PMAR: Piracy, Maritime Awareness & Risks. Trial Implementation under MASE

During one year, from September 2014 to September 2015, the PMAR-MASE project has produced the real-time traffic picture of the reporting ships (that use the AIS or LRIT automatic position reporting system) over the entire Western Indian Ocean, and delivered it via a web viewer to two authorities in Africa with a regional maritime security responsibility: the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Indian Ocean Commission in the Seychelles, and the Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of the Kenya Maritime Authority in Mombasa. In addition, monthly ship density maps have been produced, and a number of satellite images have been analysed to assess the presence of non-reporting ships. The purpose of the project was familiarisation of maritime authorities in the Eastern-Southern Africa / Indian Ocean region with region-wide maritime monitoring, providing hands-on experience, and developing an understanding of what kind of information level is attainable and how to use the information. This report discusses the activities done under the project, the data that were used, the system design, the processing that was done, the visits to the region, the user feedback, and the performance of the system. The PMAR approach is based on the fusion of AIS and LRIT data from several sources, with satellite AIS being the most valuable data type, supplemented by a limited number of satellite SAR images. It is concluded that this approach provides a very powerful tool for region-wide maritime awareness, to which the authorities can avail themselves via commercial services.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Estimation of supply and demand of tertiary education places in advanced digital profiles in the EU

In order to investigate the extent to which the education offer of advanced digital skills in Europe matches labour market needs, this study estimates the supply and demand of university places for studies covering the technological domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI), High Performance Computing (HPC), Cybersecurity (CS) and Data Science (DS), in the EU27, United Kingdom and Norway. The difference between demand and supply of tertiary education places (Bachelor and Master or equivalent level) in the mentioned technological domains is referred in this report as unmet students’ demand of places, or unmet demand. Demanded places, available places and unmet demand are estimated for the following dimensions: (a) the tertiary education level in which this demand is observed: Bachelor and Master or equivalent programmes; (b) the programme’s scope, or depth with which education programmes address the technological domain: broad and specialised; and (c) the main fields of education where this tuition is offered: Business Administration and Law; Natural sciences and Mathematics; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, with the remaining fields grouped together in a fifth category. From these estimations, it is concluded that the number of available places in the EU27, at Bachelor level, reaches 587,000 for studies with AI content, 106,000 places offered in HPC, 307,000 places in CS and 444,000 places offered in the domain of DS. At Master level this demand is comparatively lower, except for the DS domain, were it equals the offer at bachelor level. DS outnumbers AI in demand of places at Master level, with 602,000 and 535,000 demanded places, respectively. The unmet demand for AI, HPC, CS and DS in EU27 at MSc level is approximately 150,000, 33,000, 59,000 and 167,000 places, respectively. At BSc level, the unmet demand reaches 273,000, 53,000, 159,000 and 213,000 places, respectively. Another finding is that the unmet demand for broad academic programmes is higher than for specialised programmes of all technological domains and education levels (Bachelor and Master). Higher availability of places for AI, HPC, CS and DS domains is found for academic programmes taught in the ICT field of education, both at Bachelor and Master levels. For Bachelor studies, Germany and Finland are estimated as the countries with the highest unmet demand in AI, HPC, CS and DS, either with a broad or specialised scope. United Kingdom is the only studied country offering places for all fields of education and technological domains at Bachelor level and Master level. For Master studies, this is also found in Germany, Ireland, France and Portugal

Establishing a new baseline for monitoring the status of EU Spatial Data Infrastructure: Experiences and conclusions from INSPIRE 2019 monitoring and reporting

The INSPIRE Directive, which aims to establish a pan-European Spatial Data Infrastructure for the purposes of EU environmental policies, requires Member States to monitor and report on the implementation status on an annual basis. The way the INSPIRE monitoring and reporting process was performed in 2019 was driven by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/1372, which introduced the automated calculation of 19 new indicators through the direct use of the INSPIRE Geoportal and the INSPIRE Reference Validator to process the metadata harvested from Member States discovery services. These indicators are grouped into 5 categories: availability of spatial data and services, conformity of metadata, conformity of spatial data sets, accessibility of spatial data sets through view and download services, and conformity of network services. Most indicators are calculated as a percentage, thus providing a direct measure of performance and allowing also country-by-country comparisons. For each indicator, this report provides a detailed description of the calculation method, the values achieved for all Member States and some summary statistics to capture the overall performance trends. The results show that the status of INSPIRE implementation is very heterogeneous across the EU, with some countries performing well and some others still lagging behind. However, after 13 years from the entry into force of the Directive, there is no single country which has yet achieved full implementation according to the roadmap. The accessibility of data sets through view or download services is on average only about 30%, while the conformity of metadata, data sets and network services varies between 30% and 45% on average. In addition to providing an objective snapshot of the current status of INSPIRE implementation, the results of 2019 monitoring and reporting represent a reliable baseline to monitor the evolution of the EU Spatial Data Infrastructure and its contribution to the European Green Deal data space in the years to come.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

The techno-economic segment analysis of the Earth observation ecosystem

This report analyses the worldwide landscape of the Earth observation ecosystem to identify opportunities, synergies, and obstacles that need to be addressed to foster the development of a vibrant space data economy in Europe. The report uses the Techno-Economic Segment (TES) analytical approach to provide a holistic view of the EO and geospatial ecosystem in Europe and worldwide through the identification of players and key clusters of activities. It also takes into consideration the potential flows of knowledge resulting from shared activities, locations and technological fields. The approach adopts a micro-based perspective considering a wide range of both horizontal and segment specific data sources. The outcome is a compelling characterisation of the key features of this very dynamic ecosystem. The TES EO ecosystem shows a very diverse global landscape with three distinguished global hubs, namely EU28, China and the US, as possible incubators for EO-linked innovation. Those hubs have the largest number of players in case of R&D and well as in case of industry. Nevertheless, the distribution of EO activities and concentration of those activities look quite different in the three leading macro areas. As far as the R&D activities are considered, the EU28 has the highest overall number of players involved in the all types of R&D activities, but scores quite low if only the patents are taken into account. Out of the three big players, the US has the smallest number of players involved in the overall EO R&D and stable position in number of patenting. In case of China, the largest number of R&D activities is concentrated in hands of relatively few players. In conclusion, the findings of this report confirm a general expectation about the growth in the EO downstream segment. However, up to 2017 the growth has not been staggering. Since 2017, there have been continuous policy efforts to increase the uptake of EO data in order to enable market growth.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Academic Offer of Advanced Digital Skills in 2019-20. International Comparison: Focus on Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Computing, Cybersecurity and Data Science

This work aims at supporting policy initiatives to ensure the availability in the EU27 of an adequate education offer of advanced digital skills in the domains of artificial intelligence (AI), high performance computing (HPC), cybersecurity (CS) and data science (DS). The study investigates the education offer provided in the EU27 and six additional countries: the United Kingdom, Norway, and Switzerland in Europe, Canada and United States in America, and Australia, with a focus on the characteristics of the detected programmes. It analyses the number of programmes offered in these domains, considering the distinction based on programme’s scope or depth with which education programmes address the technological domain (broad and specialised), programme’s level (bachelor programmes, master programmes and short courses), as long as the education fields in which these programmes are taught (e.g. Information and communication technologies, Engineering, manufacturing and construction, Business, administration and law), and the content areas covered by the programmes. The analysis is conducted for each technological domain separately, first addressing the features of the overall education offer detected in the countries covered by the study, and followed by an in-depth analysis of the situation in the EU27. Among the many results that this work provides, those associated to the most relevant insights can be listed as follows. First of all, the main role in the offer of advanced technological skills is held by the US, which leads in terms of number of programs provided in almost all combinations of technological domain, scope and level. Secondly, another important player is the UK, with a very consistent offer of bachelor and master degree programs (in both cases, the UK’s share is around 25% of the total offer detected). The consequences of the Brexit have, therefore, to be considered and faced also in terms of the education offer of advanced technological skills in the EU27. Thirdly, the role of the EU27 is notable but more varying (depending on the combination of domain, scope and level of programmes) than that of the UK. Regarding more specific aspects related to the EU27 offer, we detect a good amount of programmes offered in the domain of DS. As this domain is found out to be remarkably associated to the field of education of Business, Administration and Law, this is a positive finding suggesting a good supply of competences that are suitable to economic activities of various types. Therefore, what observed for the EU27 suggests a good alignment between the offer and the demand of DS-related skills. In the EU27 we observe a large share of programmes belonging simultaneously to both DS and AI. Considering the relatively high offer in DS, and the fact that AI is currently a techno-economic domain that is attracting a lot of attention and of private and public resources, a consistent connection between these two domains can be considered as an important key to favour synergies and future economic growth. Additionally, we find DS programmes quite widespread among the fields of education, which may facilitate the role of DS as a vehicle to further introduce AI, HPC and CS in the fields of education barely addressing these technological domains. We also observe a relatively large offer of AI master degree programmes in the EU27, which is an important finding given the role of this education level in the provision of competences for the workforce. Finally, it is important to note that we detect potential elements of weakness in the EU27’s education offer related to CS. These competences are increasingly crucial to prevent and fight cyber-related incidents, concerning both private and public spheres. Therefore, the detection of a relatively modest CS education offer (in comparison to other geographic areas) is a point that deserves attention. Many other findings are described throughout this report, but what discussed in this abstract has to be retained as the most relevant content aimed at supporting EU policies.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Academic offer and demand for advanced profiles in the EU

This study aims at supporting the policy initiatives to ensure the availability in EC Member States of adequate advanced digital skills in a number of IT domains including Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Computing and Cybersecurity. By making use of the Techno-Economic Segments (TES) analytical approach developed under the PREDICT3 project, the study collects data and builds quantitative indicators to provide a mapping of digital skills in the mentioned technological domains from two complementary perspectives: the existing offer of academic programmes (bachelor, master and doctoral programs), and the demand of profiles by the industry, as reflected by industry activity in the referred fields.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Estimation of supply and demand of tertiary education places in advanced digital profiles in the EU: Focus on Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Computing, Cybersecurity and Data Science

In order to investigate the extent to which the education offer of advanced digital skills in Europe matches labour market needs, this study estimates the supply and demand of university places for studies covering the technological domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI), High Performance Computing (HPC), Cybersecurity (CS) and Data Science (DS), in the EU27, United Kingdom and Norway. The difference between demand and supply of tertiary education places (Bachelor and Master or equivalent level) in the mentioned technological domains is referred in this report as unmet students’ demand of places, or unmet demand. Demanded places, available places and unmet demand are estimated for the following dimensions: (a) the tertiary education level in which this demand is observed: Bachelor and Master or equivalent programmes; (b) the programme’s scope, or depth with which education programmes address the technological domain: broad and specialised; and (c) the main fields of education where this tuition is offered: Business Administration and Law; Natural sciences and Mathematics; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, with the remaining fields grouped together in a fifth category. From these estimations, it is concluded that the number of available places in the EU27, at Bachelor level, reaches 587,000 for studies with AI content, 106,000 places offered in HPC, 307,000 places in CS and 444,000 places offered in the domain of DS. At Master level this demand is comparatively lower, except for the DS domain, were it equals the offer at bachelor level. DS outnumbers AI in demand of places at Master level, with 602,000 and 535,000 demanded places, respectively. The unmet demand for AI, HPC, CS and DS in EU27 at MSc level is approximately 150,000, 33,000, 59,000 and 167,000 places, respectively. At BSc level, the unmet demand reaches 273,000, 53,000, 159,000 and 213,000 places, respectively. Another finding is that the unmet demand for broad academic programmes is higher than for specialised programmes of all technological domains and education levels (Bachelor and Master). Higher availability of places for AI, HPC, CS and DS domains is found for academic programmes taught in the ICT field of education, both at Bachelor and Master levels. For Bachelor studies, Germany and Finland are estimated as the countries with the highest unmet demand in AI, HPC, CS and DS, either with a broad or specialised scope. United Kingdom is the only studied country offering places for all fields of education and technological domains at Bachelor level and Master level. For Master studies, this is also found in Germany, Ireland, France and Portugal.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Data Fusion for Wide-Area Maritime Surveillance

The integration of vessel traffic monitoring systems, from coastal range to satellite based sensors, is vital to fulfill the requirements related to the safety of navigation and to fight maritime pollution, illegal immigration, illegal fishing, piracy and any other security threat. The paper is devoted to address the main data fusion issues arising from the building of a system able to: i) ingest ships' position reports from different sources (terrestrial and satellite AIS, LRIT), ii) track the vessels within a certain area of interest both in real-time and off-line, iii) provide the final user with a Maritime Situational Picture, and iv) associate non-cooperatively detected vessels to positions from cooperative reporting systems, aimed at the signaling of the presence of ships without any reported data from either AIS or LRIT. Finally, our contribution will show the behavior of the JRC’s prototype platform for maritime situation assessment on data collected within the PMAR (Piracy, Maritime Awareness and Risks) projects around the Horn of Africa and Gulf of Guinea.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair