ESA Member States:
Key Partners in Earth Observation and Digital Twin Earth
How Are Member States Shaping Europe’s EO Future?
ESA Member States strengthen the Earth Observation Framework by supporting Sentinel data and services infrastructure through the Collaborative Ground Segment (CollGS), while also developing national DestinE Points of Presence and Digital Twin components that feed into the broader European digital twin ecosystem.
ESA Member States can act as:
Data Creators
generating original datasets
Data Owners
distributing national or ESA-derived data
Data Providers
distributing national or ESA-derived data
Service Providers
delivering tailored EO and digital twin services
These roles support both national priorities
and ESA’s collaborative Earth Observation Framework.
A Structured Path to Collaboration
Proposal Definition and Requirements Collection
ESA invites Member States to outline their national priorities and requirements by contacting the responsible ESA team.
National delegates share with ESA a high-level proposal describing the planned activities and how they support national needs within the context of the Collaborative Ground Segment or Digital Twin Earth initiatives.
Preliminary Assessment
ESA conducts an initial analysis of the submitted proposal to evaluate its relevance, expected impact, and alignment with Sentinel operations and/or the DTE programme. This step helps determine the strategic fit and technical feasibility of the proposed contribution.
Proposal Refinement
ESA engages with the proposing national entity to further detail and adjust the proposal as needed. This collaborative refinement ensures that the technical approach, scope, and objectives are well defined and implementation-ready.
Formalisation of Collaboration
Once the refined proposal is validated, the collaboration is formalised through the following actions:
- Role definition: The Member State delegate confirms the designated national entity or entities responsible for executing the activity.
- Resources allocation: ESA makes available the necessary resources to support the proposed activity.
- (optional) Procurement process: ESA prepares and issues a dedicated procurement.
Operations and Activity Management
The activity is in some cases implemented under a formal operational contract between ESA and the designated contractor. ESA oversees the execution, while keeping the Member State delegate regularly informed about progress, milestones, and results.
Join the
Copernicus Collaborative
Ground Segment community
ESA Digital Twin Earth
community
Community workshops
Each year, ESA brings together the Copernicus Collaborative Ground Segment partners and the Digital Twin Earth (DTE) communities through a dedicated workshop.
These events offer a space to share updates, align on technical developments, exchange best practices, and foster collaboration across Member States, ESA and international partners.
The workshops also help identify synergies between Copernicus and DTE initiatives, promote innovation and shape future contributions to the ESA Earth Observation Framework.