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EXCELSIOR H2020-WIDESPREAD-04-2017-TeamingPhase1 2017-2018, GA : Νο 763643 Stage 1:80.000 EUR (NOA's 1st year funding)/(400.000 Euros overall funding) Stage2: 30.000.000 EUR (total after acceptance of stage 1) |
The project relies on the infrastructure and research developed in BEYOND Center of Excellence.
The EXCELSIOR Horizon 2020 Teaming project envisions the creation of an Earth Observation Centre at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), an inspiring environment for conducting basic and applied research and innovation through the integrated use of cutting-edge remote sensing and space-based techniques for monitoring physical and built environment in the eastern Mediterranean region. 
Five partners have united to create the Centre of Excellence, with the common vision to become a world-class innovation, research and education Centre, actively contributing to the European Research Area. More specifically, the EXCELSIOR project is a team effort between the CUT, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the BEYOND Center of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA), the German Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) and the Cyprus Department of Electronic Communications of the Ministry of Transports, Communications, and Works (MTCW).The Center of Excellence will benefit through the knowledge transfer from the DLR, NOA and TROPOS, in Earth observation science and technology for the monitoring the physical and built environment. The project will engineer the design of the Center of Excellence and provide the roadmap and also the business plan for the development of the relevant research and the implementation of innovative services addressing the priorities of Cyprus and also the neighboring regions in sectors as Agriculture& Food Security, Disasters Resilience, Adaptation to Climate Change, Minerals & Hydrocarbon Exploitation, Energy & Renewable Resources, Marine Security, ICT (Big Data Analytics). The development of large EO infrastructure is also foreseen encompassing satellite acquisition stations, sensor technology, in-situ monitoring networks. By the end of stage 1 (September 2018), the consortium will submit the business plan for the following ten years of Center’s lifetime. If stage 2 is accepted, the beneficiaries will be funded 50% by the H2020 project, and 50% by the state of Cyprus and up to the total amount of 30MEuros for the development and the operation of the Center of Excellence.