The Reaching Excellence in Hyperspectral Remote Sensing (EXPERT) twinning proposal aims at improving the excellence capacity and resources of Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) in hyperspectral (HS) remote sensing through knowledge and best practices transfer by Italian Space Agency (ASI) and German Aerospace Center (DLR), i.e. the internationally leading space agencies on satellite, airborne and ground-based HS technologies, including the recent PRISMA, EnMAP, and DESIS missions. The project represents an excellent opportunity to broaden ROSA’s activities, which in turn will increase the involvement of both national and European stakeholders in its research and innovation tasks. The concept of EXPERT is underpinned by three fundamental pillars (research, coordination and support measures, and research management and administration skills), in accordance with the objectives of the proposal. Specifically, the project is focused on capacity building in HS data analysis and ground measurement campaigns, achieved through specific courses, seminars, short staff exchanges, and field campaigns organized under the guidance of ASI and DLR. Considering the clear interdisciplinarity of EXPERT, focus will be given on ROSA’s main areas of expertise and applications, including agriculture, cultural heritage application, and mineralogy. These will also be the topics of joint research in the second part of the project, where ROSA will organize autonomously ground measurement field campaigns and use the data jointly with simultaneous acquisitions of EnMAP, PRISMA, and DESIS data provided by ASI and DLR. Furthermore, special attention will be given to strengthening the research management capacities and administrative skills of ROSA. Together with knowledge advancement, research infrastructure development, joint networking, and outreach activities by the consortium members, these will lead to improving the impact and visibility of ROSA within the EU.

DIANA is aimed at co-designing and openly demonstrating a commercial service platform that will empower water managers and authorities to optimise the identification and inspection of non-authorised water abstractions for irrigation as well as improve their water management policies and practices, especially in extreme conditions such as drought. DIANA will leverage EO data provided by Copernicus and other data sources as well as state-of-the-art models for the identification of (illegally) irrigated areas and the estimation of abstracted water volumes in order to offer a value added suite of data products and services, that will be affordable and cost-effective. The value propositions of DIANA will be co-created and defined along with users and stakeholders so as to be shaped according to their needs and requirements. Three pilots will be deployed in order to put them to the test in real operational environments of Spain, Italy and Romania. All pilots will be integrated with the work flows of the users and their results will be co-evaluated and validated with them through a multi-layer methodology, fostering the acceptance of DIANA as a marketable solution. In order to ensure the demand-driven design of the DIANA service platform as well as set the stage for its market launch and uptake following the end of the project, a customer-driven business modelling process will be followed during the project, validating its business case and producing an effective business plan to serve as the roadmap for its post-project commercialization. Finally, DIANA is implemented by a transnational and well-balanced consortium, consisting of innovative SMEs and pioneering authorities, all of which possess the complementary expertise as well as the motivation and commitment required to ensure not only the creation of meaningful project outcomes but also their successful commercial exploitation and sustainability.