. ACTION: TB to liaise with OIKOM/UPATRAS over the requirements for setting up a Greek
server. JW to facilitate

16. Overall Project status #1
• IMO, its clearly recognised we have done good
work, though manage expectations
– keep referring to components at different TRL’s
• Deliverables (44 in total):
– 26 submitted and accepted, 2 with UEDIN for final
review and submission, 1 pending
• Deeply into our “transferring to other countries
and see what happens” phase
• Reporting Period 2 ended Oct 2015 (M36)
followed by review in Feb 2016
• Now in Reporting Period 3 – the final leg!

17. Overall Project status #2
• Grant Agreement amendment completed Dec
2015, DoW now more closely matches reality
1. OGC added as partner 14
2. WP6 restructured. No non-EU Biosphere Reserve
3. Milestones dates altered to match reality
4. Various deliverable related changes: due dates,
dissemination levels, some added, one dropped
5. Realloaction of PM’s per partner per WP

18. Overall Project status #3
• Our overall concept of a citizen observatory
pretty well understood
– need for a Lite version identified
• Emphasis now shifting towards
– Rolling out software and getting buy-in
– Sustainability
– Much more focus on policy
– Greater focus on Greece, Germany and other
countries
• Direction provided by Commission…

19. WG
Policy Applications

20. UEDIN
Admin, Finance, Reporting

21. UEDIN
Report on project review

22. Feb 2016 Technical Review – Summary #1
• Focus - activities/impacts aimed at policy change
(highlighted value of Welsh Gov on board)
– EU level
– Nationally
• Networks of civil/scientific groups
• Natura 2000/Invasive Species explicitly noted
• Packaging
• Employ a “marketing expert” – budget shifts?
• Stay concentrated on communicating results and
aiming at higher awareness

23. Feb 2016 Technical Review – Summary #2
• Exploitation
• Identifying sources of funding for business
models
• Meet potential customers, explore their interest
• Some content for specific partners
– WG/UEDIN/UCD: recommendations changes to
deliverables
– Oikom/UPATRAS: networks in Greece
– Ecodyfi: 4WCBR
– UNOTT: QA/QC

24. Feb 2016 Technical Review – Summary #3
• Some deliverable specific material
• More like recommendations as all submitted
deliverables now accepted
• Whats not in review report?
• What are we going to do about it?

25. TUD/SECD
German demonstrator

26. OIKOM/UPATRAS
Greek demonstrator

27. Wales demonstrator activity 2015 summary

28. Open discussion regarding potential Wales
demonstrator activity in 2016

29. Other demonstrator activity