Expanding the Societal Benefits of Earth Observations through Leading Practices for Public Private Partnerships

Abstract:

Maximizing the societal benefits of Earth science data increasingly requires the development of effective partnerships across the value chain of Earth observation providers, researchers, application developers, and end users. Participants in these different activities composing the Earth observations “enterprise” frequently work within different organizational contexts (e.g., public sector agencies, academic institutions, private sector companies, non-governmental organizations). Therefore, explicit consideration of the benefits and challenges of effective partnerships across these organizational contexts can increase the societal benefits of Earth observations. As the Earth observations enterprise grows and evolves, the authors recommend that stakeholders collaborate, share, and disseminate leading practices for the successful formation and execution of public-private-partnerships (P3s). This presentation will report on the activities of a P3 cluster group initiating this work within the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) community. This group seeks to discern a set of leading practices and develop appropriate reference material to support the development of effective Earth observation oriented P3s. Specific activities to be addressed include (1) the development of a repository of partnership case studies illustrating strategies, (2) an inventory of leading practices and tools related to partnerships, and (3) the identification of particular areas where these P3s can deliver the greatest societal benefits.