BRUSSELS VIEW

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ast October, the European GNSS Agency “We want to apply EGNOS to more than just (GSA) Administrative Board reelected civil aviation,” says des Dorides. “We now have Carlo des Dorides as executive director close to 200 airports with EGNOS-enabled land- of the GSA, giving him a second — and ing approaches, and we will double this number by Lfinal — four-year term in charge of this key agency 2018-2019. But we want to export EGNOS outside responsible for supporting the effective operation, of civil aviation, to maritime transport and the rail maintenance, and security of ’s satellite navi- industry, where we have seen very good results.” gation systems. We met with him recently at the For Galileo, he says, initial services are still on PETER GUTIERREZ, GSA office in Prague to learn how he plans to see course for October 2016. “Six to eight months later, Inside GNSS’s European out his mandate. in 2017, we will have a new operator/ provid- correspondent, is a “The GSA Board’s unanimous vote to keep me as er. This is a major change; today the operator acts on senior reporter and the agency’s Director was really a recognition of the a ‘best-effort’ basis. In the future, the operator will editor based in Brussels, work of our entire staff,” says des Dorides. That staff, be assessed on a ‘service-level’ basis. The new - , who has now spread across Europe, currently numbers about tor will ensure stable continuity of Galileo opera- written about Europe’s GNSS programs for many 140, from Prague to Toulouse and from Swanwick tions, at full speed, with maturity in the following years. He received his to . years. We want to have stable operation by 2020.” bachelor’s degree from The agency’s tasks include encouraging the the University of Texas at exploitation of Galileo and the European Geo- Securing the PRS Austin and a M.S. degree stationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), Also coming soon is the secured Galileo Public from the University market development, security accreditation and Regulated Service (PRS), one of the important fea- of Massachusetts at monitoring, project control, communication, pro- tures of Galileo, with access limited to authorized Amherst. curement, and financing. It’s a lot for one man’s governmental bodies. plate, but with his final term still mostly in front “In the past two to three years, we have been of him, des Dorides says, “I feel free; I’m here and investing in the PRS user segment,” des Dorides I have the strong support of the EU institutions. I says. “We have right now three important ongoing am encouraged.” projects for establishing the EU industrial basis to build the PRS receiver system.” (See sidebar, “Cur- From Here to 2020 rent EU-funded PRS–Related Research Projects,” Des Dorides’ vision for the coming years, he says, on page 30.) starts with delivering what’s already on the table. Des Dorides says the PRS should be , running, “EGNOS is well under control,” he says. “We and mature by 2020. have stable operation and service provision.” But “The PRS is very important,” des Dorides adds, there will be no easy life for Europe’s satellite-based “providing 50 percent of the answer to the ques- augmentation system. “EGNOS is coming to the tion of why we have Galileo. But we need a proper end of a cycle of relative calm equilibrium,” but new, receiver segment in Europe. If not, the PRS doesn’t major technical developments are on the way, with make sense.” tenders to be announced in the coming months. As far as the discussions regarding U.S. access Planned upgrades include the release of EGNOS to the PRS, des Dorides says that’s not a part of his v2.4.2 software, bringing new enhancements at ser- mandate. However, he notes that “the Dutch EU vice level, including the extension of aircraft approach [] Presidency has made it a priority operations with vertical guidance (APV-I) coverage to see negotiations on this question move forward to the northeast, east, and southeast of Europe, and by the European Council and Member States before the setting up of new regional integrity monitoring the close of its tenure, which ends in June 2016.” stations (RIMS) to boost coverage in places like the Those official negotiations will involve the - Canary Islands. The GEO satellite constellation will pean Commission and U.S. Department of State. also undergo further modernization.

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Change of Scene lots of visitors from the commission. “Coordination The EU policy of physically moving certain of its with the EC is very strong,” he says. agencies away from Brussels to far-flung places like Prague has been an interesting and, some believe, GSA and ESA Align fruitful experiment, stimulating awareness, inter- The GSA’s other key and long-standing partner is est and engagement in “all that is EU” among local of course the European Space Agency (ESA), based business communities, academia, and political in and with important facilities in Toulouse, establishments. , and Noordwijk, , and elsewhere. On the flipside, the process has also allowed “In reality,” des Dorides says, the formal rela- some of the Union’s own best and brightest, like tionship between ESA and the GSA only came into those working for the GSA, to get a feel for life away force last year, when we signed the EGNOS delega- from the Brussels beltway. tion agreement.” In 2012, that meant uprooting GSA staff and Although the GSA and ESA had been working their families, asking them to move to a foreign, together for much longer, that previous collabora- albeit still thoroughly European, country, and, tion was channeled through ESA’s cooperation with significantly, getting them to accept a new cost-of- the EC and other EU bodies. In any case, the official living index (ouch!). Everyone did their best, and GSA/ESA relationship is now officially under way as some difficult choices had to be made. far as EGNOS is concerned. The same will be true Now, nearly four years on, with senior staff for Galileo, if, as expected, the ESA Council ratifies mostly used to their new lives, and with newer staff a similar agreement with the GSA for that program coming on board who never knew the GSA in Brus- next December. sels, the big move is starting to feel like water under It’s all happening at the right moment, says des the bridge. For des Dorides at least, there have been Dorides. With Jan Woerner taking over as ESA compensations, including a really cool office over- director general and with former EC satnav man- looking the River in downtown Prague. ager Paul Verhoef now in as ESA’s director of the The rolled out the red carpet when their Galileo program and navigation-related activities, first bona fide EU agency came to , offering des Dorides says he sees a “new cycle” beginning, up the monumental, 1970s communist-era, former with a group of cohorts that “appreciate each other’s Czechoslovakian Ministry of Finance building as constraints.” the GSA’s new HQ. “ESA has a contract with the GSA,” des Dorides The striking tapestries that came with the place explains, “to do the Galileo hardware, to build the and now hang in des Dorides’ office are by the infrastructure. We are now negotiating with ESA famous Czech artist František Kupka. about the flow of responsibilities and how to trans- A soaring atrium greets one upon entering the fer funds.” building, and a large and very impressive confer- This is, in fact, a reversal of sorts for ESA, which ence room sits off to one side, newly fitted with has generally been the body telling its own contrac- the latest high-tech sound and communications tors what to do. gadgetry, spectacular lighting, and even a swath of “Up to now there has been rigidity at ESA,” says twinkling stars to put you in the mood. des Dorides. “But with Paul, who I worked with Be all that as it may, the GSA these days is less when he was at the Commission, and with Jan about show and more about action. It’s got money Woerner, who comes from ’s space agency, to spend and plenty to spend it on. “Our budget DLR, we see a better understanding.” is about €500 million [US$566 million],” says des Des Dorides says ESA and the GSA are work- Dorides. About 95 percent of that is delegated, i.e., ing well together on the EGNOS project. Part of the it’s money the GSA is told how and when to spend solution, he says, has been simply being together, by the European Commission (EC) in Brussels. physically. “Seeing each other and interacting is “The GSA is like nothing else in the EU universe,’ important,” he says. Which is one reason the GSA des Dorides says. “The European Commission has a has installed a small team to work alongside ESA double role for us — it is our customer, it pays us to staff at the Toulouse Space Center, doing EGNOS do a job, but it also sits on our administrative board; operations and service provision. so, it is a stakeholder as well.” A similar arrangement could be in the works for It’s a two-way exchange: des Dorides spends Galileo, with a small GSA team possibly to be sent about one day a week in Brussels while the GSA gets to ESA’s ESTEC facility in Noordwijk. www.insidegnss.com MAY/JUNE 2016 InsideGNSS 29 BRUSSELS VIEW

Meanwhile, a major investment will Recently, in a special “space” issue of Des Dorides thinks, where the Par- be made in a new, independent Galileo the EU Parliament’s own glossy maga- liament in concerned, it might be a Reference Center. zine, The Parliament, Axelle Pomies question of culture. He says the GSA “This will be the latest GSA facility,” of Galileo Services, an organization has been making directed efforts to des Dorides says, “which will be used that represents downstream industry, cultivate its relations with the Parlia- for independent assessment of Galileo pointed out that in the 2014–2020 time ment. “We need to bridge with them,” performance, checking all performance period, the EU will have invested around he says, “and that is starting. We have indicators. It is being built right now €8 billion in European GNSS infrastruc- GSA people doing that job, taking steps in Noordwijk, right next door to the ture, but only around €200 million in to close the gap with the Parliament, and ESTEC facility.” the development of Galileo-capable in return we’re now getting more ques- Des Dorides says the EU and ESA products, value-added applications, and tions and some new ideas.” could still benefit from better coordina- services; that’s a ratio of 40 to 1. To be fair, the onus for getting the tion of their GNSS-related efforts. With As Pomies writes, “The EU’s effort to funding right cannot be placed solely on limited resources, the idea of further gain its independence as regards GNSS the Parliament. Yes, they approve bud- integrating GSA and ESA operations by building its own infrastructure will gets, but it is still the Commission, with makes sense. be pointless if it is dependent on foreign the help of the wider European space applications, receivers, and devices.” community, that writes the budgets, that Funding for Downstream Des Dorides says Pomies has a point. requests the funding, and upon whom The question of resources, and fund- After noting that her organization, Gal- the burden falls of explaining, defend- ing in particular, is, as ever, an ongoing ileo Services, naturally and rightfully ing, and fighting for that support. All concern. Someone once said, “No bucks, represents the interests of the private efforts by the space community to win no Buck Rogers.” Well, “No bucks (or sector, des Dorides responds, “From the more hearts and minds in the Parlia- ), no Galileo” either. In the EU, previous financial perspective to the ment are a part of that process. that comes down to the EU Parliament, current one, we have doubled the avail- Des Dorides reminds us that with EU which ultimately approves budgets and able downstream funding, from €75 to institutions everything takes a long time. hands out the cash. €150 million, plus another €100 million Meanwhile, the GSA has the budget that And we all remember that one of the for ‘fundamental elements’, meaning it has, and the question then becomes key arguments for building Galileo in receiver technologies.” how to direct the available funding to the first place was that it would stimulate “Is 250 million enough?” he asks, where it really needs to . new downstream business. New Euro- “Maybe not, but it’s more than we’ve Des Dorides says the European Com- pean downstream business, that is. ever had in the past.” Des Dorides also mission’s current research framework points out that ESA has it’s own apps program, “Horizon 2020,” is good at Current EU-funded PRS– budget, namely the Integrated Appli- financing research and innovation, but Related Research Projects cation Program, and some further EU not necessarily work that is very close to Project FRAME – GSA/OP/20/14 - funding for “GNSS transversal proj- the business end. procurement closed ects,” being coordinated by the EC’s “Businesses don’t use H2020 because Provision of processes and tools transport directorate-general (DG it takes too long,” he says, “from the call to support GSA activities related MOVE). launch to the award process and final to the definition of new PRS use And then there are the EU member contracts, it can take 18 months before cases, including the conditions of states with their own R&D programs. a project starts. This is just too long in coexistence with traditional PRS use Here, des Dorides says, the important the private sector.” cases. thing is to avoid overlap, and better For that reason, he says, the EU may Project PRISMA – GSA/OP/07/15 - coordination could improve things. need to think about a new kind of fund- procurement on-going All that being said, with U.S., Rus- ing instrument, something more reac- ‘Development of low-end sian, and even Chinese GNSS systems tive, something that could, for example, operational PRS receivers including already in place or further along in take the place of Europe’s missing ven- security modules ’ development, Europe could do more to ture capital. Project DISPATCH – GSA/OP/02/15 boost the Galileo brand. “Here in Europe,” he says, “we don’t - procurement on-going have a venture capital culture — but Development of end-to-end Role for EU Parliament maybe can we simulate a venture capital prototype capable of testing the Perhaps the fundamental question is approach from the public sector.” security aspects of PRS service simply why isn’t the EU laying out the The focus, des Dorides says, needs provision by innovative PRS server- based technologies to support dough for downstream development, to be on innovative GNSS-related busi- future applications when everyone knows that’s where the ness ideas, with all funding options on return is. the table, and all potential players in

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the discussion, including the European Investment Bank. “There are people who know more about that than I do, but we probably need to tailor a better product for GNSS investment,” he says.

More to Do? Looking beyond the GSA’s patch of Carlo des Dorides, GSA ground, but not so very far after all, Executive Director we peek across the fence to consider Photo by Peter Gutierrez the other flagship EU space program, indeed into market development. The thinking about enough, like Big Data, “Copernicus,” i.e., the program former- agency carries out its own research into the Internet of Things, connected cars, ly know as GMES, the Global Moni- GNSS market trends, and then makes ubiquitous positioning, assisted GNSS toring for Environment and Security the information it gets available in the for emergency services, augmented real- program, and what do we see? A huge form of an annual GNSS Market Report, ity, Google glasses, crowd sourcing for and elaborate EU space infrastructure whose publication has become a fixture LBS in real time. . . . The list goes on.” program that seems to have paid little on the GNSS calendar. The aim is to help Sitting with us is GSA Market Devel- or no attention to its own downstream European companies understand what’s opment Officer Reinhard Blasi, who market potential. Sound familiar? going on and hopefully get a leg up on points out, “Positioning is a key enabler One EU insider says, “Companies in the competition. of all this,” and adds, “Galileo will be the U.S. are making big money by pro- Saying thanks and “so long” to des interoperable with the next generation of viding added-value services based on Dorides, we wander over to meet his top GPS; so, these combined dual-frequency EU-generated Earth observation data!” market person, Gian Gherardo Calini, systems will enable extremely high accu- Shouldn’t someone be looking at this? whose office view rivals that of the racy and a high level of confidence for The potential synergies between posi- Director himself. safety-critical applications. The foreseen tioning and Earth observation technolo- Calini knows a lot about GNSS mar- commercial service will include authen- gies will not have escaped the attention ket trends, and he makes it his business tication for the professional market and of anyone reading this article. More and to make sure Europe knows about them, unheard-of precise point positioning.” more, users of either of these will want too. Blasi says users don’t care about and need to both resources to answer So what’s on his mind? He answers, which constellation they are using; they the questions, “where am I” and “what’s “Geofencing, for the elderly and for are only interested in performance. But around me.” your pets; autonomous vehicles, drones, should the user know about Galileo? But, des Dorides accepts, the two robots for future farming. Does the GSA want them to know? programs, Galileo and Copernicus, are “GNSS growth cannot be forecast,” “We don’t necessarily need to adver- separate entities today, with different Calini says. “So much is unseen, as tise Galileo to the mass market user,” histories: “Copernicus started as a pub- yet unimagined. We need to exploit to Blasi says, “But we think policy makers lic sector–oriented program, with little the max, and so much depends on us. and receiver manufacturers do need to interest in the private sector. With Gali- Does the supply create the demand? Or know.” leo, we have been more in touch with is it the other way around? The truth is Head of Communications Donna companies, with the private sector, from somewhere in the middle. We are living Reay confirms that a big mega-campaign the beginning.” in an innovative century, where tech- aimed at the public is not especially in A marriage made in heaven? nologies are driving the market, creating the works in the run-up to Galileo initial “Rationalization of the two programs new markets and new demands. What services. will happen,” says des Dorides. we need today are engineers with a ‘mar- “For now we want to be humble,” says Does that mean a convergence, an ket mind.’ We need Silicon Valley types Blasi, “We have learned our communica- interconnecting of the two? The answer here in Europe.” tion lessons — not to raise expectations is we don’t know yet, but we know people At this point, Calini announces too high. We want to be cautious, but are thinking about it. the launch of a new User Technology this will be a milestone for industry. Today there is no EU agency focused Report, before the end of this summer, “More satellite launches are upcom- on Earth observation as GSA is on GNSS to complement the GSA Market Report. ing,” he says. “Galileo is finally gaining or to look after its market development. “What we want to know and what momentum. The hardware is ready, the we talk about in this new Report is what software is mostly ready; so, now it is just Big on Market Development are the trends in user technologies, and a question of switching over to ‘OK, we Indeed, the GSA puts a lot of effort especially the ones we haven’t been are now using it.’” www.insidegnss.com MAY/JUNE 2016 InsideGNSS 31