Project name:

DSSA - Space applications for Black Sea and Lower Danube in support of the Danube Strategy

Coordinator: Romanian Association for Space Technology and Industry (ROMSPACE)

Financed under the Romanian Space Technology and Advanced Research Programme

Duration: 2014-2016

Description:
Space systems are a key component for a broad spectrum of critical applications that support the economic development of human society, also ensuring continuity of economic activity and quality of life. Despite their extensive use in some areas, the potential offered by the capabilities of space applications has not been fully reached, and this gap increases with the acceleration of space industry development. The Danube-Black Sea region is an international strategic space from an economic, political and ecological point of view, which is facing specific challenges. Beyond standard space applications, such as commercial communications, weather forecasts, and navigation and positioning of commercial and individual users, there is significant potential for space systems to contribute, in innovative ways, to addressing the "great challenges" of the region. The European Union recognizes the importance of this strategic macro-region and has developed benchmarks that define key objectives for the region, along with programs to ensure a governance framework for efforts in the field. The most important is the Danube Strategy, whose first phase has already been declared a success. In order to explore the unused potential of space applications in the wider region, which includes, from the EU perspective, the eastern Black Sea, a conceptual framework of the regional system-of-systems is needed, more than it was developed in the Danube Strategy vision.
This framework is insufficient, and should be augmented with perspectives of human and environmental security from the reports of the European Forum for Security Research and Innovation and from other sources. Only in this way, the overall picture of the region can be generated and will allow the pursuit of the general objectives set in the Danube Strategy.

Among the objectives of the project are the analysis of the challenges affecting the region, the identification of the classic and integrated spatial applications in the region, the identification of critical infrastructure serving the region and the development of the document: "Black Sea - Lower Danube Strategy for intensifying the use of space capabilities in the period 2015 - 2025”.