Institutions
Technische Universiteit Delft (TUD, The Netherlands)
Delft University of Technology TU Delft, is the oldest, largest and most comprehensive university of technology in the Netherlands. With over 20,000 students and 2,700 scientists (including 400 full professors), it is an establishment of national importance and of significant international standing. The University collaborates on a structural basis with other international education and research institutes and has partnerships with governments, branch organizations, numerous consultancies, industry partners and companies from the small and medium business sectors.
Imperial College of Science and Medicine (ICL, United Kingdom)
Imperial College London is a science-based university with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research and is the only UK university to focus entirely on science, engineering, medicine and business. Located in the heart of London, Imperial is a multidisciplinary space for education, research, translation and commercialisation, harnessing science and innovation to tackle global challenges. Imperial is consistently rated amongst the world’s best universities, including the 9th position in the QS World University Rankings 2016-2017 (5th in civil and structural engineering), 8th in the THE World University Rankings 2016-2017.
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was ranked 5th in the world in the most recent QS World University Rankings (2016). It consists of 146 staff and 748 students. Total research grants and contracts income have been consistently above £ 5 million per year over the last decade. The environmental and water resources engineering section is one of the oldest and most productive research groups in their discipline in the UK, with world-class research in areas such as hydrological and hydrogeological modelling, sensor networks, citizen-science and sustainable development.
Helmholtz-Zentrum fuer Umweltforschung GMBH-UFZ (UFZ, Germany)
The Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Germany, was established in 1991 as the first and only centre in the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres to be exclusively devoted to environmental research in a great variety of fields. It currently employs around 1100 people. Founded in response to the severe pollution prevailing in Central Germany, the UFZ has become a world-wide acknowledged centre of expertise in the remediation and re-naturation of contaminated landscapes, as well as the preservation of biodiversity and natural landscapes.
UFZ is and was participating in 83 Projects funded within FP7 and Horizon 2020, 11 of them coordinated by UFZ. Additionally, UFZ is or was the host for 3 ERC grants, 2 Starting – and 1 Advanced Grant, and has coordinated 3 ITNs. Since 2014 the UFZ is leading the European Topic Centre on Inland, coastal and marine waters funded by the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI, Italy)
Politecnico di Milano is a state scientific-technological university, established in 1863, which trains engineers, architects and industrial designers. Education is at bachelor, master and Ph.D. level. Currently more than 1,200 professors and researchers work at University and 40,000 students study in 7 different campuses. Politecnico is one of the leading Italian research centres characterized by the combination of theoretical bases of excellence and first-rate research infrastructures providing the possibility of a wide variety of experimental research. PoliMi is organized in 12 Departments including all main areas of engineering, architecture and industrial design. Politecnico boasts 161 laboratories all over its campuses. Politecnico has been very active in European research projects since the early programmes, with 261 projects approved within FP7.
Makerere University (Makerere, Uganda)
Makerere University is one of the renowned universities in Africa. It became an independent national university in Uganda on July 1, 1970. It offers undergraduate (35,000 students) and postgraduate (3000 student) courses during the day (full time), evening and through external study programmes. From December 2011, the university has been run under the collegiate system. It has 10 colleges now which operate as semi-autonomous units. More information can be found
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST, Ghana)
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) was established in January, 1952 by the Government of Ghana to serve as the Technical University of Ghana. Currently it is the second largest public university after the University of Ghana. KNUST has a student population of about 45,000 about a third of them being postgraduate students. Currently, about 60% of students in KNUST are pursuing STEM programmes and the university has intensified its efforts to increase the enrolment of female on the STEM. KNUST has produced over 75% of Ghana’s technocrats in the Area of Built Environment, all forms of Engineering, (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Geomatic, Biomedical, Computer, Geological, Materials, Petroleum, Chemical, Aerospace, etc). In the area of Science Education, Computer Science, Biochemistry, Medicine,Biology and Nursing dominate.
Strathmore University (STRAT, Kenya)
Strathmore University is a chartered private University based in Kenya with a vision of being a centre of Academic, Research, Entrepreneurship and Professional excellence that provides all-round education in an atmosphere of freedom and responsibility, creating a culture of continuous improvement, fostering high moral standards and developing a spirit of service and respect for others. The University was founded in 1961 as Form Sixth College, offering advanced level studies in Arts and Science subjects. The University has a population of over 5000 students across undergraduate and post graduate programmes.
@iLabAfrica is a centre established in January 2011 in the Faculty of Information Technology at Strathmore University. The centre spearheads Research and Innovation in the ICT for the development (ICT4D) ecosystem towards the attainment of the UNDP Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Kenya’s Vision 2030.Our main focus areas are on ICT Research and Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship and ICT Policy Research. We recognise that the spread of ICT technologies in developing countries remains painfully slow; condemning a large fraction of Africa’s population to poverty, undernourishment, disease and disempowerment.
Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD, Kenya)
The Kenya Meteorological Department is a Government Department domiciled in the State Department of Environment, It is the authoritative voice of the Kenya government in matters of weather and climate). KMD has close to 700 staff members and has field offices and stations in 47 counties within Kenya. KMD hosts the Regional Instruments’ Calibration Centre(RIC) and the Institute for Meteorological Training and Research(IMTR). IMTR is a World Meteorological Organization Regional Training Centre(RIC) and it is currently ranked first in Africa. IMTR is the regional Centre of Excellence in Training in Satellite Meteorology.
KMD has partnered with other branches of Government, Development partners like European Union, USAID, DFID, UNDP,WMO and others to enhance provision of climate services. Some of the relevant Projects include satellite data acquisition and processing, equipping of the Instruments Calibration Centre, procurement and deployment of Automatic Weather stations.
South African Weather Service (SAWS, South Africa)
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) is the national provider of weather and climate information in South Africa and custodian of the South African Climate Databank. SAWS, by law, is the only organisation to issue weather warnings of severe weather. SAWS is a member of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) where it plays a role in various WMO technical committees and commissions and its Permanent Representative serves on the Executive Council of the WMO.
The staff component of SAWS is approximately 382. Most of the staff are located at our Pretoria Head office but with 23 regional and other smaller weather offices the staff are distributed in every region of the country. SAWS also have representation on 2 x remote Islands (Gough and Marion Island) as well as Antarctica. Scientists, Technicians and ICT staff represents 69% of SAWS staff.
Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO, Kenya)
The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO)’s goal is to develop a dense network of hydro-meteorological stations in sub-Saharan Africa – one every 30 km. This entails the installation of 20,000 stations. By applying innovative sensor technology and ICT, TAHMO stations are both cost-effective and robust. The ground-based data is fused with satellite imagery and weather forecasting models to produce reliable weather information to farmers and the public through mobile platforms (SMS, apps and voice messaging in local dialects). To ensure sustainable operations of the weather stations, various business models have been developed around the data/information generated from these stations in collaboration with various SMEs, institutions and sectors in the countries where the stations have been installed. TAHMO Kenya will carry out research in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Mozambique. TAHMO has the capability to scale up the market uptake of any product and services developed by the consortium to the 16 countries where it is operational or finalising agreement with the National Meteorological Agencies in Africa. These countries include Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mali, DRC Congo, Chad, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Senegal and South Africa.
Farmerline Ghana Limited (FARM, Ghana)
Farmerline Ltd is a for-profit company in Ghana that has built a social business, software technology, and partnership network reaching over 200,000 farmers across 5 countries across West Africa. The company supports farmers, agribusinesses, and other agricultural stakeholders with mobile technologies. This includes data collection along the value chain via smartphones and tablets as well as farmer education, information dissemination, and E-extension services through voice calls in local languages. Our mission is to empower rural farming communities by bridging the information gap and connecting them to the markets that work with them.
Farmerline’s proprietary Mergdata software is a powerful app-based tool used by field agents. Mergdata is built for offline functionality to capture robust end-user data in rural settings. Farmerline is trusted by partners including Hershey’s, Theobroma Chocolate, Welthungerhlife, MEDA, and Oxfam, with accolades from Echoing Green, EU Horizon 2020, Afrinic, Appfrica, and Indigo Trust.
Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP, Ghana)
The Ghanaian Economy could be described as an Agricultural Economy. Agriculture accounts for over 29% of the GDP and provides employment to over 60% of the Rural Folks. The number of irrigation facilities in the country is inadequate to cater for the smallholder farmers who produce to feed the 25 million people since the commercial farmer is mainly focusing on the export market.
Most of the smallholder farmers are the rain-fed agriculturist and the inadequate supply of irrigation facilities offers little avenue for crop production in harsh weather condition and/or dry season farming. The changes in the climatic conditions have adversely aggravated the risk these farmers face in the crop production cycle. The farmers could have a good variety of seeds, and other inputs coupled with the best farm practices yet lack of rain or drought in a planting season will adversely affect the production.
Hydrological Research (HR, The Netherlands)
HydroLogic Research (HR) is a hydroinformatics company from the Netherlands. We believe that many of the current water problems resulting from climate change and urbanization can be solved by innovative information and communication technologies (ICT). HR’s activities focus on the major processes and components related to the water environment, such as urban and rural water management, water safety, fluvial and pluvial flood simulation and forecasting. The applications and services we develop use advances in hydroinformatics such as simulation models, data modeling, remote sensing, GIS-based modeling, web services and mobile information and communication technologies. Many prototypes of tools and applications have been developed in EC funded research and innovation projects. It resulted in the open HydroNET Software as a (SaaS) platform. This platform received the National ICT Innovation Award of the Netherlands in 2013, a prestigious prize for product excellence and business model, issued by the Dutch ICT industry.
HR’s team of hydrologists and ICT professionals is experienced in conducting large and small research projects and works closely with consultants, NGO’s, research institutions and clients, in the Netherlands and internationally. HR has been coordinating and participating in various FP6, FP7 and H2020 projects on ICT, environment, water, communication and citizen observatories.
Our team of experts is composed of HydroLogic Research employees and employees of linked third-party HydroLogic BV, HydroLogic BV is the commercial sister company, which is owned by the same mother company, HydroLogic Group BV.
Geomatics Research and Development SRL (GReD, Italy)
GReD is an SME Spin-off of Politecnico di Milano that studies, designs and develops innovative state-of-the-art solutions, based on geomatics technologies, according to its customer requirement. GReD is characterized as a center of excellence focused on Research and Development, professional advice and algorithmic development in the following application areas: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), advanced surveying and cartography, high precision high-resolution gravimetric applications, space applications.
In the field of positioning and monitoring using GNSS data, GReD has been working since the start of its activities with public institutions, namely the IGM (Italian national cartographic institute), CISIS (Italian Interregional Center for Informatics, Geography and Statistics) and the Como Municipality, for example for the adjustment of the reference Italian network (RDN – Dynamic National Network), as well as for the adjustment of the Italian RTK network of Leica (ItalPoS). Furthermore, GReD is initiating monitoring service activities, based on low-cost GPS instruments, for large Italian companies like Terna S.p.A. (Italian electricity transmission system operator) and Autostrade per l’Italia S.p.A. (Italian concessionaire for the construction and management of toll highways). As regards kinematic positioning, i.e. GNSS navigation, GReD is providing consulting and software development services for drone attitude determination; it has also collaborated with the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics for airborne detection of natural radioactivity over Italy, by providing precise positioning of the aircraft.
Noort Harmannus Conradus Pieter (HCP, The Netherlands)
HCP International is a micro-enterprise, located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. HCP international specializes in program and project evaluation, advice on marketing and innovation, dissemination and capacity building strategy, business intelligence, preparation of international cooperation programs, calls and proposals and feasibility studies. The activities of HCP international focus on the areas of climate action, agriculture, risk management, water management, environmental management and water supply and sanitation. More specifically activities focus on the marketing of Earth observation, with emphasis on innovative applications of satellite solutions in an international environment, particularly in developing countries.
FutureWater SL (FUWA, Spain)
FutureWater is a research and consulting organization (SME) that works throughout the world to combine scientific research with practical solutions for water management. FutureWater works at both global, national and local levels with partners on projects addressing water for food, irrigation, water excess and floods, water scarcity and droughts, climate change, and river basin management.
FutureWater’s key expertise is in the field of quantitative methods, based on simulation models,geographic information systems, remote sensing observations (satellite and unmanned aerial vehicles), and has as its clients World Bank, International River Basin Organizations, Asian Development Bank,European Commission, private organizations, irrigator´s associations and others.
MicroStep-MIS SPOL SRO (MISTEP, Slovakia)
MicroStep-MIS operates worldwide and is specialised in development and manufacturing of monitoring and information systems, processing of acquired data, research and numerical modelling. It develops, deploys and markets monitoring and information systems in the fields of meteorology, seismology, radiation and emission monitoring and crisis information systems.
The product range covers measurement, real-time data collection, data processing, archiving and tools for analysis, modelling and decision support. MicroStep-MIS has a special qualification structure of employees, which is a prerequisite for the interaction of a full-fledged scientific work and applied research. More than 88% of employees have a university degree and 15% have achieved academic degree PhD Since year 1993 as department of MicroStep-HDO company and since year 2001 as an independent subject MicroStep-MIS spol s r.o., the company succeeded to develop a fully-fledged scientific and research work with national and international acclaim. The company is for many years working on the principles of project management in a range of standard project methodology
Starlab, Barcelona
Starlab is a private Research and Development company whose main areas of work lie in the Space and Neuroscience sectors, two key areas for the 21st century with a common element: the increasing availability of streams of information. The Company employs physicists, mathematicians, environmentalists, and engineers, who are backed up by a business team aiming to provide technical solutions, products and services for governments, industry and downstream markets.
